Spiral Interrupted

September and October were full of quilt shows (4).  November and December had the craft shows (3 - the last one is this weekend).  This week I sent the SECRET SHOP HOP QUILT TOP to the machine quilter and finished the guild Christmas Challenge.  My family exchanged Christmas gifts at Thanksgiving.

With so many things checked off my TO-DO list, I decided to have a little fun and pull out the spiral project that I started way, way back at the beginning of October.  Here's what it looked like when I started.

Now I've gone just about as far as I can with it because I'm running out of fabric.  It's time to figure out how to end it!  I have a cute green dotted fabric standing by to fill in the sides and corners where necessary.  Here it is this morning, pinned up to a cork board strip on the wall.  It's about 20" at it's widest point.

The Christmas Challenge is FINISHED!

Finished this morning.
There is a whole week left before the deadline of Dec. 8.  Wow!

To refresh everyone's memories ... this is a challenge in the Tar River Piecemakers Quilters Guild (TRPQG), due at our Christmas party.  We exchanged 36 Christmas charm squares and were allowed to add one more fabric, either muslin or a white.  (There was also a zinger - a single charm square of a bright print that looked like coral).  I was SO LUCKY to come across this idea at the exact right time on another blog that I follow "The Way I Sew It".   She even had a tutorial to make it easy for me.  I guess it was just meant to be.

The finished size is 25" square.  It will be gracing the center of my dining room table after it has been to the party.

Christmas Challenge Progress

I put my Christmas challenge blocks together and added a 2 1/2" border of the white tone-on-tone.  I had almost forgotten an idea I'd had earlier ... adding a little stenciling.

I marked guide lines on freezer paper, then drew simple block letters.  I cut the letters out VERY CAREFULLY with a single edge razor blade.  One side at a time I ironed the stencil on and applied the paint with a regular stencil brush.  The red acrylic paint was mixed 50-50 with fabric medium.

Next, the quilting!  I've chosen a dull medium green.  That's what I'll work on tonight.

The Christmas Challenge

Thanksgiving took me away from the sewing machine for more than a week!  I should have taken a picture of all of the food I cooked.

Now, I'm back at work on the Christmas challenge.  Participants cut and exchanged 5" squares of Christmas fabric.  Then the guild furnished ONE MORE FABRIC ...

Rules are simple:  Make a quilt up to 30" square, using the Christmas charms, challenge charm shown above, and one other fabric, either muslin or white on white.  The challenge fabric must be shown in a large enough piece to be seen!  Actually, it didn't pose any problem at all, since this scrappy project has such a variety of bright prints.  Can you find it?  One strip appears in each block.

I finished my four large blocks tonight.  They still need to be trimmed before sewing them together.  Since the challenge is due in two weeks, it will definitely be a machine quilting project.  I'm thinking ahead and wonder if it will be considered cheating if I use another colored fabric for my binding.  I don't want white binding! 

I always give credit to my sources.  See the blog "The Way I Sew It" for a tutorial about how to make these blocks using charm squares.

Christmas Scraps

This year, I got a LOT of mileage out of the box in the closet marked "Christmas".  It contained a lot of fat quarters and large scraps.  First I made two different kinds of table or candle mats.  Then last week I offered a class and nobody signed up.  Pooh!  The class was for making simple rectangular ornaments with a pocket on the back for gift cards.  I made a bunch anyway.

They'll be making their next appearance at the Annual Holiday Arts at Crafts Show at the Washington Civic Center on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.  For more information, call 252-946-2504.  The Civic Center is located at 110 N. Gladden Street, Washington, NC 27889.

I sewed and sewed last night.  Here are the units I've constructed so far.  They will need the smaller corner triangles added after I trim the corners that are sticking out.

Here's the basic plan, along with the smaller triangles ready to go and, OOPS, all of the little strips that I had left over.

Stay tuned ... I've actually cut and sewn enough to make a square with four big X blocks, so time will tell whether it will turn out to be a runner or a big square.

Where's Lori?

Back in the shop after all of the quilt shows, it was kind of hard to get back on track.  I am happy to announce that the SECRET shop hop quilt top is ready to go to the quilter.  That was a major item checked off my "to do" list.

Next, I offered a couple of quick Christmas classes at the shop.  Last week we made candle mats. 

Today we made pot holders.

Can you read the fine print?  I actually found the original of a hand-out that I made in 1995!  Obviously it was pre-computer.  But it works. 

I've got a Christmas challenge due in a couple of weeks.  Thanks to P, on her blog "The Way I Sew It", I found something that should work with the charms squares I received last weekend.  I've got things cut and plan to spend the evening sewing.