Great mail.......................

In my mail preview I saw a card from Vicki Welsh.  This was my favorite of the three she made this year.  It is so exciting to receive one of her cards.

I did a little rearranging of the cards from the previous 14 years plus the new one.  They are up on my bulletin board year round and I look in that direction while I'm sewing so I'm enjoying them all of the time.

Also in the mail was a new book.  The author contacted me a while ago and asked if she could use the image of one of my quilts in the book she was working on.

If you do a search for her name you will see she is the maker of the gemstone quilts.  Her diamond was the first one I saw.

There is more interesting information on the back of the book.  Click to enlarge.

If you go to her website and click on SHOP you can order the book directly from her.

It was hard to hold the book open with one hand and take the photo with the other hand.  This is my quilt in her book.

I finally got in the mood for baking and made the English Toffee Bars first.  Then I made 2 batches of Chex Mix and mixed the dough for a batch of Kringlas.  It needs to be refrigerated so I will bake them today.

I found a surprise bloom on one of my red-orange cacti.  It was on the side facing the window.  This one was repotted in the summer.  I have another bud ready to open on one of the white with pink edging.  It had already bloomed and then set another bud.

I'm not sure if I'll have any blooms on Christmas.  

The weather forecast is saying we might be in the 50s for Christmas.  It has happened before but is always surprising.

 

Finish #4 for December 2025..................

I started this quilt in 2016 and this post shows the inspiration quilt.  I used the layout and some of the elements in the book and then went off onto my own tangent to finish it.  The center portion hung on a hanger for 9 years waiting for me to figure out end borders to make it rectangular.  I was overthinking it, not realizing it only needed simple end borders.  It is 59.5" x 80".

I found three red Kaffe fabrics that had enough yardage for the back and then I decided to look in one more box.  There I found the teapot fabric, a Liberty fabric colored by Kaffe Fassett.  It is so perfect for this quilt.  It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.  I saved enough Kaffe purple Wood Ear for the binding.

Yesterday I had to fill my gas tank if I was going to drive around enough to keep my van battery charged.  I decided to stop at W*lm*rt on my way home.  Then I had PT at 2 and stopped at the family owned grocery store that is 7 blocks from my house.  I did one load of laundry and just couldn't get enthused about baking too.  Today I should be able to stay home and get busy on the baking.

Bright and soft......................

The binding is finished on this medallion quilt and full photos and stats will be on tomorrow's post.  The repairman was supposed to come between 2 and 4 yesterday and he got here at 5.  By 6:30 he had the oven and the dryer both working normally.

While waiting for him to arrive, I pressed all 10 flannel pieces and cut the squares.  Last night I got the top sewn together.  It is 32" x 40" so a 1 yard piece will be enough for a backing.

Jack Frost only did a little painting on my kitchen windows with our frigid weather over the weekend.  It's all melted away now.

Now that I have an oven working again, I'll be spending a couple days baking....and doing laundry with a dryer that isn't screeching at me.

 

Still hand stitching.................

I worked on the hand stitching on the binding of this medallion quilt a few times yesterday.  I have about 40" left to stitch.

I have only one cactus currently in bloom.  This orange one is so pretty.  I don't see buds on any of the others in the living room and dining room.  I have one on the kitchen windowsill that is 4 pieces that broke off of one plant and I rooted them and planted them all in one pot.  There is one bud on one of them so I hope it gets to the blooming stage.

It was -4 yesterday morning and got up to 8 degrees during the day.  Relief is on the way.  6 of the next 9 days are supposed to be above freezing.

Binding started.................

I got the binding sewn onto the medallion quilt and got 1 1/2 sides hand stitched last night.  This one should take me 3 evenings to finish.

A couple weeks ago I got a package from Nann.  She went to Kay Sorenson's estate sale and got these 2 fabrics for me.  She knew that Kay and I were friends.  What she didn't know is that the fabric on the left is one of my very favorite African fabrics.  The one on the right is an Australian fabric by M&S textiles.  It is a lot different than their current fabrics and I wonder if it was one of the early fabrics by that company.

 A reader, Barbara, had received a box of fabrics from an estate sale and there were some Nancy Crow fabrics in it that she wondered if I would like.  I got them yesterday.  I have never seen this print before so I was very happy to add it to the NC stash.  My local quilt shop at the time stopped carrying the NC fabrics after the first few lines.

This was the other fabric in the box.  I had a piece in both rust and burgundy in this print but had never seen the blue one.  It's a little more of a dark gray-blue than it looks in this photo.

 

Quilt trimmed, table piece finished.................

Another quilt is back from my longarm friend Robin.  I got it trimmed yesterday afternoon.

Since I needed to turn on the iron, I also pressed the binding fabric and cut the 7 strips needed.  It is Kaffe's Woodear fabric.

I also cut the binding strips for my Christmas table runner and got it sewn on and since it is for me, I hand finished the binding.  It is 14.75" x 34.5".

I also finished the second dishcloth from this color ball of yarn.  15 dishcloths have left my home since the beginning of November so I'm playing catch up to fill the basket again.

While the iron was on I also pressed this striped flannel for the back of this baby quilt.  It will be the next one I baste to prepare for quilting.

I also chose this pinkish red check flannel for the back of the flannel tumbler baby quilt.  I need to press it and find a piece of batting for this one.

When I was cleaning the area around my dryer (for the repairman) I found this Raggedy Andy outfit.  It was for the first Raggedy Ann or Andy doll that I made, when my son was little (he's 64 now).  The dog we had in the 1970s totally destroyed the doll but didn't hurt the suit.  I'm not sure why I am keeping this other than for nostalgic reasons.

Finish # 3 for December 2025

This quilt with Kaffe collective fabrics was finished on Wednesday.  It is 52.5" x 74".  It has 80/20 batting in it and it was quilted by Robin Diaz.  It is a nice throw quilt size.

The back is three strips of Kaffe collective fabric, leftovers from making backings for other quilts.

I treated myself to a fat quarter pack of Tim Holtz neutrals and 2 half yards.  I think I'll look through my Stonehenge fabrics to pair with them in a 16 patch quilt.  Or maybe a quilt of all triangles.  Or maybe Sawtooth stars and 16 patches.

I quilted my Christmas table runner last night with gold metallic thread.  You never know if it will be a good day with metallic thread so ditch quilting was best in case I had trouble.  I changed to a topstitch needle with a big eye to give it a chance to work well.  It did break 4 times but not until I was almost to the end.  I'll get it trimmed today ad cut the binding.