It's CRUNCH Time!

Time to stop thinking about finishing all those fabulous hand made Christmas quilts and gifts and actually finish them! Here's what's on my plate this week.

1) Chicken Quilt
In good shape here... or what I consider to be good shape! I sewed the rows together and added the first of two borders. This is the part of quilting I hate most as it involves a lot of scrambling around the floor, pinning, and keel hauling tons of fabric under a needle. Fabric for the final border should be in the mail Tuesday and I'm hoping I can get that on.

This one's for my son-- he started raising chickens this year. I really can't wait to see the look on his face-- delight-- or a big question mark over his head as to why mom would make him a quilt when he sleeps with a dog? We'll see what happens! May I say, the Lori Holt books-- Farm Girl Vintage, Farm Girl Vintage 2, and the Christmas books all have settings for  6" and 12" blocks at the back and it has been tremendously helpful in assembling this piece. TBQ in January. (to be quilted, lol)

2. A Binding

So here's one that was only pieced when I gifted it on Fourth of July-- I did tell the person they would be seeing it again at Christmas as a joke-- Whoops! Christmas is a week away, and I'm struggling now to even make the "joke" goal!!

I really want to hand stitch it down on the back-- it adds extra love. That'll replace cross stitch as my morning job.

This one also gets a Thank You for your Service label on the back, and I'm hoping to do a monogram... details, details.

3. Lori Holt Snowglobe pillows
I have a couple of brand new people in my life this year-- wonderful people-- and I'd love to gift them a little quilty present. So in browsing through the Lori Holt Christmas book, I found some cute snowglobe pillows. I'm feeling over confident after getting the Chicken quilt done in a month-- let's see what happens today.

I was really having trouble cutting sizes when I started-- one is big and one is little. Let's hope that's not a trend that continues into 2022, and thank God these are just for pillows. I do need a couple of inserts from JoAnn-- here's hoping the supply chain cooperates. These are supposed to have buttons sewn on the trees, and I also have some little snowflake charms I could sew on. Let's see how far I get.

4. The Matchbox display rack
So this isn't a quilt obviously, but this needs some assembly. I've been exercised to start passing some of our "stuff" down to future generations, and it's my desire to make sure it doesn't end up in a garbage dump! 

I reasoned that you do this by turning your collectibles into something nice. We've had Mr. SFOs box of matchbook cars in the family for years-- they are very special to him. It occurred to me a nice display rack with all the cars would be perfect for our son's office in his car repair shop. SO.....

I found this incredible handmade case on Etsy-- now it's time to put it together. So I took the cars out for the first time in probably 40 years-- and what did I discover? Not the shiny, sexy muscle cars I had imagined, but a bunch of rusty construction vehicles!!! (You know that Mr. SFO is an architect-- I mean, I should have known!!) 

It's too late to send the case back, and it's somewhat appropriate as he does service trucks and hydraulics. I snagged a Matchbox red 1993 Jeep Wrangler off of eBay for the display... the red Jeep Wrangler is one we owned back in the day and is part of the family lore of the young man's birth story-- I'll leave the rest to your imagination. But he actually looked for and bought a real 1993 Wrangler now. So another gift I'm really curious what the reaction is.

5. Hoodie

All of my quilts do involve machine embroidery-- even if it's only the label. But there's one special shirt that needs to be made that only needs embroidery. Can't show it till after Christmas!

So, the artist in residence goes up to NH every weekend-- she doesn't know I use her office as a design floor on weekends. We had all promised no spending on Christmas gifts this year-- just handmade stuff. I noticed her door was closed more than usual this week, but just figured MOM was getting a little too overwhelming for her lately.

When I went it, what to my wondering eye should appear?

Not only that, but word has gotten around that others in my family are breaking the "rule." So Mr. SFO and I have to go out today to do some shopping! Hope it isn't swamped out there.

Let me know about your Christmas finishes-- I imagine quite a few of us are scrambling this week!

xoxo

Carol