Preparing for the Holidays

As the days get closer to Christmas, I get a little more frantic and scattered.  The things on my plate are becoming more and the plate seems to be shrinking.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know by now that I am not a Christmas girl.  OK, I really do not like it at all.  The days are too short. It is too cold.  I have way too many presents to buy.  Nobody in my family needs a dang thing, but yet we just have that expectation that we must find them the most perfect gift.  Most years this falls short of goal by a mile.  Two of my kids are testing the water by dropping hints to my one last believer that Santa is not real.  Once that news is out, seriously, what is left?!?  Thanksgiving is right around the corner, kicking off this holiday season, and we are expecting snow tomorrow.  Just let me burrow into a nice warm hole and reappear in January, please!

Despite of dealing with a time of year that I just don't feel a need for, I have had the pleasure this year of having quite a few simpler edge-to-edge clients.  Usually I have stacks of custom quilts to get done, which is stressful.  But the E2E's are faster, more predictable, and now and then, I just like to do them.  Here's a stack of three that went home yesterday -- just the tip of the iceberg.  Two more large ones will be done next week after kids go back to school.  Boy, those 3 weeks will fly quickly I am sure.  Never fear, though, I know I have a couple custom quilt clients that have been might patient with me...your's will be done very soon!

I took a few days to put my quilt back onto the machine to work on the ivory silk areas.  It is deceptive -- this is an 82" quilt, so there is a LOT of ivory silk!  I also did the quilting on the outer green ribbons, all 56 pieces of them!  They are taking shape nicely.

I clearly hope to have this ready to go to a spring show, but I have spent so much time on it so far, I will wait if it means getting the small details just right.  I have some areas to pick and fix, as usual. The dark green border is probably one of my favorite borders I have stitched yet.  To me, it conveys the formal-ness of this quilt, as well as the fun of flowers and ribbons.

The center square still needs just a touch of quilting, but nothing too time consuming.  I am mostly pleased with how it is looking.

The parallel lines are 1/8" apart, and I really thought this would be the end of me.  Hindsight is always my biggest teacher.  Message to self...avoid tight parallel lines when the lines of the blocks might not be perfect.  Figures.!

There is a little area on these corners that still needs dense quilting to make the design pop.  I'd say it's not a big job, but that is likely BS  that I'd have to retract at some point!  It will get done at some point.

Even with the little imperfections, which I am constantly thinking how I can mask, I am mostly pleased with how the background filler came out.  Next year hindsight will probably be telling me that parallel lines must be parallel, but today I will ignore that thought.  A year and over 750 hours of work is coming closer to fruition.

But now, my kitchen is calling.  First dinner, and then hopefully some pie.  Today is the day my hubby gets a pie from work every year.  Better be chocolate!