My current longarm adventure is taking a really long time to complete. I finished putting the Country Trees kit together the Friday after Thanksgiving and got it on the frame last weekend. I chose a Holly leaf and berry panto for it and got it started. About an hour into the first row, I regretted that choice. The panto looks great and stitches out smoothly, it just takes about two and a half hours to do a row. I am able to do other things while the machine works, I have another hat and a half finished. I think I need to make three more, for gifts.

I brought my 790 in to the shop earlier this week, it was making a clunking noise ever since I had it serviced in October. The tech says he doesn’t hear anything, but it’s full of lint and he’ll clean it out. I’m going to get it later today, and hopefully it won’t make the noise for me anymore. I need to finish up the fabric bowls and do some embroidery on some tissue box covers. Plus the Christmas quilt kit I ordered came in, I would like to get it sewn together and on/off the frame soon. Maybe even in the shop before the end of the year. I have been shamelessly ordering fabric and yarn along with the gift things. Hoping that I’ll remember what and when things will arrive. I did get a custom order for three large quilts for upcoming weddings.

My Christmas decorating has not really begun yet. I got a wreath and put it up on the house. I have my Amaryllis blooming, but thats it. The Halloween Figs quilt is still in the stairwell, maybe I’ll get it changed up today. Still trying to decide about the tree. My son and his GF are coming for a few days, so we’ll be doing some festive stuff. Decorating the tree could be an activity, it’s more fun with help. Although, no one steps up when it comes to taking it down and putting it away.

Be Kind.

More of an exhale, thats what I need this weekend. The past ten days have been a whirlwind of activity and travel and hugs. I’m not a “hugger” but this past week has been full of them. The best two were from my granddaughter and the other from a young person who I had just met. All is feeling right in my world.

I feel like I need to make a list of what I need to accomplish this week. I am not going to do it here, but in the notes section of my phone. Complete with bullets I can check off as each gets finished. Yes, I am so organized, my week of Christmas prep will be inspiring and so organized and productive. I need to keep repeating that, it’ll be my mantra.

While away from home, I didn’t do much crafting, I worked a little bit on one of the hats, and made two pairs of baby mittens (thumb-less). I feel like I have all this craftiness trying to come out now. This morning I woke up early and got the Art Haus Eclipse quilt finished, and started quilting the runner I made with the same fabrics. I was able to set it under the quilt, so same backing. I need to go food shopping today, and make some persimmon cake. I want to finish the green hat too. It is slow going to knit, I am about ½ way done. The person I gave the Monarch hats to really liked them. She is going to go to the Butterfly migration rest spot near Santa Cruz and “gram” some photos of her new hat.

I started the bowl cozy project, and made some headway. I want to print up an info/use card to go with them. They aren’t ment to be used for long periods in the microwave, just short 2 minute intervals. I have been assemble line sewing these, six at a time. The quilting is simple, two sets of three lines that cross in the center. The ones I made for friends and family a few years ago only have one stitched line crossing in the center. The one I have seems to be holding up well, even after machine washing.

Since the great Christmas Hat knitting ordeal adventure has started, I haven’t really spent any time cross stitching. It looks like the Consider the Lilies piece is going to spill over into 2026. I had fully intended to be done by now, I believe that the house is to blame. It is such a huge solid element in the design, I will get it done brick by brick.

Be Kind.

Three hats done, one almost done and four five more to go. The second Monarch hat went very quickly, I had originally wanted to make two, one with the hand dyed and the other with the Cascade. Both are made with Cascade, just different sized needles. The second, smaller one is knit on 4’s and the larger one is on 5’s. I think I have finally gotten to the point where my stranded knitting is at a good gauge. I started with the larger needle size because my tension is often tight with two yarn patterns. The larger hat is wearable, just a bit “slouchy”, the smaller hat is snug, but it doesn’t pop off ones head due to non-stretchy-ness (its a thing). While looking for my Knit Picks yarn delivery date, I found a bunch of hat patterns I had downloaded from them. They are PDF’s named with numbers, so they don’t jump out and say “knit me” when I am looking for a pattern on my computer. I will remedy that today. I need to go through all my PDF knitting patterns, and see just what is there.

The Tree quilt is together and awaiting borders. I realized that I didn’t have a backing for it, and just ordered a few swatches from BackSide fabrics. This barn red and olive green is a bit different from my usual choices, just a bit more gray. I do have some tan sateen that may work, the gray/silver snowflake I have isn’t a good match. The original quilt kit came with a matching backing, but four years later, that fabric line isn’t available. I got the three Thomas the Tank Engine quilts quilted, bound and photographed. The weather has been very cloudy and rainy this past week, so photo sessions are done when the sun peeks out. Speaking of the cheeky little engine, I ordered a boxed kit for one more quilt. It’s the one I was looking at, with the pieced train engine on the bottom. I also got enough fabric to make another one, as I am trying to use up the rest of the fat quarter bundle and yardage I originally bought.

I ordered a bunch of bowl cozy batting pieces. I decided that they will be my gift to the barn ladies this year. I think I need to make thirteen of them. I have some Laurel Birch Horse fabric yardage, just looking for a use. I think I can make one side with the horses and the other with left over backing scraps. Good for the stash reduction and not too draining on the pocket money.

I am slowly realizing that I am not really into Christmas gifting this year. If I hear about Black Friday one more time, it may push me over the edge. I usually send out bakery gifts, or candy, one year I did pretzels, to extended family. I am just not “feeling it” this year. I can’t not do it, because everyone else sends stuff, and I will feel bad. Maybe I’ll do fruit and nuts, and hats, lots of hats.

Recently while shopping on Etsy, an ad for an unfinished Alaska rainbow quilt top caught my eye. I went to the shop and looked, it was 44.95, just the pieced top. On further perusal, I noticed that all this shop sells are unfinished tops. In the two and a half years they have been an Etsy seller they have sold almost 2500 quilt tops, at 44.95. How can this be? Is it a sweat shop? The tops look okay, in the photos, a few puckers and weird print choices. The shop says they are in the US, but there is no way this would be sustainable. They have lots of 5 star reviews, and offer free shipping. I am very skeptical, it reminds me of the crooks who make digital printed “blankets” of famous designers quilts. Consumer be wary.

Be Kind.

I’ve been working on the railroad all week, specifically on the island of Sodar. So many hours spent with Thomas and friends during my children’s early years. Hours spent building and playing with track layouts and watching the animations. I did finish the large panel, and mounted the other two quilts side by side. The split nine patch has a simple train panto, but the “This Way” quilt has some train borders and fussy placement. I sew a bit on each one, and advance the quilts, it’s a little slower than what I usually do – quilt a panto row across both. I do save time though, as I only have to load it once, one backing and batting. I did finish the Halloween wall hanging first 🙂

I signed up for this winters Krista Moser quilt, Winter Visit. I did the Poinsettia one last year, I even bought the kit for that one. It was made for a gift, I think I may keep this one for me, like I need another quilt. I want to use some well aged Cherrywood sueded cottons I have in the stash. They are left over from a huge Poinsettia quilt I made about 10 or 12 years ago. I don’t think I have a picture of it, it was a pattern that I saw at RD2CA one year and got the great idea to make it with Cherrywood. I am still afraid to wash it, it has a buttery yellow background and all those deep red petals. I have never been one to prewash fabrics, and I can’t remember if I did with this quilt. Anyway, it is usually on the guest bed for Christmas only.

I speed-knit this Monarch wing hat yesterday. It was very easy, especially with a color chart, and worsted weight yarn. I may make another for a one year old I know, but use sport weight and smaller needles. I used 7’s for this, as the Ravelry reviews said it knitted up tightly with the recommended 5’s for the ribbing. I may make another adult size, as I did buy the beautiful Malabrigo yarns. I used Cascade for this one, and a remnant white acrylic I had in the bottom of my bag. I still have a bit of duplicate stitches to do, as a sort of blending between the oranges.

The Country Christmas/ Plaid Pines quilt is coming along. I got the 25 tree blocks done, and the pieces for the log cabin blocks done. Lots of chain piecing and it’ll come together quickly. I don’t think I have mentioned the Extra Large Stripology rule I got recently. It is quickly becoming a favorite, it is a bit faster than the Accuquilt cutter, and much easier to set up and use. It has made the cutting for this quilt go so fast. The layer cakes I ordered for the Evergeen quilt came in. I need to check and see if I can use the 108″ snowflake fabric I have as a background. I bought a bolt of it last year, thinking I would use it for the custom order I had. The Client didn’t like it, so I need to use it up.

In other thoughts, I had to buy a new standing steamer, I tried to use my current one when I was loading the train quilts, the lights went on, but no steam. The new one specifically says to use distilled water, maybe thats why my old one didn’t last. Although I think it was over five years old – it was lightly used.

Today I want to serge three little dresses I have cut out and ready to sew. I really enjoy sewing with the L890, after years of struggling with three other models. Its is so easy and rewarding to have a finished project that looks like ready to wear – but better.

Be Kind.

I finally opened up the Riley Blake Thomas the Tank engine fat quarter pack I got earlier this summer. I had seen two quilts with panels and one without. I searched all over to find the one without the panel, but only came up with a kit (bottom right) and another idea with a different panel (bottom left). Maybe I was confused (probably) when I saw the kit, thinking it was a free pattern. I did find another idea though, a split nine patch using all the prints and some white yardage. I need to add borders to the smaller panel top, that fabric should be here Thursday. The three tops made a large dent in this stash, there is probably one more possibly with the addition of some solids.

I finished the Wonderful Wallaby sweater last night. I made a decision to skip the hood, and do a rolled collar. The recipient doesn’t like hoods/hats at this point in time, removing them within a few seconds of application. The hoods prove to be frustrating, as they are pulled more firmly on and not off. All the yarns I ordered for the Coastal butterfly hats have arrived. Naturally the hand dyed merino wool is much nicer than the Cascade mill spin, I am debating on whether to order some Malabrigo in black to go with them. Or I could search through my stash for something appropriate. I am planning on making seven hats for holiday gifts this year, possibly eight. It is time to get clicking so to speak. Some may have to be one color, maybe cables or striped yarn plain stockinette. Will have to see – planning stages.

Since the Christmas count down has begun, I feel like I should be working on a few designs for the shop. Maybe two or three full size quilts. I ordered a stacker of Holiday fabric (should be here this week) so I could make a tree themed Cluck Cluck Sew quilt. It is the same layer cake/stacker quilt that I made for the Pumpkin Patch ones, called Evergreen. I also have a Craftsy kit I bought from Fabric depot, for another plaid pines quilt. I sold this one a few years ago, it was popular. I have a big bag of scraps from all the Winterly fabric from last year too. I really liked the Merry Christmas Darling pattern, and may make it with that bag of scraps. Also the batik tree quilt was popular, I could make it in regular cotton, I have lots of green from my stashing of green for the Emerald City quilt I wanted to make. I lost my mojo for string piecing before I started that one. Still would like to make one though.

Lastly, I picked up two fabric packs, at a Fab-Mo sale, from AvalonBloom. AvalonBloom is the shop that does the one block wonder cut kits. They are 39.00 and up, I got them for 4.00 each – so even if they don’t really work out, its not a huge loss (a learning experience) The pieces are from an OLD Robert Kaufman line, the original Scala, they are up to 7 or 8 now. I was able to track down a few co-ordinating yards for borders and sashings. I think I found some that will work from the current lines of metallics from RK too.

What I really need to get done before Thanksgiving, is the pile of tops for long arm quilting. The two customs especially, the Halloween one will get done first, the black batting will be here today. Then I will have to get a message out to remind the client that he still needs to pick a panto for the Santa Land quilt.

Be kind.