Guild Block Exchange – Xmas

Guild Block ExchangeWell I finally did it and finished the quilt top for the guild block exchange! I only had to put the border on, and had originally intended on putting 2 borders – a thin one using the background fabric and then the thicker one using the focus fabric.  Unfortunately I didn’t have enough of the background fabric to do a border, and not enough time to order more.  So I just took that border out and put the thicker one on with the focus fabric.  I do like how it looks, and I have NO clue how I’ll even quilt it.  Now that it’s done I’ve folded it and hung it in the closet with the other tops needing quilted.  I’m trying to get people interested in next years exchange, but I don’t have a single person that has signed up yet.  I’ll keep trying, if I don’t get any takers I’ll order the fabric and make myself a quilt instead!

Hexie WreathsLast year I had found a pattern online and made a hexie wreath for the tree with a jingle bell in the center.  I had pulled the 2.5″ squares to make 3 more but never finished them. I found them while looking for something else and decided that I needed to finish them this year. Didn’t take me long, when I was awake enough to work on them, they are now all hanging on the tree!

H8964I did make a few items for Christmas gifts this year, however I will not be posting any information about them until after they have been received.  Right now the embroidery machine is humming along stitching out some free-standing lace gingerbread men ornaments.  I found the design on Embroidery Library – my favorite site for embroidery designs. I love doing lace designs, they turn out so cute and there’s really nothing I need to do for them.  Put the same color in the bobbin and on the top and let it go.  This design stitches out in under 20 minutes, so I can work on lots of other things while it runs.

I spent a little time working on cleaning things up in my office, things have gotten WAY too dusty and unorganized in here. Since I’m now done with pretty much all my Xmas gifts and just have to finish decorating and get a few items ready for folks the hubby works with I can spend some time working on items for myself.  I’m hoping to finish Scrappy 9-patch this week and since they announced at our guild meeting last week that the next quilt show is going to be in October 2014, I’m planning on seeing if I can get hexie diamonds finished for the show.  Of course I’d really rather it be ready for the 2014 camping season, but we’ll see what happens.

We have just barely started getting the baby’s room ready, which means my mini-pinni frame needs to come down.  I asked hubby to leave it in the room for now, I have a few quilts I’d like to put on it to pin before we take it apart.  The basement isn’t finished yet and I don’t want it setup in the basement until it’s cleaned and looking better down there! I think I’ll be able to easily quilt some of the scrappy quilts and get them finished before the baby is born.

I think I’m going to go play with a few of my Go dies and plan a few more quilts – I think baby girl needs something made by mommy!