Picture from Christmas Past

How does time go so fast on the weekends and so slow during the week??? I got a lot done this weekend – but of course, not everything on my list. *VBG* Maybe I should re-evaluate my list! I took a break from the computer. Came back to a zillion digests from Stashbusters on email!!! Good heavens!

I love Christmas. That being said – I did nothing to get ready for Christmas last weekend. The photo above is part of my Santa collection in front of my Grandma Grant's Christmas tree quilt. A few years ago I just laughed when they said cutting a large print for smaller pieced blocks was a "new technique"! I don't think so!

I’ll decorate on Saturday December 1st. My goal is to blog every day in December, at least up to Christmas, sharing favorite decorations, traditions and memories. Consider it an advent calendar of memory “presents”. Hope you will add your favorite holiday memories and decorations in the comments.

Here's a teaser to last you until Saturday: I love Christmas tree skirts. They make a great gift for newlyweds or new parents. I always put light backing on them. This is so they can trace their hands on the back. An easy tradition – on decorating day – trace the children’s hands on the back of the skirt. We traced their hands with pencil and then livened it up with liquid embroidery. AND of course, when we got the dog we had to add puppy paws on the quilt. (wet puppy feet on brown paper – draw around, cut out and then “transfer” to the back of the tree skirt) only did that once – convinced them that dog feet don’t change that much!!! We only drew the adults’ hands once too. By the time the kids left home we had a lovely spiral of hands circling the back of the tree skirt. I love it every year.

What fabrics do you use for backs?

Well, this weekend was really short. I'm either an optimist about how much I'll get done or a blithering idiot about time! LOL! I think I'll choose the former!

I did think about the border designs on the two quilts ... but didn't get to them.

I washed a ton of pinks and ironed them and cut nickel squares ... my DH wandered into the sewing room at one point and said, "Wow - it looks like there was a pink explosion in here!!!" So true!

I got half my 8 foot cutting table cleared off. But it's just so easy to stack on it! I turn around and someone (okay, it's me!) has piled something on it "for just a minute" ... or week or two! Don't you just hate it when you realize you're not so much organizing/clearing out as moving stacks from one place to the next!

BACKS: On the Stashbusters list someone brought up buying a coveted fabric for a back to make it a legal buy. I hyperventilated!!! I couldn't buy expensive fabric for a back - I guess I'm just too cheap!

I'm known for my funky backs! In fact, I'm a little too well known! Someone kidded me in a guild class about a "doni back" and the teacher then repeated that in the guild meeting, in front of 350+ quilters - my friends almost fell off their chairs laughing ... and I turned "Husker Red"!

I'm a scrappy patchwork quilter so I tend to make scrappy backs. But I used to grab any fabric out of my stash that was the right amount. - in my defense - those peaches on back of my snowman quilt DID look frosty!! LOL!

BUT the one thing I never do is buy $7+ dollar a yard fabric for backs. That's what big sales are for. What do you do for backs??

Ladies - start your sewing machines!

Not only is it the weekend, it's also many days less to Christmas than you think it is!!! Did that make sense? We've had such a mild fall this year that Christmas season is sneaking up FAST! I don't want to talk about it NOR think about it! :>

We'll be headed to Oregon for Christmas and while we're there we will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary! WOW! It's amazing how fast it can go!

I read a great quote on Stashbusters this week. "I keep forgetting it's my children who are 30; not me!!!" She used a larger age for her children ... but I smile everytime I think of it.

This weekend I hoping to:

. design and cut outer borders for "Birds of a Feather"
. design and mark quilting for the 2 borders of "Starry Starry Nights"
. wash and cut pink nickels for the two disappearing 9patch graduation quilts. (I have pieced the 9 patches for the green one - but holding back on that one until I get the pink ones done. I'm not that fond of pink!!! But it is growing on me!

I've got soup in the crockpot for dinner, DH just left to play golf - I'll let you know how it works out!!!

Happy Weekend!

Moving in Slow motion!

I felt so out of it this weekend - everything seems to be taking twice the time I thought it would. I had some cuddle quilt tops from guild. In the last week I tied two of them and sewed the binding on. I tied the third this weekend and I hand-bound all 3 cuddle quilts to turn in tomorrow night at Guild. It seemed to take forever. I really thought I would get more than that done ... but no.

Miss P is at the top of the page - in her Halloween costume - I couldn't resist, since that's how I've been feeling - like a turtle!

C, a good friend, sent me her stash! She's cleaning out and consolidating an apartment and her home - and we both like the same types of fabrics ... I pulled 3 grocery bags of the fabrics to share - but it's really hard not to add ALL of it to my sewing room! I only kept less than 1/2???? Isn't that ridiculous ... I need to clean out; I went on "no-buy" and I'm keeping 2 grocery bags of C's stash ... I guess, I'd have kept it all before! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

What's the buzz?

The Yahoo group of Stashbusters is now 3001 members! Just think of it - a resource of 3000 quilters at your fingertips - all the answers are there, just waiting for you. There's been some interesting topics lately:

Dream List - Kind of like a "life list" for bird watchers. What quilts do you want to make in your lifetime? And what is keeping you from making it? My list includes a log cabin quilt and a house quilt. Both scrappy, of course. Both are fairly easy - so what am I waiting for? They've been on my list for years ... but when it's time to work on projects - others jump in front of them. BUT 2008 is the year for a log cabin. It's now at the top of my [very long] list.

No Buy: I joined the Stashbuster's "no buy" group. It started November 1st. AND Nov 3rd I was teaching a class at a quilt shop all day on saturday - didn't buy any fabric - I did order a plastic sewing machine mini-table. Oh, goodness, what do they call those?? The brain is going - fast - but I didn't buy any fabric. So-o-o a king sized scrap log cabin will be a good start ...

Reorganizing the stash: Sometimes it seems we work so hard at eliminating fabrics we no longer care for that we don't have time or energy to work with our favorites. We love fabrics or we wouldn't be in this position. But it's time to pick up a favorite and plan around it. I've got a little box set aside of favorite scraps that I was going to do a Road to Oklahoma with them. I think there's enough for scrap log cabin logs too.

I finished 6 Santa Socks and it's a week before the guild meeting! That may be a new record!

Fall Gratitudes
1 Time with family
2 Autumn colors brightening up my commute
3 Quilting time