GO! Whew

Yup, I got it done. There I was Christmas Eve quilting the table runner -- very simple in the ditch along the sashing. And there I was Christmas morning adding the binding. But, yup, done! (Or done enough. I may add more quilting later).

A little closer look. I do love those Jim Shore Santas.

And because I am always sewing on Christmas Eve, a Star Wars zipper bag:

Then a zipper bag with a vinyl window to show off those utterly adorable hedgehogs:

Another bag with a window that is all about the pretty blue fabric:

All together now!

So, there it is. Whew! I managed to get the table runner on the table in the nick of time and got my GO! Sew project in for the week. Now to decide what next week will bring . . .

GO! On

It's a keep on keeping on kind of week. Finishing up the semester madness. Very little time for sewing. But since I've been lucky enough (ha!) to have had middle of the night insomnia several nights running, and since last night after counting my breaths for an hour trying to get back to sleep, I finally gave up and went down to the sewing room . . . I managed to get the top to the AccuQuilt GO! Drunkard's Path table runner done!

One of the things I really like about the drunkard's path block is that, once its made, I can trim it square with some wiggle room on what size I make the blocks.  In this case, given the table top I need the table runner to fit, I trimmed the square circle units to 6 1/2 inches square (6 inch finished).

Now I just need to find the time to quilt it before Friday. Along with all those other little sewing projects I'd still like to get done. Sure I can . . .  my capacity for self-delusion about how much I can get done rises in direct proportion to how much closer Christmas celebration gets!

GO! Minis and More Christmas

Well, my swap mini quilt made it to its destination. Whew! I was worried there for a few days. This quilt used the Equilateral Triangles (which I've noted before serendipitously fits the Pyramid Triangle foundation from Miniatures in Minutes). So, first, little triangles:

The challenge was to create a monochromatic quilt. My partner said she liked orange, triangles, and a light touch on the quilting. So, here it is:

The pieced center section measures 7" by 8" finished. I do love minis!

And in order to keep up with doing something each week using the GO! (though I was sick, sick, sick, this last week), I pulled out a pretty Christmas charm pack.

And ran it through the AccuQuilt GO! 3 1/2" finished Drunkard's Path die -- because look at how well the charm fits the die!

Just a wee bit of fabric waste.

It's a start.

Christmas decorations are, bit by bit, making an appearance -- which always baffles Cooper.

But we did get our lovely wooded tree from Festive Tree put up. We just LOVE this tree. Our living room is small -- avoiding the space hogging of a real tree is great. Plus this speaks to my own true love's Scandinavian roots.  It is much prettier than this picture does justice!

 Meanwhile, is it white enough out there?

GO! Ornaments

Sometimes using the GO! is just a small piece of the whole, but I still turn to it for a quick fix. Case in point: wee Christmas stockings.

These are from a Miniature Quilts magazine. Anyone else remember those? I print the pattern onto a leave-in foundation since it adds a nice bit of firmness to the stockings.

How do I use a GO! die? Well, those narrow strips finish at a half inch wide. I just took a bunch of my old Christmas fabric scraps and piled them on the 1 inch die strip. One pass through the GO! and I had all I needed. (By the time I took the photo below though, I had already made a bunch of those stockings, so these are the bits that were left).

One stocking all done, one needing backing and lining. Almost there.

 

I was part of an ornament swap, and that group of six above were the ones that got sent away.  I'm still waiting for one of the ornaments headed my way to get here and then I'll show pictures of what I received in the swap.  (So, so cute!)

And then, because I need a few more ornaments for gifts, I did another set of the AccuQuilt GO! reindeer and dove ornaments. Years ago I made up a tutorial on these that you can find here. Instead of cutting out squares though, this time I cut out paper shapes from the dies and then laid them out on the fabric aiming for as many shapes as I could get.

I roughly cut around the shape leaving just a smidgen of room and then run it through the GO! It takes a little more time than just cutting out 5 1/2" squares, but then I do get more ornaments from one of the 11 inch squares. And I won't lie -- it takes a goodly amount of time to lay out all those snippets and fuse them down. After all that work, I want as much return as I can get!

This is what I got from my weekend ventures: four doves, two reindeer, and a little heart. The color in this photo is really sad: the actual color is a little richer, a little more gold and cream.

These need ribbon and a button added. The ones below are finished.

So pretty and elegant.

I'd be showing pictures of the mini I made for the swap but it hasn't been delivered yet. Uh-oh. Hello, priority mail? The delivery date on the receipt said (last) Thursday, then the website said Friday, but no quiltie arrived. I have my fingers crossed for tomorrow delivery.

Isn't it nerve wracking sending quilts through the mail? I still always worry a bit. I did have a mini quilt get permanently lost in the mail once. That was very, very sad.

Swapping Minis

My Mini QT Swap quilt has arrived.  Isn't it gorgeous?

The challenge was to make a monochromatic quilt. We informed our partners of colors we liked, and I mentioned taupe as a favorite for me. This is perfect.

My partner hand-dyed the fabrics (they started out as a Kona white) using walnuts! She got the different shadings from leaving the fabric in longer to get deeper degrees of colors. Amazing.

She passed on some fabrics bits as well and I will have to decide on the perfect use for them, don't you think?

And in the package, she included some steampunk fabrics and a big old hunk of Hershey's chocolate.  I do believe my husband, bless him, was most impressed with the size of that chocolate bar.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting confirmation that the mini I sent to her has arrived, so I can't post it here yet. I can post a wee peek though. It's what I made up with that stack of  AccuQuilt GO! cut triangles I showed a few weeks back.

I can only hope she enjoys the quilt I sent her as much as I love the one she sent me!