Christmas Quilt-a-long: September Evening

What a day today was!  I think I'm completely tuckered out.  I fused all 5 blocks I had to do and then I appliqued them all down.  For good measure I tucked the threads from the applique work to the back side of the quilt and this leaves me just one block shy of having all of the blocks I need for the quilt.  Now if I could just remember how I decided to place these blocks...

These turtle reverse raw edge applique blocks will square up to 20.5" when that last block is cut and finished, so they are really good size.  Who knows maybe my far fetched thought yesterday of wouldn't it be nice if it was done by the end of the quilt-a-long might actually work out.  In the picture I opened up and spread out the five I did today.  There are four folded up in the lower right hand corner, taking me up to nine completed.  Hope everyone had a good day sewing.

Christmas Quilt-A-Long 2: September Morning

I'm all set up for today's Christmas Quilt-a-long.  I raced ahead and all month long I've been working on our Scatty Stars Christmas Quilt-a-long Block of the Month Quilt and finished it up on Thursday.  What do you think?  I went with a narrow folded border and then a wider border that I quilted a row of stars all the way around, which I thought turned out really nice and I wondered why I hadn't seen borders quilted this way before.  Then I got stuck and didn't know where to go with it so I stewed for a while and eventually came up with flowers and swirls.  The flowers were DD's idea, she wanted Zinnias, so I did those as well as daisies and orchids.  The orchids are fun in the challenge they present.  Each time I form one I stop and think about the shape as I move through the petals.  Flowers are organic so there is no right and wrong way to make them and I found little dropping petals actually made them look better.

When Sue first posted about the BOM, I went to my fabrics and pulled out stuff that matched, I just kept going through what I had and trying to match it to her pattern requirements.  That's how I ended up with this theme of Flannel and Novelty Prints.  I actually had so much fabric leftover I made it reversible.  Hey I said I've been working on it all month, what did you think I'd been up to?
I went with the dark pink binding and I really like it.  There is something so wonderful that happens as you stitch a binding on.  It's as though even the quilt knows it's nearly finished.  As a bonus for finishing Scatty Stars my quilting table is nice and clear so I'm don't have a mess to try and photograph away from.

Does anyone remember this project?  I prepped it all yesterday.  This is my Art for Your Bed Quilt.  It is the Reverse applique bonus from my Hawaiian Ocean Applique quilt and I'll even admit I haven't worked on it since May.  It became my Christmas Quilt-a-long project but then I changed where I kept my active projects and it was out of sight and couldn't inspire me, but I've relocated it and am ready to get back sewing.  As I said I prepped it all yesterday by re-ironing and then cutting all of my rustic brown colored batik and squaring them up.  Now I just need to gab a bottle of water for the iron and I can get started fusing!  Happy Sewing Today.

Hawaiian Ocean Applique Progresses

One of 12 of my Turtle Blocks

I've been working on the applique turtles, currently I have five completed blocks and three blocks that are just appliqued turtle bodies awaiting their shell pieces.  It seems silly to me to take photos of what I have already showed you, so today I'm going to dream about another similar quilt with you that while I had it in the back of my mind for quite a while this change of color and place came roaring out at me the other day.

Approximation of Reverse Image

I call it the Reverse Applique Turtle Quilt.  I'm planning on using all of the leftover cut out pieces from the Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt and putting them into this second quilt.  As the back of my green fabric is covered entirely in Wonder Under and my husband and I planned it this way; all of the leftover pieces will be usable in this second quilt.  No waste not even one small scrap.  Off to the left you can see how it will work.  In case you are wondering the pattern was redrafted from a needle turn applique method to allow us to do this.

The background of this layout is white on white, but for the second quilt I plan on selecting a tan/sand batik for the turtle bodies.  I think using the sand color for the turtle bodies will give them an on land appearance instead of the swimming in the water look.

Neatly saved but never zipped in

Yes, Yes, I'm saving everything and in case anyone is worried the bags are merely for keeping everything together.  Here in Florida I wouldn't dare zip them up, locking in all that humidity?  Eek!  Or perhaps Eeww is a better word.  I promise there are no Ewws or ewes here for that matter (wool allergy).

Now I just have to keep my eyes pealed for the perfect fabric.  Whoa darn fabric shopping. LOL.  I hope everyone found what they were looking for on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Or perhaps you simply found a lot of what you weren't looking for?  I my case I did all of my shopping at the computer. Because no matter how fast I make that scooter go, you'd all still beat me to the sale.  That's why DD and I say "Wheee, and Zoom," as we shop with the scooter.  It helps to give the illusion of speed!  Now why not drop me a note and tell me how your shopping or lack there of went and why, I'd love to hear about it.