Santa!

Despite being massive excited about Santa coming to her preschool next week, Sophie more or less wanted absolutely nothing to do with the fat man in red today. That is my lap beneath her - she needed some reassurance. The boys, on the other hand were very excited to rattle off their Christmas wishes for Santa - all 30 or 4o of them! We also went and cut down a tree. Today was the first day in nearly 2 weeks that was tollerable to go outside. We've had dreadfully cold weather lately, unseasonably cold for December. And tomorrow they are predicting 2-3" of rain! Sounds like a good tree decorating (and sewing!) day.

I snapped this only because it's a little humor of our times. Who'd ever think that Santa Claus would use a cell phone??!

I have finally started quilting this quilt. I put it on the frame yesterday and have no idea how long it will take. I am allocating next week and 1-2 days the next week for it. After Christmas, I have a few customer quilts I'll need to attend to. I am 6 hours into it now, and have done parts of the outermost 3 borders. Nothing is completed on account of my inability to decide fully what to do. I like the cathedral-style windows done with the curved cross-hatching, but I am stymied as to how to quilt the area with the checkerboard (in the center of them). Ideas??? Should I continue the cathedral windows right over the checkerboard, or change pattern?

I am also basting a bit more than usual in case I need to take it off the frame and finish areas later. These Northcott Stonehenge fabrics are really pretty, but are proving to be hugely difficult to quilt because my threads are mostly coordinating (since the quilt is very busy itself), and it is impossible to see where I have stitched. The curved cross-hatching around the squares on point in the brown is done with a 1.5" circle template. It is tiny, and the edges of the template are not as smooth as I'd like. My fingers are wicked sore after 2 hours of manipulating that. I know, I know, you cannot really see that from the picture -- Another hazzard of coordinating threads! Eventually, the stitching will be visible (it will won't it??!).

I played with a metallic gold thread today that I ended up ripping out. I thought it might be a good thread to stitch in the area that is gray and brown. It was too tricky to feather with so I am guessing I will select a more muted tone, perhaps a softer brown or who knows. I have left areas unquilted that I just cannot quite figure out what to do with or cannot see well enough to stitch!

Stay tuned, I will periodically post pictures of this quilt's progress the next couple weeks. Hopefully it will progress quickly and without incident!