This past week has been productive. I am steadily working on the tree blocks for the third commissioned quilt, Laundry Basket Quilts ‘Holiday Forest’. I am making it larger than the pattern, I need 56 blocks instead of twenty. The blocks finish at 7″ x 12″ , eight across and seven down, for a 60″ x 88″ top. I worked out an assembly line rhythm for cutting and assembly. I try to make six blocks at a time, this gives me enough variety to mix up the fabrics and colors.

I finished the quilting on the Forest Den quilt last night. I had a close call with the top thread, I ran out of it with two rows to stitch. I was using a spool of King Tut, that had been around here for a while. I had a brief moment of panic, but I found a partially used cone in my thread drawer, phew. The quilting on this quilt used up about 600 yards, four and a half bobbins too. While the last rows were stitching out, I reorganized my thread drawers. Previously I had only two, now after a bit of cleaning out and purging some non-thread stuff, I have three.

In cross stitch news, I am nearing the finish of the Fairy house, with the completion of the purple flower. I have mentally put this project on the back burner for the next month, as hat knitting has commenced. I wanted to make this Sea Urchin hat from Tracy Doxey since last year. I had printed it out and had some yarns picked out for it, but made something else. I am beginning to think that I may only make one of these, as it does not go very quickly. I am also thinking of splitting the hat onto two circular needles, as the one is a bit too short. Although the short cable is easier to manipulate than a magic loop, it seems to make my hands cramp up a bit.

I got my fabric kit for the Crimson Christmas quilt-a-long. The third video is this Tuesday, so I am going to try to catch up later today. Of course, some people are already done, and posting their finished work on the FB page for it. It’s not a big quilt, 52″x56″, I want to give it as a gift before the holiday. I have made a few of Krista Mosers quilts, and I am enjoying the videos she is producing for this quilt. She explains her methods well, and how to get better results with the cutting and sewing of the pieces. All 60 degree diamonds, some bias involved. That, plus very well written patterns makes for a fun project.

Other rabbit holes, or in our case, ground squirrel holes, I participated in the Wasatch annual sale yesterday. The sale is 60% off plus I get an additional 25% off for being a master club member. I have been a member there (mostly) on and off for about six years. I gleefully added a bunch of designs to my cart from my wish list and from a brief search through the thousands of designs. Then I had to cross reference them with the ones I already own. Sometimes a design that is offered singly is part of a club pack, and usually the site will tell you it is already in your account when you try to buy it. I found quite a few of my “new” designs were already mine, and some I didn’t know I had. This further adds to need for me to catalogue my designs into some workable form. I bought a bunch of Christmas themed pantos and a few quilt block themed ones as well. In particular, a set for the Sew Kind of Wonderful quilt pattern called Mini-Rings. It’s a double wedding ring style quilt using their curved rulers. I also saw a new pattern on their site, that is coming out early next year, called Park Place. I would like to make it too. The Moondance Revival quilt I made earlier this year sold in a few weeks. These quilts are fun to make and great for using up scraps, I’m linking them here, so I don’t forget.

Be Kind.