Giving Thanks

Since my husband has retired, and my girls have grown up and moved away I have found that the holidays look a lot different than they used to.  Some years we go have our Thanksgiving somewhere else, some years we have different selections of family members, and this year it will mostly be just the two of us.  It doesn't make me any less thankful, but sometimes it does make me a little less busy!

I'm looking forward to the smell of roasting turkey, and a day of relaxing.  Plus I can sneak off to the sewing room with no guilt!

Sunday we had a big church Thanksgiving dinner - boy was that a lot of fun (and work...), it was potluck style and very much enjoyed by our church family!  So much food!

It was fun seeing the pictures pop up on facebook!  We are going to miss doing our Christmas Tea for the ladies in December this year, so it was great to do something for our church family.  

That pretty much wiped me out for the day, so I was glad that I got a lot of sewing time in on Saturday!  

 First of all I found my cutting table!  It's nice to have the whole thing clear for cutting borders!  My twin Twinkle Star quilts both got their borders sewn on.

 And I got the backings prepared and got both of these quilt basted.  Then I basted my log cabin challenge for Island Batik.  While I was on a roll I decided to baste my Savannah quilt (made in a class with Karla Alexander a year or so ago!)

 Now my pin cup is empty!  I guess it's time to do some quilting now.  I guess that means I need to get my sewing table cleared off too.  Maybe by the end of 2018 I'll manage to get the horizontal surfaces cleared off in my sewing room?  We'll have to see about that!  I'm just thankful I have a room to mess up.  So many have lost their homes and loved ones in the fires in California.  Hopefully, we'll have some rain soon. 

What are you most thankful for this week?  I am thankful for all of you who encourage me and make me feel like what I do is valued, it means a lot!  Thank you!

Pamela

p.s.  I hear that my Barn Quilt design will be available soon!  Stay tuned!

Linky Tuesday

Organizing my quilting projects!

Busy time in my sewing room right now!  I've been hard at work this week making twin quilts of my Twinkle Star design!  It's pretty fast making two of the same thing at the same time - and you get double the satisfaction at the end of sewing all your blocks:

Those two extra blocks are the beginnings of my Blockheads II quilt.  I am sooo far behind with my blocks, but I swear I am going to catch up...I don't know when, but I will!

I also did some machine quilting this week and got my new sample done for Mountain Dawning!

Just as pretty in bright colors as it was in blues!

I did quilt this one differently.  I stipple quilted the white and did curved and straight line quilting in the rainbow section.

So pretty!  This one will be going to Threads That Bind as a shop sample along with one of the Twinkle Star quilts.  We have kits or fabric available for both quilts.

Progress is stalled on the Brothers and Sisters Quilt while I wait for the border fabric to arrive.  I also will be working on one of the blocks that isn't playing well with the rest.

I finished up the top for my November Island Batik Ambassador challenge!  I also have the back ready so can get that basted and ready for quilting, at least I am good with that deadline.  Are you interested in becoming an Island Batik Ambassador?  The 2019 Application was just published - I highly recommend the experience, and have already applied for another year.

Last, but not least is my "secret sewing"!  I have so many of these projects that I am working on right now that I had to come up with a way to organize everything so I can work effectively and keep things together.  I made a trip to the Dollar Tree to see what I could find to help me.  Though it's not the most gorgeous and photogenic solution I found some great bins in the perfect size.  I have all my printed material for these projects in plastic sleeves so that I can double check fabric requirements, make notes for changes to instructions, and keep track of my progress.  These four bins are to become completed quilts for the Island Batik 2019 Spring Summer Catalog.  I can't show you the fabric yet, but you know it is all beautiful!

Next week I will show you my project for the Fall/Winter catalog - it is so bright and beautiful!  It's a little strange working so far ahead on projects, but also fun.  It's almost like a surprise when the fabrics come out and you remember how gorgeous they were!

Back to the sewing machine, because as you can see, there is lots of stitching to be done here!

Come join the link up on Myra's Blog:

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cozy Cabins progress

I had a lovely Saturday - lots of sewing and just general puttering around in my sewing room!  I finished up the blocks for my Lavender Sage Log Cabin quilt  (Island Batik Ambassador Challenge for November), and took a little time to try a couple different layouts.  Here are the blocks as they got thrown up on the design wall when they were finished:

I tried a diagonal setting first, but wasn't entirely thrilled with the bottom row as I was a dark purple block short of an even arrangement:

Then I tried out a version with dark purple in the center of the quilt and building out:

Then for fun, I posted the three pictures on my facebook page and my instagram account to see what the most popular layout would be.  So far 12 like the diagonal and 13 like the centered.  So close - I'm leaning toward the centered version simply because it is what's up on my design wall and it would be easy just to sew the blocks together and be done.  So, let me know you think, maybe you can change my mind!

I also pulled my rug out of hibernation and added a couple more rounds.  It was getting a little wavy, so I think I got it pulled back in to shape.  I had a ton more strips to sew together so I am ready to add more to it this week.  These are entirely binding scraps at this point!  It is totally amazing how much I have accumulated over a year.  When I get those all added I may start raiding my 2 inch strip bin and use those.  It's kind of hard on my wrists, and I have a tendency to have my tension too tight so it's a bit of work.  At least this is not a big rush project, just a fun way to use up fabric.

I also stitched together a bunch of little leftover bits from the log cabin quilt.  Thinking I will turn this into a cute throw pillow, I just had to use up every last bit of the lovely Lavender Sage fabrics, they were too pretty to toss!

Today's plan is to clean up the sewing room a bit and work on a pair of identical quilt tops.  One is for a customer and the other is a shop sample.  And maybe some machine quilting - I've got several tops in line that are basted and ready to go.  Let's face it, I just need more hours in a day to get all my projects finished!

Linking up with:

Slow Sunday Stitching

Oh Scrap!