The last three months of 2024 have been particularly busy for us. We enjoyed family gatherings for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my brother’s wedding. We took a trip to Minneapolis to see Ruby and a trip to Pella to see Finn. And Hank spent two nights with us while his parents celebrated their fifth anniversary. In October we took a 12-day bus trip with our good friends, Leon and Jeanette, to see the beautiful fall colors in the New England states. On that trip we also got a bit wet on the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls, reacquainted ourselves with the pilgrims in Plymouth, MA, rode a duck boat to see the sights in Boston, toured the Vanderbilt summer home in Newport, RI, and visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the 911 Memorial, Central Park, and Times Square in New York City. It was a very memorable trip with a lot of great people.
With all of that excitement did I accomplish anything in the sewing room? While I didn’t check anything off of my to-do list, I did complete several small projects that I had added to my list and made progress on a couple others. In addition I stitched 13 customer quilts and nine Quilts of Valor.
Our last stop on the bus trip in October was at the Amana Colonies in Iowa. And lucky for me the bus stopped right at the door of a quilt shop called Heritage Designs. There I picked up two small projects that I made for Christmas gifts. The first was a kit to make small woolen mittens. Once I cut out all of the shapes I used a blanket stitch to attach the front mitten to the back mitten and a whip stitch to add designs to the front. French knots, lazy daisies, and running stitches added additional embellishments. I then included a gift card in each one and gave them to the ladies in my quilting group.
The second project was a pattern of cross-stitched quilt designs that I stitched onto perforated paper and then used double-sided tape to adhere them to a wooden sled. I have made many of these over the years because they are a fun, quick, and easy project. And they are a unique ornament for the Christmas tree. I had thought about just buying some new sleds and using my old pattern but was glad that I bought a pattern with three new designs. I put three of them in my three daughter’s Christmas stockings and added the fourth to the Christmas tree in my sewing room.
Another small project that I finished was a pillowcase that matches the Swoon quilt that I made for Ruby. I found fabric from the same collection - Sincerely Yours by Sherri and Chelsi from Moda - while we were on a Nebraska Passport trip. I have made a number of these pillowcases over the years and they are quick and easy to do.
I was glad to make significant progress on one of my to-do list projects - the Written By The Stars quilt. The top is complete and ready to be loaded onto my long arm frame for quilting. Of course the top needed more than a little seam ripping when I started to put it together and discovered that the star points didn’t line up when I stitched the blocks together into rows. I considered just leaving them as is but knew I wouldn’t be happy with the end result. Luckily I didn’t have to rip out every seam and it was fairly easy to get them lined up. Now I’m looking forward to checking off that project early in 2025.
I have also been working on the stamped cross-stitch quilt blocks that I received from my neighbor. That project is easy to take along on road trips or do when I’m watching TV in the evening. As a result I finished one more of the purple flower blocks and have started on another. The blocks with a circle of flowers is almost complete as there are ten done, five partially done, and two waiting to be started. The third set is still waiting to be assembled into a quilt top.
As you can see I have several projects destined to make their way onto my 2025 to-do list. Stay tuned for the 2024 recap and the 2025 reveal which will be coming your way in a few weeks. In the meantime - Happy New Year!
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