I think the happiest thing I can say about my sewing activity this week is that I've made a big dent in cleaning off my cutting table! As the year comes to a close, it's always nice to clean up, clear out and get organized for a new year of sewing/quilting fun.
There are a lot of project ideas running through my head, both newFOs and UFOs, but I have not committed to a plan of attack yet. At best, I really want to make a trial block to test out my 2014 Rainbow Scrap project. I'd like to accomplish that in the next week, but I don't know if I'll be able to carve out the time. I should be out braving the crowds to finish Christmas shopping right now, but the siren call of fabric is keeping me home!
I did finish a chocolate churn dash small quilt top, probably best used as a table runner. I had hopes of machine quilting this in time to give as a Christmas gift, but that's not going to happen. It's not as wonky as it looks - I just have a problem holding the camera straight!
Another chocolate table runner, also not finished in time for gift-giving. Plus, I need to order more of the chocolate bar fabric for the binding (see top right corner).
All three of these table runners were inspired by bonus triangles left-over from another quilt. I learned a valuable lesson from this exercise - leave the bonus triangles loose (don't sew them into HST blocks) until you've decided how you'll use them. Most of these bonus triangles were already sewn into blocks before I started the table runners, and I had to rip many of them apart to piece together the fabrics I wanted to use.
I STILL have enough bonus triangles left to make another Birds in the Air table runner!
While I was piecing all those chocolate blocks together, I used the 9 patch and snowball blocks of this quilt as leader-enders. Once the blocks were stitched into rows, it was a quick job to assemble the final top. This is my 4th quilt top from the 2012 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm going to add a white border to give the blocks a "floating" effect. I was hoping the light blue fabric being auditioned in the picture would be a good way to finish the quilt, but it's not quite what I had in mind. I may go with my new favorite border treatment: Freeform Scrappy Border, followed by another white border. I also thought about a border of smaller 9 patches set on point, but honestly, I'd like to finish this quilt sooner rather than later!
I was also inspired to make one more Happy Scrappy House block with a Christmas theme, but after choosing my fabrics, I decided they all needed pre-washing to avoid the dreaded running red dye. I guess stitching that block can be my reward later today for finishing my Christmas shopping!
Today is link-up day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so please visit Angela's blog to see more challenge wrap ups!
