November update

Well, it's been a while since I've made my last post so I thought it was time for an update.  These are the blocks I made for the October block lotto.  I posted them just one day before the deadline.  I originally started working on a Sunbonnet Sue block, and I packed it up to work on in the car on our trip down to Nashville but it never made it into the car and I couldn't find it at home so I made these blocks as a last minute entry.

 I'm glad I did because I finally won!  I now am the happy owner of 49 different 8" sampler blocks which I plan to turn into a quilt for the guest bed in the basement once I finish a few other projects.

These are my block lotto entries for November.  It's not exactly my style, but it would still be nice to win again.

There is no block lotto for December.  The coordinator is in the middle of changing jobs and recovering from some severe allergy problems so she called a break for the month.   I won't mind taking a month off since I have 3 other quilts in the plans for this month.

If I can find the time to take pictures, I will upload some photos of the crib quilt I finished for DH's nephew due around Christmas and of the progress I have made on our bed quilt.  

I've been avoiding the bed quilt because I couldn't figure out how to trim up the blocks so that they would make a nice, non-poofy star center.  I finally decided to bite the bullet and sew the eight sections into pairs and then trim the pairs to a 90 degree angle since triming the 8 sections to a symetrical 45 degree angle was too hard to figure out.  Now all 8 sections are sewn together, but I have to figure out how to eliminate some wavy edges on the star before I add the background fabric.

I've also got the pieces cut for two more crib quilts but haven't started sewing them yet.

UFO completion

Last week I was able to finish the quilting on this lap quilt (The pattern is Crossing from the June 2010 APQ Magazine).  The only thing left is to bring the binding to the back and sew it in place.

Of course, after I had the whole top sewn together, I  realized that I could have planned the placement of the tan blocks too, instead of just the darker blue blocks and that would have made a better pattern, but oh well. I'll leave it as is.

With that quilt waiting for a few hours of TV time to be completed, I unexpectedly got motivated to finish this Advent Calendar, it only needed a rod pocket and a rod to hang it up.  Then I put together this Jesse Tree to go along with the Advent Calendar.  I have some symbols I printed off the internet that I am going to laminate, and then attach Velcro to the back of each symbol so it will stick to the wool felt of the Jesse Tree.   Every day in December, DS will be able to pull a symbol out of a pocket on the Advent Calendar and place it on the Tree.


I also found time to finish a husband-sized baby sling that I started two years ago and never finished.  DH asked for his own so he could take turns holding DS and not have to bother readjusting my sling every time.  We don't have any need for it right now, but maybe in the future.

Then I made a little hexagon needle book from this tutorial.   I have a picture, but it's still on the camera and hasn't made it on to the computer yet.   I really like it and I have plans to make a few as gifts for the sewers I know.