Carolina Christmas Progress

My only goal for Carolina Christmas this year was to get the borders pieced.

After that was accomplished, I wanted to put it all away and pull it out next November. But Monday morning I decided to sew for just one hour more on CC.  I ended up sewing for 2 hours and got 12 blocks together.

Today I worked another couple of hours and got the last 12 together.  I think I've earned a break from this quilt for  a while. 

 

Linking up with Jo:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/22604/

A Late Stash Report

We had  company this weekend, so I didn't spend a lot of time on the computer.  My friend and I hit two quilt shops while she was here, and I made a small purchase:  fabric for a pillow case for my nephew.

Used This Week:  0 yards                                                    
Used Year to Date: 67.875 yards
Added this week: 1.375 yards  
Added year to date: 73.0 yards
 Net Added:  5.125 yards

While my friend was here, I pulled out all my unquilted tops to show her. I have a lot of them.  My friend told her husband I have 'at least 50', but I think it is more like 15.  We should have counted them!

Last night I finished the embroidery on another POD block.

 

Holidays With Hags, Magical Drafts and Potions, Moste Potente Potions, Wanderings With Werewolves, Encyclopedia of Toadstools, Armando Dippet: Master or Moron?

 

This is not one of the Fandom in Stitches blocks but my own very simple design. I needed a block to fill in a space in the quilt because I am not putting the witch's hat on the bookshelf.  I may put it on the top of the shelves, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

Fall in My Yard

Most of the trees in our woods have turned color now.

 

The prettiest trees in my yard are the crape myrtles.  They turn orange or red in the fall. The leaves are small enough that they don't have to be raked up.  My husband just runs them over with the lawn mover and mulches them into the grass. To me crape myrtles are the perfect tree:  beautiful all four seasons.  I love their flowers in the summer, and I love their bare trunks in the winter.

There aren't many flowers now in my yard, but one camellia bush is blooming.

 

Something that looks odd to me in the woods is the way the small trees catch the pine needles that fall.  We have big pine trees in our yard, and the needles that fall and get caught on the small trees remind me of icicles.

 

 

 

Another thing I love about the fall is the seed pods.  I'm not sure what kind of plant this is.  It sort of looks like a cross between a lily and  an iris.  It probably came from my sister's garden originally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project of Doom Blocks

I've gotten 3 more blocks embroidered. 

 

Basic Hexes For the Busy and Vexed, Powers You Never Knew You Had and What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, and Self-Defensive Spellwork

 

The Beater's Bible

 

The Standard Book of Spells I-VI

 

Here are two of  the same blocks from my last POD quilt.

 

 

I didn't reach my goal of finishing the blocks but getting closer.  And there isn't a rush now.  The girl who is getting this quilt may not graduate next  May.  She wants to take an extra year and get her masters in accounting. 

 

 

Carolina Christmas Border Progress

Considering how little sewing time I've had this week, I'm pretty pleased with my Carolina Christmas border progress.

 

I still have to make the corner blocks and the blocks in the border centers where the green triangles change directions.  I thought I was being careful when I made these, but I ended up having 10 extra 'right handed' blocks and was  short 10 'left handed blocks'.

 

Linking up with Jo:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/bonnie-challenge-update-4/

Stash Report and A Quick Fix

I haven't had a stash report since the middle of Oct. since I haven't had any changes to report until now.  I used about a half a yard for binding on a quilt this week and gave away a little fabric to a quilting friend who is making a scrap quilt.

 Used This Week:  0.75 yards                                                    
Used Year to Date: 67.875 yards
Added this week: 0 yards  
Added year to date: 71.625 yards
 Net Added:  3.75 yards

I started the embroidery on one of the POD blocks and quickly realized that the title was going to be way off center. I don't chart out titles before I stitch them because most to the time it doesn't matter if they are exactly centered.  This one, though, looked bad to me.    I didn't want to rip out what I'd already stitched, so I completed the embroidery and then fixed the block. 

Here's what it looked like at first:

See how much blank space is at the top of the yellow block. 

 

I trimmed a little off the center block to center the title.  Then I trimmed off the background, sewed the block back together with all the books touching, and added background to bring the block back up to size.

 

 

That little change makes the block look a lot better.  It took about 5 minutes to do.

 

 

To see more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/11/02/stash-report-week-44-2014/

 

Carolina Christmas Border

I've been working on the border of my Carolina Christmas quilt.  Tonight while I was handing out Halloween candy, I got most of the pieces cut.

 

If the weather is as bad tomorrow as they are predicting, I'll get some of them sewn.

 

Linking up with Jo and her Bonnie Hunter quilt challenge:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/challenge-update/