Twas the Day Before the Day Before Christmas

Yesterday I stayed home. It was the first day of Christmas vacation for Audrey, so I thought we would have a "sleep in" day as a treat. Well, I slept in all the way to 7:30 - she made it to the crack of noon. I didn't intend to get up that early, but the cats wanted to go outside and wouldn't take no for an answer. Since I was up, I decided that I would go ahead and start sewing. I finished the quilting and binding on this quilt.

Here's a little backstory about this project. I am crazy enough to cut leftover scraps into 1-1/2" squares. I have a bucket of these things. I have already made a full sized quilt using these things. I keep a little container of them next to my sewing machine and use them as leaders and enders when I chain piece other things (ala Bonnie - see her explanation). I decided I had a bunch of pairs needing to be made into something, so I dug into the neutral basket and cut 5-1/2" squares and framed them with the little 1" squares. Seventy-two blocks later, I then had to figure out how to add 1" squares to the setting triangles and corners. Whew! Got that done. Had planned to put borders on it, but I was really tired of this project by now and decided the top was big enough to be called finished. ALL made out of my stash!

Then I began looking for backing. Since my yardage closet is such a mess, I blew off finding just the right piece (in just the right size....) and again used a hint from Bonnie's web site on using scraps (you'll have to scroll down quite a bit to find the paragraph on pieced backings) and pieced the back using 10-1/2" squares of icky juvenile fabric that I would never use any where else.

It even has scrappy binding! I dug through my string piecing bin (everybody has one of those, right?) and pulled out pieces of leftover binding. I feel so virtuous about making something out of nothing and using my stash, but unfortunately, it didn't make a dent.

After putting the quilt in the wash, I began making doll bedding for Audrey's violin teacher's daughter for Christmas. Margaret came in the shop on Wednesday afternoon desparately looking for bedding for an American Doll bunk bed. Could I recommend some place for her to find something suitable? Sucker that I am, I told her that I could probably whip up what she needed in trade for a couple of private lessons---3 days before Christmas, no less. I'm all about bartering!

I first made two little ticking mattresses.

Then I made two doll quilts using our 30's happy stack. Backing and binding were found in the stash. Margaret just came and picked them up and she's delighted! I'd also like to thank Debbie H. for being such a good quilt holder....

I also roasted a chicken for dinner, did 3 loads of laundry, cleaned out the refrigerator, swept the kitchen and laundry room and watched a movie last night with my husband (well, I sort of watched the movie....I had my new wireless laptop on my lap and was dinking around with photos for classes on the website). It was almost like being a real housewife! I told Russ that if I stayed home more often, I could be really dangerous. He looked scared. For those of you who don't know me, I NEED a housewife 'coz I'm certainly not cut out to be one! But I did get a small sense of satisfaction out of being so productive.

Susan