FIONA MAE DONE

 I named the recent Free Motion Challenge with Angela Walters 'Fiona Mae'.  I finished the quilting over the weekend and today I got the binding made and put on.  It's done!

GET IT DONE SUNDAY

 I finished my Daisy yesterday, and today I finishsed more projects.

It started with getting the last of the quilting done on my Free Motion Quilting Challenge quilt, or Fiona Mae as I named it.  I actually quilted some feathers into the last two corners.  And they aren't completely horrible.  Next, the binding for it.

Then, while attending a Brave Patch zoom meeting about the Daisys, I finished sewing together the HST to make the last of the little stars needed for Opening Night quilt.  Now, on to putting together the bigger stars for that quilt.

DAISY DONE

 I finally finished piecing the Improv Daisy.  It still needs to be squared up.  I tried doing that, but it didn't work out.  It's still a lot bigger on one end than the other.

I've ordered a laser square - it should be here next Tuesday.  I think I'll clear out the floor, put it down and see if I can get it to lay flat.

NEW CHRISTMAS

 This year's Christmas was a combination of old traditions and new.

We had an early lunch of turkey sandwiches and pecan yams so we could attend a new tradition of meeting on zoom with family.

I did this horrible sketch while we were talking.

Afterwards, Darrell and I drove downtown and meandered about.  We stopped at Pike Place Market for a bit and walked around. I put up one of my stickers.

Then we ordered dinner from Shanghai Garden and drove to the International District to pick it up.  We took it home and watched the 1947 version, with Danny Kaye, of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

 

TURKEY DINNER AND A MOVIE

I made cornbread stuffing with cranberries and pecans.  And, I started a turkey breast in the slow cooker and after several hours I moved it to the oven because it was still raw!  I don't know how, but everything turned out pretty good and on time.  We had bought garlic parmesan mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy,  and pecan yams from PCC.  I pulled some of our green beans from the freezer and sautéed them with mushrooms and onions.

Everything was great.  

We took our dinner plates downstairs and watched the new movie, Midnight Sky with George Clooney on Netflix while we overate our dinners.

Earlier, we went for a nice morning walk around the neighborhood.  We went by the Barton Street Pea Patch.  

I did this drawing of the pig that lives there with my new watercolors on the inside cover of my new Etchr sketchbook.

WIND AND RAIN WATERCOLORS

 I happened across these handmade watercolors by Jazper Stardust on Etsy.  It is his Wind and Rain collection.  I thought them perfect for the skies around here.  So I bought them for myself!

LITTLE STAR DAYS

 

MORE FMQ

 A little more work done on my Rulers Challenge quilt.

HOMEMADE CLAPPER

 Darrell made a clapper for me.

FMQ RULERS QUILTING

 I finally started quilting on the pre-printed quilt top from Angela Walter's and Quilting Is My Therapy's new challenge - Rulers.

I waited until all of the videos were out on YouTube because I'm doing it on my longarm, Eduard.  I wanted to start at the top and work my way down - Angela doesn't do that in the videos - she's all over the place.

BACK TO DAISY

 I didn't work on it yesterday, but I'm back to working on my Improv Daisy.  It's big pieces and curves.  At the end of the day I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the top.  Woohoo!  But, if the center comes together it will be a miracle!

HOLIDAY CARDS SENT

 I spent the morning addressing envelopes and writing in our holiday cards while he wrote the letter about our year.  I guess the days of me making my own cards are over.  But never say never.

I even got them into the mail today.

LITTLE BLUE STAR

 I thought I'd work on something simple while attending this week's Brave Patch meeting.  I pulled out the Opening Night stuff and finished off another little star.  I think I've only got three more to do.  

NEW CAT PERCH

 We got a new cat perch for the front window.  It has cushy pillows in rattan baskets.  I think the cats approve.

We gave our old one to Nicole and Victoria.  They have a new condo and a new kitty.  Here is Yuki and Theo enjoying their perch.

SEATTLE MQG SEW-IN

 We had the last of the year Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Sew-in on zoom this afternoon.  It was fun, as always.

I was finishing up working on my Bias Strip Daisy project when the meet up started.  I had been working on it most of the morning and made some good progress.

I put it aside at this point and worked on making more Bowtie blocks from yesterday's Joe project while we talked about trivial stuff and enjoyed each other's company.

JOE WORKSHOP 7.0

 Here we are with the 7th Quilt Freedom Workshop.

Today we made Bowtie blocks.

We always end with a song.

WORKING ON IMPROV DAISY

 Our Brave Patch community is currently working on their Improv Daisy patterns.  So, I got mine out and started working on it again.

I had stopped because I was stumped on  how to proceed.  I got some advice and decided to just do one bit at a time and not worry about the whole thing.

That worked better for me and I was able to make some headway.  I've got the top left quarter sewn together.

CHRISTMAS RUNNER

 I saw a picture of this design as a pillow - one block - and thought that would make a really nice Christmas tablerunner for our front entry.  I had to draft the design and print the little 2-1/4" squares onto foundation papers.

It takes 64 squares for each block - and it took me a couple of days to get this far with one block, 18" x 18".  I need three to make a tablerunner.  I stopped, I have other things I should be doing instead.  Oh, well.

I discovered, after I had made all of these little blocks, that the printer had copied some of the pages at different sizes.  I don't understand that, at all.

LITTLE STARS

 Making little stars...

Only nine more to go...

NEW PROJECT

 I've started on a new project - a Tula Pink quilt called Opening Night using her new line of fabrics, Line Work.  It's a lot of black and whites and some additions to her True Colors blending fabrics.

I cut out all of the colored fabric being used to make a bunch of little, 4", stars.

Then I cut out the background pieces.

And sewed them all together in the '8 at a time' method of making HST squares.

Now each one needs to be cut apart and the seam pressed open.

I got one set done - that's enough for today.

FLOATING STAIRS TOP

 I worked on my project from the Floating Stairs workshop most of the day and got it all put together.  I made some serious mistakes where the seams don't line up like they should.  But, I think for a first time it's not too bad.   The important thing is that I learned a lot about how to do it and what not to do.  I definitely need more practice at curves and y-seams.

I got all of the background attached to the 'drunkards path' squares, then we went out to lunch at Coastline Burgers.  Well, actually, we ordered online, picked it up and took our lunch to the lookout at Hamilton Viewpoint Park off California Avenue.

I got one seam where everything came together right.  Yea!

Back in the studio after lunch, I attended a Brave Patch meeting where I foundation pieced a lot of the scraps from this project while listening.  Afterwards I sewed everything together on the top.  It's done.  

The background is Kona Prussian Blue, the orange is Kona Nectarine.  The dark purple is Kona Geranium and the lighter one is Kona Petal.

BLACK FRIDAY SEWING DAY

 Not much happening on this Black Friday.  

I was sewing.  I worked on my Floating Stairs project from the workshop I took last weekend.

First I finished paper piecing the 'stairs'.

Then I worked on getting the background pieced into the middle - not as easy as she made it look! It's all one piece. I had to go back to the recording of the workshop and look for the part where she did this.  I took out my first attempt and tried it again with better results.  Not perfect, but better. 

I got the background sewn into all of the 'stair' parts, then started making the 'drunkard's path' squares.  Or should I say rectangles.