Christmas Quilts

 

Many years ago I made this Christmas "Jelly Roll" quilt for my dining room table.

The next Christmas quilt I made was this Happy Holidays wall hanging. (You can see my Nutcracker on the left.)

I made this quilt with Christmas presents during the pandemic. I swap out the pillows on the couch so they coordinate with whatever quilt I've thrown over the back of the couch.

Last year I made the small JOY pillow for the red chair.

Earlier this year I made the Noel Banner that you see when you first enter my house. I designed it to fit the space perfectly. It does that, and it looks beautiful. I'm really happy.

I'm pretty sure I'm done making Christmas quilts, but hey, you never know. I don't have a special one for my bed yet...

I haven't got the rest of the Christmas decorations up yet, but that will come. I like to do it a little bit at a time.

Catch Up

 

After a day of food food food, Friday was a day of playing catch up. 

After I planned my menus for the coming week, I placed my grocery order before I went to bed on Thursday. It was ready by 9AM the next day, so I had a quick breakfast then went to pick it up. I filled the car with gas then did another errand and went home. I made a big batch of tomato soup for my lunches during the week, made a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and then packed the Christmas presents into their gift bags, calculated all the shipping costs, printed the labels and then drove to the post office to drop them off. Back at home I did all the laundry, folded it; changed the sheets on the bed, cleaned up the kitchen and made dinner and ran the dishwasher.

I switched out the pink pillows and quilt for the Holiday Boxes quilt and silver pillows, hung the Happy Holidays quilt and switched out Millie's summer tent for the winter version. As you can see Millie wasted no time in covering it with her furs. I'll put up the Christmas decorations a little at a time over the next few days.

I still have to clean off the dining room table and cover it with the Christmas table cover, pay a few bills and move some garden tools to the shed. It's snowing as I write this, and although it won't stick around, it does mean the end of the garden season, so it's beyond time to put the garden tools away and bring out the snow shovels.

I've got a few more bags to make too.

My mother was so funny. She saw the bags I made for my son, DIL and DGG and said, "So Lynne, where is MY bag? Am I going to get one...?"

In Other News...

 In other news...

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I visited Janet-Lee the other day and picked up two quilts, the Holiday Boxes,

which is quilted in a ribbons pattern called "Celebrate!"

I've made the binding (it's a WOW) and started sewing it onto the back of the quilt.
 

and the newly renamed "Deep Space"

which is quilted in a pattern called "Champagne Bubbles."

I left the Lady Snaps quilt with Janet Lee, and came home to make the backing for the Pink Panther quilt.

I'll bring that to be quilted next.

Hana, Mary and Kathy's Birds!

 

This is from Hana, who  sent me three birds. This black bird (check out the Mickey Mouse breast fabric!! LOL) is an average sized bird on very short legs.

 

Hana, who lives about 30 minutes away from me, also made two small birds. How small?

This cute little bird is less than four inches tall.

Mari, from Maryland, sent me this "Professor Bird."

Kathy, from Vermont (the next state over from me) made this lovely bird with the bright green legs. She said she didn't have the heart to cut them shorter. Frankly, neither do I!

If you want to join the fun email me at PatcheryMenagerie AT Gmail DOT com and I will send you my mailing address. All birds are welcome, tall ones, short ones, skinny ones, fat ones, baby birds and big birds. Fancy birds and simple birds are all welcome. If you want simply to make your own birds (no patterns, no templates and NO PAPER PIECING... get my tutorial here at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

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Two Thirds

 

I've sewn the bottom two thirds of the quilt together. I will sew the top third next, and then join them.

I bought this gray snowflake fabric for the back of the Holiday Boxes quilt. 

It looks like my WFH time is coming to an end. My boss will be returning to the office on Monday, but there has been no decision reached about me yet. (She has her own office, I would return to a new place in the "cube farm.")

All Lined Up

 

The Holiday Boxes quilt has reached flimsy status. It is 74" tall x 62" wide.

Here the flimsy somewhat crumpled on the couch. It was a bit tricky with Millie also on the couch giving me the stinkeye.

Last Row of Boxes - Update

 

I've sewn the last row of the Holiday Boxes together. With luck I'll have the flimsy sewn up over the weekend.

I called about getting a larger mat. The most economical one is twice as big as I need. I've contacted the retailer to ask if they can cut it in half for me. They said they'd get back to me, but so far I haven't heard a reply. The mat on the table above is only two feet wide (or high in my case) and I really need a bigger one.

I've already ordered some double stick tape to hold the mat in place on my table (right now I use big clamps at the corners. I keep getting poked by them.) I also bought an adhesive measuring tape that I can adhere to the bottom edge and I am looking around for a pencil ledge which will keep my stuff from falling off. Worse comes to worst I'll call my local glass company and get a couple of pieces of colored plexiglas and tape those to the bottom edge of the table to create a lip.

I registered for the vaccine. I am in Group 1B in my state. There are approximately 300,000 folks in my state with that designation and currently 20,000 doses are delivered each week, so doing the math it will take 15 weeks for all those in my group to be vaccinated. That brings us to the first week in May. 

So I am not holding my breath that I will be called for an appointment any time soon. I will continue to have my groceries delivered and do as much shopping as I can online. I pick up my prescriptions at the drive thru pharmacy, and when I get gas (about once every 8 weeks) I wear a mask (and with the deadlier strain going around, I now double mask) and gloves. I always wear a mask when I am out and about, which isn't often.

I read, watch TV and Netflix (Lupin!), sew, work and cook/bake (Snacking Cakes is terrific!). I chat with my family on FaceTime. It sucks, but the alternative is worse.

UPDATE: I have a time and date for my vaccine appointment. It's at the end of February. Fingers crossed.