Holiday Time Off

Christmas is over and we are about to start the new year. I am blessed to have this time off for the first time in my career and I am loving it. I am putting together the block for the CQJP 2013 challenge. I have hunted and gathered so much material for crazy quilting and to date that has yielded so few CQ blocks. I am hoping this will get me moving. And, of course, I am still trying to reduce stash.

     I have not abandoned traditional quilting yet. I finished a quilt top today and began the machine quilting on another. No pictures to post today, but hopefully in a few days.

     Along the stash reduction lines, I found a pattern to make rag rugs out of scraps with a crochet hook.  So, off I go cutting 2" strips and rolling them into balls. I'm filling a small gift bag with the fabric strip balls until I am ready to begin crocheting. This should go fast and I hope it will be fun.

     Time to feed the animals. More soon with pics.

     

Wow, it has been so long since I posted that I really am starting all over. I have continued to look for things to use up my bountiful stash and to complete unfinished projects. Then lately I have stalled out a little. I needed a jolt to get my creative juices flowing, so I have registered (I hope--I read the email a little late and may not make it in) for a Crazy Quilt challenge. At any rate, I feel the need to at least journal some of my work and try to get back on course.
     Current projects that I am working on:
1. A quilt for Elijah, one of my newer grandsons back in the midwest. This is a scrappy project that used stash fabric (other than the sashing, binding, and backing--tee hee). I have had the pattern for quite some time, so I feel good about finally using that, too.
2. A quilt for a friend's mother who was widowed a little more than a year ago. Again, using mostly stash fabrics and a pattern that had been laying around for a while. This is sandwiched and basted, in the quilt frame awaiting me to sit down and quilt it.
3. A quilt made for donation that is sandwiched, basted, and awaiting machine quilting.

So it sounds like the last thing I need to do is start a CQ project, but I can't help myself.
Here is a little bowl I made from clothesline and scraps. A very addicting type of project. I found the book "It's A Wrap" by Susan Breier at the Paducah quilt show last spring.

Stay tuned.....