Christmas Gifts!

Cushions for my bible study leaders:



Two for each couple.



I've only known C&K a couple of years - they got married at the end of the first year I knew them, and I gave them a quilt for their wedding. Late, of course, because these things happen!

But the pillow with the flying geese was supposed to match their quilt (which is a double irish chain)...and didn't quite. The other pillow is made from some autumnal charm squares I bought back when I first discovered online fabric stores...



J&C I've known since I was a baby. Or, rather, they've been family friends for years. I'm five months older than their oldest daughter and we were in school together for years.

And now the gift for a Secret Santa swap!



It's a prototype, really - I kind of got things mixed around and put the flap on the the front instead of the back... Oops.

It's a feature! [insert computer programming joke here about bugs vs. features]

Hopefully they're able to use these gifts. I'm not fond of things that gather dust...

wait, it's December already?!?

Sadly, I have done very little quilting in the last ten days, thanks to writing deadlines looming on the horizon.

Not that I'm managing to meet those deadlines, either. :(

Anyway, this is the state of the quilting room:

Those patches up the back? Are cushion-covers for one set of bible study leaders. I have yet to piece and put together the cushion-covers for the other set of bible study leaders. See, we were thinking about getting them gifts, and I said I could make cushion-covers and...

*facepalm*

Apart from my writing, I'm very focused on making Christmas presents right now - mostly messenger bags, although I might try a cloth-covered notebook for one of the stepbrothers. And some fabric coasters for the easily washable option.

I might do a Stash Sunday tomorrow since I went shopping with Jenn today at Fabric Warehouse out in Alexandria...and bought some stash additions.

...I just typed 'addictions', which, really, is what this is turning out to be...

Christmas, here we come!

WIP...uh...Thursday? (WIP Wednesday #30)

So Wednesday was so mad bizay cray-cray, that I never got around to posting a WIP Wednesday.

That's okay. It's still Wednesday in the US! Well, in Hawaii. It's still the US!



Stick a fork in me, for, lo, I am DONE!
Birthday Blocks
I've been ridiculously sporadic about getting these Birthday Blocks done for my swap. But the last three beckoned and the organiser was asking if I'd gotten them out yet.

And yea, I was stuck at home while waiting for a tradie (uh, "tradesman" to those of you who don't speak Aussie) to turn up, and the fabric didst call me with a siren song...

Rocky Road To Dublin:


Double Hourglass Block (she asked for anything in hot pink and black, and 9" finished):


Pineapple Blossom:


Huzzah! They're done! Now I just have to get them out tomorrow morning and I'm all finished for the 2011 Birthday Block swap!

Messenger Bag
The local Craft Depot had a massive sale for all of November, and while I was wandering through its aisles looking at all the fabric I shouldn't buy, I found The New Handmade: Simple Sewing for Contemporary Style by Cassie Barden. Projects! Gift ideas! Simple how-tos!

Honestly, most of what I was interested in was the bags!

Namely, the messenger bag, which I put together on Monday and Tuesday using the Swoon fabric range by Melissa Averinos in the green-orange-yellow-brown colourway:


I made a slight booboo while putting it together, though. But it still works, so it's a feature, right?

It was so simple and easy and neat and useful, that I bought a whole lot of fabric with which to make more!

Progressing
Modern French Lace Maze
I have to think of a better name for this!

Strip-pieced, cut, laid out, and sewn together, this quilt is ridiculously pretty!


The pattern is Modern Maze from the book Modern Basics. The fabric is French Lace Batiks by Moda.

I think this pic does a better job of showing the subtle difference between the greens (small rectangles) and the creams (small squares).



I laid it out in a 6x6 config rather than the 5x7 the book recommended. And I've got enough fabric left over to piece a border. One border in the same brown batik for the crosses, then a border of small squares then the edge.

Truly? The most tricksy part? Was the calculations to ensure that I had enough fabric in the fat quarter set to make the quilt (the book specified yardage).

I rather like the result, though!

Stuck in the Mud
- Harvest HSTs
- Mum's Impstar
- Charmed Prints

Dead In The Water
- Santorini Sun & Sea Kaleidoscope (needs basting and quilting)
- Supernova (needs binding)
- Dead Simple QAL
- Quilt Blogger's Uber-fest (needs the rest of the blocks done)

Finally, I finished National Novel Writing Month: 50,000 words in the month of November - that's 1667 words per day! It's hardly a novel, it's certainly not finished, but I got the words out and that's the key thing in NaNoWriMo.

And now it's December. Where did the year go?