Thanksgiving and Stitching, etc.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.  It was just hubby, our oldest son and me for Thanksgiving.  We still ate well.

our Thanksgiving feast

I've been busy stitching even though I don't have much to show to prove it.

The ladies ministry at church hosts an ornament exchange each December.  The lady in charge of decorating decided that we needed matching table runners as part of the decorations for the tables and I was drafted to make them.  She provided the white fabric with the gold ornaments, another lady provided the batting and I provided the red with silver snowflakes fabric for the reverse side.  Thank goodness she just wanted solid fabric on each side.  I did some simple stitching with my walking foot.  Here are the six finished table runners (showing both sides).

red on one side and white on the other side

A special friend offered to quilt both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilts for me.  I made labels for both quilts, including a separate label that lists the names of the blocks, in order, including the 'extra' block on the back of each quilt.  Both of these quilts have the binding stitched to the front of the quilts.  Now I just need to stitch the labels onto the back along with the binding.

both quilts with the labels listing the blocks

I finished almost all of the hand stitching for the board games (no photos, sorry).  Now to finish the last parts by machine, then stitch the parts together. 

I'm also doing some hand quilting on the 2nd Fat Cats quilt.  I made both quilt tops back in 2011.  A friend asked me to make one for her, and I finished that quilt in 2011.  The 2nd quilt top was made when I made the first quilt top, but I never finished it.  It will be finished before Christmas and gifted. 

Fat Cats quilt (being hand quilted)

Back in September I found a roll top desk at Goodwill.  The roll top desk is MUCH larger than the computer desk that I'd been using for the past 20 years.  We had to take everything out of the computer room and completely re-arrange everything to make it fit.  It took longer than expected to re-organize everything (one of the reasons I haven't had much stitching to show since early September).  I took everything off the walls (mainly hubby's ball cap collection) and we've finally hung some of my quilts in the computer room.  I still have space for a couple more wall hangings.

roll top desk with barn quilt and String Star above it

Elephant quilt to the right

Crazy quilt by the printers

Hubby also hung my wooden scissors above the door frame.  You can see our Christmas tree (lights but no ornaments yet) and our Alaskan Malamute, Ratchet.

wooden scissors

Now to get back to stitching!

Barn Quilt Class

Suzi Parron came to my large quilt guild last night, and talked about the Barn Quilt books that she has written.  Today was the Barn Quilt class.

We met in Terri's garage.  It was a lovely day, with a light breeze and the temps reached mid 70's.

one side of the garage

the other side of the garage

 We were provided with a 2 foot square plywood piece, that had been painted with primer.  We got to choose a pattern, or, bring a pattern.  Suzi showed us how to prep our piece, and get started.  This is the pattern that I chose.

 

We drew our pattern lines, then started prepping for painting.

ready to paint the first color

We painted the first color, then dried it with a hair dryer.  The red took 3 coats of paint to cover it nicely.

red parts painted

Next was the white paint.  Here is is, after the white has been painted and the tape has been removed.

one color left to paint

All that is left is the blue, with the star.  I'd already painted the white for the star.

just need to remove the green tape

Here are the other ladies, working on their Barn Quilts. 

Here is my finished Barn Quilt. 

2 foot square barn quilt

 Talk about a great place to take a photo...with Terri's 1930's car.

What a fun day!!!!  Suzi is already booked for more quilt guilds in this area, in 2018 and 2019.