in which the blogger gets her act together...

we have so much to be thankful for: family, friends, home, bountiful food... we have all we need and so much of what we want, and for that I'm Thankful!

now the Christmas season is upon us (how did THAT even happen?!) and we're busy preparing for all the joyousness and traditions that go with the celebration of Jesus' birth.

finally got some pictures of my completed (flimsy) 16 patch. Name? how about Rainbow Boxes? sounds good...  (shown here) in its layout phase.

another big one at 90" X 110". this one seems to be a favorite with the little girls. we'll see who picks it for the Great Christmas Quilt Giving in a couple weeks.

a bit of time this week for some RSC sewing. I realized I hadn't done any of my grey crumb blocks, but an evening of sorting and sewing got that task accomplished...

 

(and why do those jars of scraps never get any emptier?! it's a mystery....)

 

while you're clicking around, be sure to see what everyone else is finishing up- it's that time of year!

 

 

what does November mean?

November in RSC Land means our blocks are done (or nearly so) and we start to see some pieced flimsys in our Saturday linkups.

I tend to make lots and lots of blocks, but I'm not always so great at finishing them into tops... I have some good new to share this week, though!

new for my RSC17 block list this year was the low volume 16 patches. I had lots of the 3" LV squares left from my Plus quilt that I decided to use them again this year in a 16 patch.

with the completion of my brown 16 patches this week, I was ready to lay out the blocks...

 

I had already been pondering how I wanted to lay them out, so it didn't really take too long to settle on a design. the layout is 9 X 11 blocks, so the quilt should finish at 90" X 110". (another big'un!) I had 9 blocks leftover, but unfortunately they weren't the right color or shade, so I'll be "custom" piecing a few more of these to get the quilt done.

 

I'm loving it so far!

 

these pinwheels started as one of my RSC15 projects, and I pieced (and pieced!) a boatload of them. I finished the first quilt with them (shown here) and just this week completed this one. it measures 62" X 78".

I'm calling it Windblown Pinwheels: I'm sure there was  pattern in the colors somewhere, but in the process of picking the blocks up off the design floor, and then up to the sewing room, they must have gotten jumbled a bit... that's ok! finished is better than perfect, right?!

those long nights of sewing...

we're in that time of year for us where the garden work is done and *mostly* cleaned up, and it's still not time for butchering- turkeys and pigs. does that mean I have *extra* time? no, not really {haha} but there have been lots of evenings where I can work in the sewing room, piecing away..

I felt like I had so many brown scraps, but I was able to get these 19 crumb blocks pieced in one evening: see above {those long nights of sewing...} from caramel to chocolate, all the browns are there...

can I say just one more time: these Kona indigo and the COM are my favorites? I say that every month... and I say that I say that every month...

I'm concentrating on getting some of my RSC16/17 blocks pieced into tops for our Great Quilt Gifting in early December, so these indigo 16 patches will have to wait until Christmas time-ish to get pieced into a top. BUT: they're at the top of my list- can't wait!!!

 

colors: (not in order) honey, sable, earth, pepper, chocolate, expresso and ???.

 

the 16 patch LV blocks are all done- and getting ready to be sewn into a top. I wasn't sure how I'd like them, but so far they're looking great. (sneak peek here) 

and a few (16) lonely pinks to add to the crumb stack. my {tallish] crumb stack is from RSC16 and RSC17. I have an idea how I'd like to piece them into tops; I'll start that project in the New Year. but I think I'll take a break from crumb blocks next year... (not that I'm running out of crumbs or anything... they're having babies up in the sewing room as. we. speak.)

 

speaking of RSC18: (18?! how did that even sneak up on us?!) I'm planning on participating again next year, but entirely uncertain what my blocks/projects will be... I'd like to do something that uses LOTS of my 3" squares from my suitcase of squares, but I'm not sure what I'd like. I want to do something a bit more multi-colored, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of RSC, right? I'll keep pondering, but I'm open to suggestions...

falling for brown...

fall finally seems to be here; brown is a good color for fall! I have some brown, but not an overwhelming amount... that's good, since I still have some pinks to piece into my crumb blocks...

my browns seem to be a nice mix of monotone chocolate browns, and colorful browns to make blocks pop. (this is my 4th year of RSCing, and the scrap jars, bins and drawers never seem to get any emptier...)

 

one lonely low volume plus block for the browns, and  I have a few 16 patches I'm hoping to get to today. lots going on in the sewing room- secret projects, memory quilts, Christmas preparation- good thing the garden is done!

 

linking up to so scrappy- go see what everyone else is doing- and it's that time of year when all the blocks start getting sewn into quilts, too- woo-hoo!

The geese are finally flying north!

hard believe, but in looking back over my blog and previous posts about this quilt, I started this CW Flying Geese in the winter of 2010. yikes! (at least it's completed in the same decade, which is more than I can say for some of my UFOs....)

I've blogged about this quilt before, and you can read all about it here and here.

this quilt turned out quite large: 103" X 117". (yikes, again!)

a few years ago, I started a quilty tradition: every time my children are all together (all 6 of them) I've been doing a "Quilt Gifting": they each get to choose a quilt top that I've pieced of their liking. i'll provide the backing also, and then it's up to them to get it quilted, as time and budget allows.

 

I plan on doing a "Quilt Gifting" again this December when we're all together, so I thought it was time to get it off the hanger, and into a quilt. (ammiright?!)

 

 

I still have a tidy little pile of the geese fabrics left, as well as some of the background and brown border. I'm thinking that this quilt will be just what my daughter and son-in-law are looking for. if that's the case, I'll make a matching baby quilt for their room and the new baby. (due in March)

 

linking up to Judy's for the 2017 UFO challenge and Angela's for RSC17. (since this month IS brown, right?)