Deadlines...deadlines...

Stardate 2016.344.1

Wow, have things been nuts lately.  Work has been insane, my hockey team is dead last in the NHL, the cold weather has really set in, a lot of my work colleagues are retiring, and between the election, Thanksgiving, and figuring out how Christmas is going to go, I haven’t  had a lot of time to post to the blog. I have been trying to get quilting time in; sadly, there just hasn’t been enough of it.  I’m hoping that’ll soon change – that things will slow down and I can refocus. 

Until then, here is what I’ve been working on.   

With some of the quilting started, I just might make my deadline...

I picked up a chunk of a quilt I had been working on (very off and on) for some time and thought I could try to run the race to the finish line and see if I could get a small quilt made for a friend who is retiring at the end of December.  Sheesh – back in November, it seemed like a good idea.  Forget that it’s a Double Wedding Ring pattern, which, for me, means sewing by hand, which translates into “slow-going”.  But, I figured out I was limited by fabric as I’d started this quilt with just fabrics I had from years ago, so there’s no getting more; once I run out, I run out.  I did run out of one fabric, and did manage to get enough rings pieced to at least make a square quilt.  I’d seen on another blog one gal set a Grandmother’s Flower Garden – with its uneven edges – on a border, so the edges would be square instead of hexagon-shaped, and I decided I could do a similar treatment with this quilt.  So, I was able to “extend” the quilt size by adding the border, then appliqueing the Double Wedding Ring quilt to the border.  I like how it came out and now am in the phase of quilting it.  Somehow, in my grand brain, I’m going to get this done before the end of the year (I won’t look at the calendar as it can be defeating at this point….). 

So, here’s some of the quilting – my brain is trying to figure out how to minimize starts and stops, since they do eat up time, but still have the quilt look good quilted.  I’m still working on that…

 

Quilting in the center is easy, but time consuming with a stop and start each time.  Those pesky melon shapes will require some thought to have continuous quilt lines...

On other notes, I’ve made some, albeit little progress, on my scrappy stars…the dark grey background won out the color wars.  

And the offset log cabin quilt is waiting for its day in the spotlight as well.  Soon…soon…your day will come. 

Now, back to getting some quilting done…

Thanks for stopping by!  Linking up with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Happy Friday!