I finished my Santa hat quilt top yesterday. I had sewn the letter blocks the day before and sewed the rows together, but just couldn’t get to the last five rows of stitching. About half way through I realized I didn’t web the top, but that’s okay, it’s done. The blocks are supposed to be 10 ½ square. Since I didn’t do paper foundation piecing, mine were a few different sizes. I rounded them all down to 10 1/4 inches square. They look pretty cute, I think I’m going to use a string light panto that I have.

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One of the first paper pantographs I bought when I first got my long arm, was Christmas lights on a string. I thought it would be cute for a few Christmas quilts I was doing, ha, not quite as easy as it looked. The bulbs turned out really wonky, the socket parts didn’t line up with the bulbs, and the connecting wires didn’t really meander. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do more than one row of them, which was promptly removed. Now, with the Q-matic system, any design is possible, I just need to make sure there’re enough hours in the day in which to quilt it.

After getting that top together, I started on the November edition of the BOM Botanica. Lots of flying geese, 72 of them, practically a flock. I’m excited to see this quilt done, next month is the final border.

This months blocks make up the chevron and dark blue border, and the thinner light green one with the geese around the corners. This quilt is actually a medallion layout, but the way its broken up into blocks makes it easier to piece. It’s sort of a puzzle like approach to piecing the top.

I really want to finish the quilting on the teddy bear quilt. I have two more rows on that one, but I need to “hover quilt” it. Which means standing over it and make sure none of the stitching goes over the appliqués, and deal with the stops and starts. The first few rows went well. The other hard part of that job is psyching myself up to go into the room. The heating system in there is ancient, and I am having a mini-split put in Monday (Yay!). Until then it is a bit chilly in there, usually around 55 degrees. I have a mini electric heater in there, but I feel like I have to stand in front of it to get warmed up. Good thing I have a few sweaters around I can wear.

Be Kind