Happy New Year!!! The last NewFO of 2013, for better or worse.

It's that time of year again. The pages of my calendar have exhausted themselves and a new one is ready to go up on the wall tomorrow. Switching out from a Hobbit calendar this year (my but some of those Middle Earth characters are lovely to look at--they saved the best for last, Legolas is December!) to a beautiful Patchwork Place Quilt Calendar for 2014. I see some great ideas brewing already looking at those lovely quilts and patterns to boot! Yippee!

I'm linking up with Barb at Cat Patches for the final NewFO 2013 Challenge. Thanks again for having this great idea to keep us thinking outside the box to make new projects. And for making it okay to not always finish them! Although my closet shelf is looking a little weary from the projects waiting to be quilted... Maybe that will be my challenge for 2014, to get those quilts quilted so I can restock my pin box without having to always go out and buy more pins. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that. LOL!

Earlier this month I had a booth at a local monthly Honey Beezz flea market that features booths with everything from antiques, collectibles, neon signs, jewelery, crafts, and, yes,  quilts. We're new in town and there is a growing interest as more vendors sign up each month. I'm planning to get busy making more small things like pot holders and mug rugs, in addition to having a few quilts on display. I'd like to make more memory quilts on commission, so I'll be starting a very special one for myself in memory of my brother who died of AIDS nearly 19 years ago, and will use it as my display. Time will tell...





These little mug rugs were fun to make. The stockings are 4" pieced blocks with the letter to Santa fussy cut for fun. The little nine-patches are just that LITTLE! Those were 1" strips, so the finished blocks are only 3/4" each. Not sure I'll do that again, but it was fun playing. 

I also had a tree hung with several lace covered ornaments that I made on my Brother Quattro 6000D embroidery machine. I love making them and people seem to really enjoy the gorgeous and rich look of something that is really quite simple to make. My son actually asked me if it wasn't cheating, letting the machine do all the work. Maybe, but nah!

I joined in with thousands of other quilters on Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt this month too. I got the first clue all cut out and maybe a dozen units made, cut most of clue 2, and stopped there, being overwhelmed with finals, Christmas and now being sick. I vow to get back to it next week when I'm feeling human again!

At a Sit and Stitch Saturday in December, I helped several gals figure out the Stack and Slash technique that I have used several times in recent years. I used a bunch of Christmas fabrics out of my stash and will be sashing my blocks in the deep blue with snowflakes, using Marti Michell's Sashing Stars template set to make gold corner posts & star points. I'm not done playing with the block layout yet, so this one will definitely be for next Christmas.

Finally, I had found in my Facebook stream a pattern that I loved. Designed by 17-year-old Doug Leko, this my version of his free pattern Christmas Packages. I love how it turned out and now that it's pinned (yes, the box is nearly empty again), it's time to get yet another one quilted! I'm thinking about ditching the blocks and ribbon cross pieces, and then doing FMQ bows with tendrils down into each the body of each package.

I was busier than I thought, wrapping up finals, celebrating my 60th birthday by sharing a Skyscraper rootbeer float with my grandkids and celebrating Christmas with all of my kids and grandkids. I'm afraid New Year's Eve is pretty boring here this year. Two days after Christmas I got this year's bug and am still feeling poorly, but a little better each day. Instead of some bubbly, I'll be celebrating with my Robutissin, a full vaporizer, and a quilt in front the TV watching Doctor Who. Wishing you all blessings in the new year!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz