This is Sampler Block # 23 – Pieced Santa which is one of the two blocks for this month’s UFO.  I’m still working on the hand applique on the Snow Family block.  I got a little bit done earlier this week, but it’s slow going.

Tonight I finished Block # 8 of my Christmas BOM – Row Houses.  This is September’s UFO.   Six more blocks to go.

Linda Everhart of Among Quilting Friends spoke at the Sunflower Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Ottawa, Kansas on August 16th 2004.  My mom had seen the guild announcement in the paper and called to see if I wanted to go to the meeting.  This was back before I joined a quilt guild.

Linda was showing her technique for stained glass quilting without using bias strips. I thought the technique was interesting and bought the kit for this wallhanging.

I started the quilt the next day (8/17/04) and had it finished the following (8/18/04).  The wall hanging measures 11 3/4″ x 13 1/2″ and hangs on my sewing room wall by the garage and kitchen doors.

The Christmas quilt is still on the design wall, but is not the only thing I’m working on.  Saturday morning I thought I would piece some more backs.  The quilt top shown above I completed in 2008.  There were 12 blocks from a $1 BOM and I didn’t think they all went together so I split them into two quilts using 5 blocks each.

It had always been my intention to piece the backing using the left over fabric and the extra blocks.  But I started digging in the boxes from mom and found a length of this VIP printed plaid.  I think I’m going to use this for the backing of this quilt.  It’s just wide enough (or the quilt is narrow enough) that one length will be plenty.

To see what others are working on hop over to Patchwork Times.

Believe it or not, I used a little bit of fabric this week – the Evergreen Block I completed on Monday, the coping strips putting the quilt together and the borders on my SBS Swap quilt.  Although I have the backing and binding made, I’m not going to count it until I actually use it.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  163.032 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 1.019 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 83.818 yards

Net Used for the year -78.195 yards

Reports from other quilters can be seen through the links at Patchwork Times.

No, it’s not the center of the quilt, but the borders which I’m calling “mindless”.  Tonight I just wanted to piece, but I didn’t want to start a new project.  Have you seen my UFO lists? (Tops to be Quilted and Quilts In Progress)  So, I pulled the easiest thing I could think of — My Blue and Brown Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler Swap quilt.  I knew it just needed the outer borders.

I’m going to go ahead and piece the binding and backing so it will be ready to quilt when I figure out how I want to quilt it.

Perhaps it’s a little early to start thinking about next year’s UFO projects, but since I’m so close with the Christmas quilt from this year, I went through my list to see what needed to be worked on.  Heaven knows there are plenty to pick from.

I am waffling between three different options.

• Work on the Just Takes Two quilt for the entire year – 4 or 5 blocks a month.
• Work on the SBS blocks — 5 or 6 blocks a month.
• Work on both quilts for 6 months each doubling the blocks — 8 to 10 for the JT2 and 10 – 12 for the SBS.  I don’t think I would want to try to work on both quilts every month.

Of course there’s 7 more weeks before I have to decide for certain what I’m going to do.  The number of blocks released for the JT2 quilt between now and the end of the year may influence my decision.

Since I had my blocks out, I started assembling what I could.  I suppose, if I would pull out the directions they might tell me the best way to assemble this top, but that would be too easy.  I’m just going by the picture.

I’ve got 4 “chunks” sewn together, as well as some of the filler blocks.  The biggest chunk goes from the tree block in the top left corner all the way across to the checkerboard on the right and down to the star and rocking horse.

The next chunk is the cookie jar and pie, the trees on either side, the teddy bears and the star.

On the bottom the teddy bear and rocking horse on the left over to the right where the two trees are is the third chuck.

The final chunk is the gingerbread people and star down through the pinwheels.  The bottom two sections will connect when I get the snowmen done.

The hole at the top left is for Santa’s sleigh and a couple of reindeer.  Below that are 4 row houses.  In the center should be a train.   Then below that are stockings, Noah’s Ark and a tall pieced Santa.

I really might have this quilt top done by the end of the year.  If I would get on the ball, I could have a Christmas quilt this year.  I have two other tops done.  This Crazy 8 lap throw which has been waiting to be quilted since Sept 2006 and this Christmas Row Swap top which I finished in Sept 2011.

There really shouldn’t be any excuse for me not to have a finished (quilted, bound & labeled) Christmas quilt for next year.

After dinner I decided I would forgo radio and television – after all, I voted this morning and watching the results is not going to change anything.  So, I’ve been listening to a book on CD and sewing.

First I prepped the snowmen for the Christmas BOM.

I still need to decide what I’m going to do about the stick arms, but I’ll embroider the faces when I get that far.

Since I had the project box out, I thought I would start sewing some of the blocks together.  The first thing I did was re-do one of my earlier blocks.

This poor star.  I made it in August 2003 — shortly after I got seriously infected by the quilting bug.  Let’s just say I didn’t do HST squares very well.

During the past 9 years my quilting skills have significantly improved – including being able to get the same look with different shapes.

This quilt using coping strips and lots of partial seams – something else I don’t think I could have handled when I started this quilt in 2003.

This is the largest section I have sewn together so far.

After sewing for a couple of hours, my room now feels more ‘creative’.  I need to pick fabric for another coping strip, then I can sew the next few blocks together to get all the way across the quilt.  Then I’m going to have to get on those last 8 blocks as the rest of the blocks are scattered throughout the rest of the quilt.

The last thing I did before going to bed last night was to prep the last three blocks for my Winter Wonderland redwork.  I haven’t had a “to go” project for a few months – not that I’ve gone anywhere, but with the holidays and a couple of weeks of vacation between now and the end of the year I figured I should be prepared.

The blocks were previously traced so all I had to do was baste the muslin to the back to help prevent my stitches from showing through.  I also wound off a length of thread from my large spool making it much more transportable.