TBT ~ A Year of Quilts

Carol here ~

On this last day of 2020, I thought I would show you all the quilts we (mostly) completed in 2020.  Some of them were already pieced and just needed quilting and some of them (all of Dan's 'Rona Collection) were pieced and quilted this year.  

Here they all are piled on the bench seat in our bedroom

2020 Quilts

I think the first one to be finished was RETREAT

I Love My Hat

Dan here ~

Today I am thinking about a song from the 60’s from Donavan, an English folk singer. He sang a song about how much he loved various articles of his wardrobe, his shirt, shoes etc.

You can listen to the song here ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miAVhZ6rKFo

Well 35 plus years or so ago I received a hat at Christmas from my brother and sister-in-law that came from LL Bean. I have worn it every year since then, and it looks it. 

Winter?

Carol here ~

Okay, what's with the weather?  We have absolutely no snow.  Very strange for the end of December.

We gifted four of our family members with snowshoes for Christmas thinking it would be a fun thing to do together, yet apart.  Doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.

Here's our grands at our Garage Christmas ~

Parker, Evan, Kailey, Jakob

Certainly not our usual day together but at least we got to see each other for a little while.

Shoot, I ran out of fabric!

Dan here~

Oops, I did not manage to get the quilt top Rona 7 completed. I did manage to get 3 sides of the border on and many of the sections of the final pieced border ready. 

BUT….I RAN OUT OF THE BACKGROUND FABRIC.  Don’t you hate it when that happens? 

Most of you follow patterns, that gives you an advantage over the way I make most of my quilt tops. When you follow patterns made by others, they not only give you the piecing and assembling instructions, they give you yardage requirements. My method does not do this, unless I take the time and do all the calculations before I start. I have no real idea of how much I need of each fabric.

You’d never know it but I’m lazy. Most of the quilt top was to be scrap. The background fabric had a “good” amount left on the bolt, I thought I’d be fine.

Well, after I designed the border, I began to worry. Was I going to have enough? I had already worried that I would not have enough of the red that I used in the Lemoyne Star blocks in the body of the quilt. I made it by the skin of my teeth ~ this is all I had left.

I had already substituted a different red of the same pattern into the 4-patch blocks and used it in the Lemoyne Star border corner blocks. That was not going to work on the background fabric that came up short. Having no idea how short I would be, I went online and found some in a shop in Kentucky. I ordered 2 yards. With the shipping delays people have been posting on social media I am keeping my fingers crossed. Tracking says I should get it tomorrow. I decided to continue until I completely ran out.

The Christmas cactus beside Carol’s iron and cutting station is in bloom. They were not real happy this fall as they usually spend their summers outside, but this year that did not happen. I have 3 of them, this is the only one currently in bloom. This one is happier now that it has a new pot and some new soil.

Cross your fingers my fabric arrives so I can finish 'Rona 7 and show you how the top came out, hopefully on Friday.

Our Christmas

Carol here ~

We celebrate Christmas with the family on Christmas Eve Day.  We started doing this when our daughters acquired spouses ~ Christmas Eve Day with us, Christmas Day with the other side of the family.

Today our Christmas is going to be a whole lot different than previous years as I am sure your Holiday Celebrations will be as well.  

We are headed to our daughter Vanessa's in Readfield, ME.  (about an hour from here) Daughter Erin and fam will be coming down from Rangeley.  We are having a brief get together in the garage ~ just long enough to exchange gifts and maybe eat a cookie or two.  

The kids have cookie eating all figured out ~ pull mask down, pop a cookie, pull mask up!

We are keeping it brief, hopefully keeping everyone safe also.  

Please do whatever you can to keep yourself and your family safe and healthy.  We need this pandemic to end!

Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Weekend!  See you back here on Monday.....

This and That

Carol here ~

Yesterday was one of those days....busy, busy, busy.  First off I got a big pot of apples on the stove to simmer for applesauce.  Our grands love Mamie's applesauce so want to bring them some when we get together for our abbreviated Christmas.

Also started the ice maker.  We have a countertop ice maker as we don't have one attached to the fridge.  It's pretty much an all day chore to fill the ice container in the freezer.

Once I got those going I headed up to the Quilting Loft.  I finished up the quilt I talked about in Monday's post and got it off the machine.  Then I continued stitching on a topper for granddaughter Kailey's dresser in her room.  

Meanwhile, the apples were simmering and the ice cubes were a-making which meant many trips up and down the stairs to stir the apples and empty the basket in the ice maker.  I had over 3000 steps before we went for our walk!

Here is the quilt from Monday's post after I got it quilted.  It turned out pretty good.

Rona 7 In The Works

Dan here ~

‘Rona 7 required the thinking cap. In my head I needed something with a different layer of complexity. At first I thought I would use a V-block star like I did in ‘Rona 6 only this time using some of the box full of 4-patch units in the corners. Started to assemble a block… did not like it. 

Box of 4-patches