Brrr

It is cold again and the only thing to do is stay inside and sew. Well, there is lots I could be doing but I’m trying to get Adirondack Autumn finished. Still have about 50 unit five’s to finish. Had to cut more orange and yellow to make more  HST’s. And I think I’m still short 30 chevrons, haven’t counted them yet. While working away on these pieces I’ve been using the Strip Twist blocks as leaders and enders.


Here’s what I have so far. Bonnie shows this in  a 3 X 4 setting, in her free patterns, so need another 4 blocks, which means another 16 sets of strips.




I did venture out into the cold for a little retail therapy one day last week. Wandered around thrift store checking for sewing machines. Didn’t find any but found fabric. Not that I needed either.

But I couldn’t resist these delights. Although what I”m going to do with 4 yards of Christmas print escapes me at the moment, if my imagination fails me I can fall back on giving it to my very imaginative sister. We have been swapping fabrics back and forth this year. The African ladies dancing is so gorgeous, I’ve been looking through my books for something special to do with it. And that red batik is a ginormous 4 yards also.  The red and white is tiny red hearts and feels like a broadcloth but should have lots for binding and backs from it.



All that cleaning up in the sewing room paid off when DH wanted to use his machine.
Here he is making a pocket for his new cell phone. His is the 99-13 in a beautiful cabinet. He is usually sewing with heavy duty fabrics, like canvas and denim and the 99 handles them well. This time it was with a fake leather that came in the Great Fabric Acquisition Road Trip (only picture is of it in the back of the van here ). Unfortunately this only used 10” of fabric – still have several yards still to use up.

And just to demonstrate  how imaginative my big sister can be, here is a quilt she just finished. Inspired by the umbrella fabric in the sashing, she found a bunch of applique blocks with umbrellas and then designed some of her own when there wasn't enough for the layout she wanted. I especially love the little elephant in the bottom left as she did them on a quilt for my oldest daughter.