Still Celebrating Christmas

No matter that Christmas was a week ago, we're still celebrating at my home.  Sometime during the weeks before or after Christmas, our family finds an hour to watch one of our favorite Christmas movies, "A Child's Christmas in Wales" -- and we haven't watched it yet. Tonight or tomorrow....

The story was written by Dylan Thomas and is brought to life by several dozen actors.  On Christmas Eve young Thomas, hoping to stay up later than usual, asks his grandfather, Old Geriant, about the Christmases of his childhood in the late 1800s.  Experiences from Grandfather's childhood come to life before our eyes as we listen to the stories he tells Thomas.

This gentle, humorous movie speaks to me of family, of love, and of childhood.  I highly recommend it.

--Nancy.

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Small Finishes

I sometimes claim finishes in increments, especially if a large project has many small steps that can be completed in a bunch/batch.  These 4-patches and 3 1/2" squares are for Easy Street.  Since I don't start projects on Fridays, these finishes were the perfect work for today.

I've been cutting and sewing the 4-patches for 5 weeks.  I sewed a bunch the first week but didn't get them finished so I've been using them as leaders/enders.  I finally finished the last of the 192 today.

I've been cutting the teal/turquoise squares now and then over the past few weeks.  I just finished cutting 145th square tonight.

Hooray for small finishes!

I hope you're having fun tonight, whether it's sewing, quilting, or spending time with family and/or friends.

--Nancy.


I'm linking this to
-Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF), hosted this week by Shanna at Sparrow in Flight.  Thanks for hosting, Shanna.
-Friday Night Sew-In, hosted by Heidi of Handmade by Heidi.  Thanks, Heidi!

In the Forest at Christmas-time

At least 20 years ago the students of Columbus College of Art and Design created this large (8-feet long) environment of miniature animals getting ready for and celebrating Christmas. It's on display every December at our public library. I loved it when my daughters were little and I still enjoy going to see it. It's such a creative display with animals playing outside, cooking inside, and getting ready for Christmas in dozens of ways. Every time I view it I see something I didn't see the last time.  If you'd like to see the photos in more detail, click once, then again and they'll enlarge to about double the size they are now.  Enjoy!

Animals Enjoying the Outdoors

Animals Indoors

Merry Second Day After Christmas, friends.

--Nancy.
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Little Red Houses with Green Roofs - and Snow

My Easy Street progress is slow but sure. I have to add half a roof to half of the "houses." I love those little red houses with their green roofs.    Of course it's possible the "houses" will not look like houses at all in the finished quilt.  I wasn't sure of my abilities in stitching a straight line without help so I drew the line.  I'll get better with practice. 

I'm still behind on the 4-patches from clue 1' the 2 1/2" x 3" rectangles from clue 2; and the 3 1/2" squares from clue 4.   I'll finish them, all in good time

We had snow last night and this morning. Before taking the freeway to a nearby store this afternoon, my daughter and I wondered if the freeway would be plowed. It wasn't! She drove carefully and we enjoyed the beauty of fresh fallen snow!

I hope you are all safe and warm, enjoying your family, stitching on your Easy Street blocks, or doing some other thing you love to do.

I'm linking this to Easy Street Link-Up, Part 5 and W.i.P. Wednesday at Tami's Amis and other Creations.  Thanks to both Bonnie and Tami for hosting.

--Nancy.

Merry Christmas to You and Yours

--Nancy.
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A Star for Christmas

Though it's not your usual star,

still it puts me in remembrance of the Star of Bethlehem.  

Merry Christmas, dear readers!

I'm linking this to Shadow Shot Sunday.
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My Unruly Flocks

They are adorable geese but I can't seem to keep the flocks flying straight.  Some want to get out of line just a little and go their own way.  Others nudge their bills into the backs of the ones ahead.  Who knew geese could be such a challenge?!  I'll get them all straightened out before it's over.

I know other Easy Street participants questioned their colors when the last clue came out.  I think we have to trust our choices and just keep playing along.

Here are more of the red and army green geese waiting to be sewn with their green and cream fellow geese:

I've never made a quilt in quite this way, making components then sewing them together into larger components to become a quilt.  I have to say it is very fun to play with the small blocks, laying them out in various patterns.  I haven't had much time to play and less time to photograph but here's one photo I took:

I'm using teal in place of Bonnie's lime green.  She recommended we have about 3 yards of combined fabrics.  I hope I have enough!  I've been searching for more but haven't found any that are remotely similar to the fabrics I already have.  Will my quilt have to be smaller or will I find fabrics to add?  I hope the latter.  (Just to say, the knock-your-socks-off  teal in this photo is much brighter than in real life!)

I'm linking this post to W.i.P. Wednesday at Lee's Freshly Pieced and to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery Monday Link Up 12/17.  Thanks to both Lee and Bonnie.

Trying to Keep up on Easy Street - W.i.P. Wednesday

My mother always said, "Never start a project on Friday unless you can finish it on Friday."  I've found that adage to be true in my life:  I know that if I start a project on Friday it will not get finished.  (Of course just because I don't start a project on Friday doesn't mean I will finish it.)  Anyway, when Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street clues are published on Fridays, I read them, make a note of them, print them, then go back to whatever I was doing.  That puts me a little behind every week.

For example, below are my strips for 4-patches, waiting to be sewn, then cut.  Some are already cut and some are already sewn into 2-patches.  (Colors in the photos below are not accurate.)

I have 65 4-patches finished, which means I have about 1/3 of the total I need.  I'm having trouble enjoying sewing these blocks.  I find them so very boring to make....  I have also cut 40 of the 64 2" x 3 1/2" blocks.

BUT, all of my green and cream geese are cut and stitched!  I'll trim their little feet off sometime when I'm riding in the car (with my husband driving), watching a movie, or when I'm too tired to do anything else.

For this week's clue I have all the squares and small triangles cut and stitched.  I still need to cut large red triangles and stitch them to the other side to make squares.

Don't you love a mystery?  And don't you always try to guess "who done it" before the book or movie ends? I'm doing the same for this quilt.  I'm guessing Easy Street is a variation of one of the "Road to..." blocks.  Road to Oklahoma.  Road to Jericho.  As soon as I finish some more of clue 3 I'm going to lay out some possibilities.  Of course, doing that discounts the fact that we'll probably have at least 4 more clues, and 4 more parts to stitch.  Still, it's fun to play.

I'm linking this to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery Monday Link-Up Part 3.

--Nancy.

Those Quilting ACRONYMS

I'm new to quilt blogging and I keep seeing acronyms that mean nothing to me. I've gone on a search and I'm sharing what I've found (and using this post to keep track in case I forget).  This is not an exhaustive list, just a list of the acronyms I keep seeing.  I'll probably continue adding to the list....

Quilting Acronyms
EPP - English paper piecing
FPP - foundation paper piecing
HST - half square triangle.  Cut a square, cut it in half diagonally
QAYG - quilt as you go
QST - quarter square triangle.  Cut a square, cut it in half diagonally twice

TGIF - thank goodness it's finished
WiP - work in progress - actively working on a quilt or other object
UFO - unfinished object

Acronyms for Machines
SAQM - small arm quilting machine

Acronyms of Fabric Sizes
F8 - fat eighth (of a yard, which equals
FQ - fat quarter (of a yard, which equals about 18" x 22")
layer cake - a stack of fabric, each piece of which measures 10" square
charm - 5" square piece of fabric
jelly roll - fabric precut to 2 1/2" wide with many different fabrics rolled together

Quilt Blogging Acronyms
BOM - block of the month
FMQ - free motion quilting
QAL - quilt along

Miscellaneous Quilting Acronyms
LQS - local quilt store

Quilting Memes

• TGIFF - Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday - meme hosted by 
• WiP Wednesday - Work in Progress Wednesday hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced 
• Fabric Tuesday hosted by Quilt Story
•  FNSI or Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Handmade by Heidi 
• Finish It Up Friday hosted by Crazy Mom Quilts 
• FO - finished object hosted by Cat Patches on the last day of each month.  Start something new at the beginning of the month, write a blog post about it, then link up.  The purpose is to build up your supply of UFOs.

Do you know of other acronyms or memes?  If so, please share!

--Nancy.

Goslings on Easy Street

Hey, my goslings can fly!  This is the first time I've made flying geese.  While stitching them I wasn't sure they'd fly but, sure enough, they do!

Don't you love their little "feet" sticking out on the sides at the bottom of each block?  I know I'll have to clip them off but I think they are just too cute.  With only 14 geese made so far, I have a long way to go.

Life has been a little challenging.  I'm still recovering from foot surgery and limping along, walking on my left heel and my right foot.  It puts one out of kilter, so to speak.  I wonder that my joints aren't getting out of alignment!  Not to mention that it makes one so tired.  Add to that the fact that I'm working 3 days a week at a little candy shop.   I'm pushing myself to work on these blocks for a little while each night so I won't be quite so far behind.  I can spend more time on them on Friday and Saturday.  I will begin to catch up then.

--Nancy.
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Taking Easy Street

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame has published another mystery quilt this year.  She's dubbed it Easy Street and began posting information about it a few weeks ago.  We were given two weeks to decide whether to participate and to choose fabrics. At the end of November she published the first set of instructions; last Friday, another set; and on subsequent Fridays will post more instructions or, essentially, blocks to make.

I'm generally slow at making decisions.  I ponder the pros and cons before jumping in. There seemed to be more cons than pros with this decision.

• I've never work with only five fabrics.
• I've never chosen all the fabrics for a quilt in advance. 
• I like to see the finished quilt pattern before deciding to make it.  
• What if I don't like the finished quilt pattern?  

On the other hand, the pros were very enticing.

• I would be pushing myself to work in a way I hadn't before.
• I'd have a finished quilt when it was over.
• I enjoyed considering, then choosing, fabrics.

So, I'm joining the group going down Easy Street.  I don't have a whole lot of hope to keep up with the weekly blocks, considering that I'm already a week behind, I'm still temporarily limited physically, and I'm going to be starting seasonal work.  But hey, there's no deadline, right?

These are my fabrics.  I'll alter them if I decide they don't work.

I hope to post some finished blocks within the next couple of days.

If you'd like to see how others are playing along or you'd like to join in, go to Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 2 at Bonnie's blog, Quiltville.
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