Loose ends and future plans

Our summer guest will be moving into her new condo early next week, we hope.  The financial stuff related to the purchase is coming along well, and her sons are planning to come to help with the move next Monday.  Having just finished two big projects, I decided not to start anything new this week.  Yesterday I finished a rug I started for my brother out of a quilt I made him years ago.  I cut some non-slip stuff to fit and used my walking foot to attach it.  Today I'll pack it up to mail to him.

While I was in the basement, I started a couple of mug rugs with left over Christmas fabrics.   I have a stack of them to give to library staff and need a few more.  I'll continue making them today and will quilt them when I get back up to the Elna which I have missed very much.  

On tap when I get back to my sewing room will be finishing some UFOs - the guild block of the month, a Kristin Laura block of the month, and Optimism blocks of the month by Aby Dolinger.   Now that the guild year has begun again, I will plan on making something out of a fat quarter swap this month to show at the November meeting.  There's a little scrappy red quilt hanging in the closet for quilting, too.  And speaking of guild, I hope not to be tempted to make the block of the month each month this year because that just adds to my backlog.  If I can finish up the UFOs I have before plunging ahead, I will be happy.

Having taken a class in curved piecing with Beth Ann Williams a few weeks ago, I hope to use my overflowing tub of blue fabric for a Blue Onion quilt or table runner.  The directions were a bit confusing when I first got the pattern, but Beth Ann helped make some sense of them.  It involves layering, cutting, shuffling, flipping, etc. piles of six fabrics.  This was the third class I've taken with Beth Ann this year.  Her instructions are incredibly clear.  

I have a pile of holiday fabric upstairs set aside to work on a Jen Kingwell Wensleydale quilt next year.  I have the papers from the Fat Quarter Shop all ready to go and have viewed a You Tube video from Quilted Chicken about how to put fabric together so that blocks end up scrappy.  I will probably watch it again as my memory isn't what it used to be.  Each block ends up as a rectangle about 6" x 9".

Adding to my stash

 Even though I am still sewing in the basement, two floors from my stash, I can't seem to stop adding fabric to my "collection."  Guess I'm more of a fabric collector these days, but I do plan to spend a lot of time in my sewing room this winter, using some up.  I bought a bundle of nice Riley Blake half yards on sale recently, and the other day a friend, Robin, gave me two tubs of mostly cottons to take to the free table at guild after taking some myself.  There were some bigger pieces I can use for quilts for "Bags of Love" and some blues that would be good for a few projects I've been thinking of.

Saturday, I took an online class on curved piecing with Beth Ann Williams.  I have wanted to try working on a scrappy quilt with arcs as well as the Blue Onion pattern.  Beth Ann is a great teacher - this is the third class I've taken from her this year!  Everything is clear and concise, and I now feel very confident to tackle Blue Onion.  That's what all of Robin's blues will be used for.

Beth Ann showed how she cut her fabrics and sewed the blocks together.  There's a bit of flipping, shuffling and trimming involved that I didn't quite understand from reading the pattern.  It's somewhat improvisational which I was hoping for.  

I'll set that aside for now as I have two projects nearly to finished.  First, I'm about halfway through hand sewing the binding down on Double Date.  And I'm days away from finishing a blue Christmas tree skirt with "Snowflake" Bentley fabric for my friend Pauline.  I have four snowflake blocks to machine applique, and then it will be ready to bind as well.  I will sew that binding on completely by machine as there's always a lot of binding needed for tree skirts.   Not my favorite step in the process but definitely needed.   I chose this holiday project to finish before a few others so that I would know how much of that special panel I have left to use.  I now have enough for at least one table runner for the library's Light Up the Library raffle.

Why is it taking me so long to accomplish sewing projects lately?  I've gotten distracted reading a few good books (Britt-Marie was Here, Silent in the Sanctuary, and Dreaming Spies), but mostly we've been running around the countryside looking at fall foliage.  We take advantage of nice weather now before winter keeps us closer to home.  Tomorrow we're heading up through Stowe to Morrisville on an errand with a stop at Thompson's Flour Shop which makes great sandwiches and amazing take-and-bake pies.  Early next week, Paul's brother Jim is coming for a few days when we'll do a little more leaf peeping.  Busy days here!