Snow So Sew

A panograph from the new deck.

It started snowing at our house at 10AM   

One of those rare snows with lots of huge puffy flakes.  I wanted to just sit and take it in.

But I have been trying to catch up on making backings and bindings for the recent tops I've finished.

I have three large and one lap size.

Made this for the 88 by 88" churn dash.  Also cut and sewed the fabric for binding which is the same as the  inner border

This is for the Square in the square patriotic - used some leftover blocks to enlarge the width.

I had some navy binding already made - hurrah.

I made a strip of 15" blocks to make this 99 by 99"backing for the red quilt top that I just finished.  

I will use a red binding for this.

It was about 6:30 when I finished.

  I took down part of the outside lights this week (the ones I could easily reach).  Kind of glad these were still up as they looked so magical in the snow!

Sew Day with Molly

Molly came over for a sew day before she heads back to RPI in NYS.  

Her time for sewing while at school is limited but she loves the creative aspect of it.

We decided to just jump in and pull out one of my UFO's and sew.

We threw the blocks on the wall and started from there.

Oh my - we need the lint brush before lunch out at Agave and a short trip to Ladybug Quilt shop in town.

We took turns choosing and cutting while the other sewed and trimmed.

This is where we ended and went to dinner with Tracey and Paul in Raleigh.  Maybe I'll make a few more blocks and make it big enough for a donation quilt - hmm?

Made four more blocks and I hope to get this sewed together when I sew with C & S.

East Patriotic Quilt - Square in a Square

My sewing goal this year is to make more donation quilts.

So I started with a scrappy Patriotic.

This is such an easy block to cut and piece.

  I used 2.5" squares for the center nine patch. 

I cut (2) 5.5"squares  cut once diagonally for the first surround.  Then I trimmed the block to 9".

Cut (2) 7.25" squares cut once diagonally for the second surround. 

 Sew and trim pressed block to 13".

I will make 4 more blocks and it will be 50 by 62.5".

Snow Day - Sew Day

We are experiencing a very rare prolonged cold spell here.  I don't recall the temperature being  in the teens for several nights in a row before.  And then to have the temps below freezing during the day and snow too just adds insult to injury! 

I love the shadows on the snow at 2PM.

I was waiting for the serviceman from the gas company - my tankless water heater that hangs on the back of the house froze again on Wednesday morning.  

 (The guys working on my deck were nice enough to thaw it for me).

More insulation added inside and outside of the heater.

So I have hot water today - Saturday night will be the real test. 

After getting that solved - I could concentrate on my sewing.  I love this top.  It is so much better looking than this picture.  The reds vary from block to block which is hard to see here.

It is too big to display the whole top on the carpet.  

It is 90 by 90" but so much fun to make (except for sewing the blocks together)

thanks to my big stash of nine patches.

I also took my tree down yesterday while waiting for the serviceman.  

I took a few pictures of some of my favorite ornaments   - some new this year.

 And of course this guy has been on my tree for 56 years.

All 25 Blocks Finished

I finished sewing the 100 blocks for this quilt about 3:30PM.

Actually I sewed them in sets of four and sewed them into 18" blocks. 

I laid them out in five rows.

I even had time to sew them together in one direction.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish this top.  I can't wait to see how it will look.

My daughter just sent me this picture she took on Christmas afternoon.

She had received a new camera and this was one of her first shots.