Elephants on Parade

 Here’s a quick post to show you my latest finish. The little girl who grew up next door recently had her first baby. This elephant pattern had been a block of the month at a recent guild meeting, and I thought a herds of these colorful pachyderms would be a fun subject for a quilt. :-)

That’s all for today, short and sweet. 

An Autumn Wool Applique Finish

 This nine inch wool applique mat is “White Pumpkin Scalloped Mat” from Buttermilk Basin. I believe I had bought this pattern and one for a larger project sometime last year along with some lovely, luscious, autumnal colors of wool at The Quilted Crow Quilt Shop in Bolton, MA. Well, nothing got done last year, but this year, I wanted to at least stitch this smaller piece. I also prepped the larger piece, and I fully intended to put it away to take with me on a future quilt retreat. Then . . . gosh darn it, it looked so pretty that I decided I had to start it as well. :-)

 I also have a Christmas wool applique pattern that I would like to get stitched. Yes, I bought another pattern, but I am using wool and perle cotton from my stash.

Is that all I am working on? Heck, no! You will be seeing a number of different finishes in the next few posts. In fact, I saw this yesterday on Facebook, and it validates my tendency to bounce between projects. 

So, what are you presently working on???

Bittersweet Boulevard

 This morning I finished fully finishing November’s “Bittersweet Boulevard” by designer Priscilla Blain of Stitching with the Housewives on Etsy. While I really do enjoy stitching this series, it takes me a long time to stitch the two parts. I had started stitching it in the middle of October, and it took me probably three weeks to stitch!!! As soon as I received the December chart, I began stitching it, and at least I have the street sign section stitched. The house and sign for December are done in shades of pink, and it will be very pretty once it is done. I’m also trying to get a few Christmas cross stitch ornaments done as well.

At yesterday’s Crosstown Quilters Guild meeting, I turned in four Christmas stockings. Guild members make stockings which are donated to DCF (Department of Children and Families.) Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of them. I also finished the top of a quilt from designer Ricky Tims. The pattern is “Gaelic Blessings” a double Irish chain with variations with a Celtic cross in the center. [Update: I put “Gaelic Blessing” into the ‘Search This Blog’ feature, and it showed that in a March 4, 2017 post I showed a photo of all the fabric all cut and carefully labeled to work on at a guild retreat. Seven years . . . that’s not too bad. ;-) ].

I have been on a kick to complete projects. Imagine my surprise to find all the completed blocks just waiting patiently in its project box. The pattern was from 2016, and I believe I started it as soon as it came out. I remember having been super excited to start it, but somewhere along the line I drifted away from working on it. I am happy to say that the top is now done, and I have an idea which I think will be pretty cool for the back. I just need to spend some quality time at my sewing machine working on that. :-)

At yesterday’s meeting, I picked up a baby quilt from one of our members, Maureen Anderson, who longarmed it for me. I love how it turned out, and I will post a photo as soon as I have finished the binding.

As you can see, I have been trying to stay very busy since last week’s election. It’s been difficult to even fake a positive outlook. For my sanity, I have stopped watching news programs on CNN & MSNBC which I had previously watched far too much. I thought I might continue watching “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell, but last night I decided to give that up as well.  I will continue to read Heather Cox Richardson’s , “Letters from an American” each day. There is a link to her column under “Blogs That I Enjoy” in the column on the right side of my blog. (Note: If you get an email notification when I write a new post, you are probably not seeing my whole page. Click on my blog title, and that will take you to my full page.)

I will not comment on the election; we have all seen and read enough about that from both sides, but I will say to those who reelected our forty-fifth President . . . Be careful what you wished for . . .