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.

Six days ago Judy picked the next to last UFO Challenge # – 9. I didn’t post about it because I was so far behind – still am.  But I’m happy to report that for my first sewing project in my newly cleaned sewing room is Evergreen the second block to UFO #3 which I think was July’s #.  That’s also when I got off track.

This month’s blocks are the Snowman Family and Piece Santa.

It looks like I’ve already started hand appliquing the snowmen, so I guess I’ll do the rest of the block in HA.

Well, this is post # 3 for the day.  I think I’ll call it a day.  Who knows if you’ll hear from me again until it’s time for the Stash Report.

I did not take before pictures – it was too bad.  There are those who would say this room still is too bad to post, but I’m excited — if I can get over it being too clean to quilt in.

Yesterday afternoon we put up a new set of shelves which allowed me to get a bunch of boxes up off the floor.   I know, I know, I should go through those boxes but quite frankly they were taking up so much room I didn’t have room to sort.

To get the room to this point, I emptied my recycling bin and my trash can twice each, collected a bag of books to take to the library, a box to take to the fabric recycling place, hauled a bin of old muslin to the basement,  took an empty milk crate to the basement, hauled out all the shoes except for one pair, removed a layer of dust off the furniture and swept.

Now, I have to find a project to work on that won’t mess up the room too badly.  Perhaps some of the Christmas BOM blocks that I’m behind on.  I know there is at least one maybe two which are prepped for the machine applique.

At first glance it looks like nothing.  And I suppose technically that’s true — either that or there’s just threads on the wall.

But what I’m excited to show today is that the entire wall is assessable.  And, no, it’s not the trick of shoving the boxes over to the other side of the room — although I do admit to having a couple which still need to land in their final resting place.

My DH finally talked me into another set of shelves.  They were sitting in the garage unused so all we had to do was buy a set of wheels and assemble them.   They are just visible on the right edge of the picture.

There are now three sets of shelves on the front wall of my space.  Ultimately I want to get rid of at least two of those sets, but I’ve got to get rid of “stuff” to make it happen.

It’s not much, but I already have a box full of old quilting/sewing/crochet and cross stitch magazines/books which I plan to take to the fabric recycling place.  I’ve got a paper sack full of paperback novels which I’ve either read, or won’t get around to reading (love my Kindle!) those will go to the library for them to either put on the “free” shelf or sell.

Since there’s still a bit to do before I can actually sew again it may be two weeks before I have anything on the wall again.  But I had to do this.  My area had just gotten to the point where I couldn’t do anything without spending 15 minutes clearing an area so I could sew/cut only to have to move it again so I could work.

Hopefully others will have more inspiring design walls.  They can be checked out over at Patchwork Times.

Well, I did it.  I came up with a yardage figure for the shirts I purchased last month.  Let’s just say I won’t be breaking even on my  fabric usage vs purchase this year.   After I finished Checkerboard Plaids last week, all I did was stitch pieces of batting together.  The end result is I have 3 batts ready to go and more importantly all the batting contained again.

Here are the numbers.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 64.5 yards (all recycled fabrics!)
Fabric Added to Date:  163.032 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 5.33 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 83.818 yards

Net Used for the year -79.214 yards

Ugh.  On the other hand, I am looking forward to making more quilts with the recycled fabric.  See how others are faring with their stashes by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

This afternoon I attended two quilt shows.  The first was the Blue Valley Quilt Guild’s and the second was Lees Summit Quilter’s Guild.  Since both shows were the same day, the joined together on the advertising and there was a “passport” prize drawing for anyone attending both shows.  Did I mention they were on opposite sides of town and the state line?

My batteries died on my camera partway through the BVQG show and I didn’t think to pull out my cell phone.  I did think to pull out the cell phone at the LSQG show, and the pictures are not very good.  But the quilts are just as awesome.