Happy December Sewing

 This time of the year - I love it.  The cold, the early darkness, the winter sun.  Our December is a reasonable one with just the right amount of activities sprinkled in.  The busyness of Christmas Eve followed by the serenity of Christmas Day - perfection.  Every year I pray from one more Christmas (oh, and for one more Fall).  How lucky am I.  And how lucky that I love my sewing so much. 

One of the fun things about my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild and the MGG is that I have opportunities to play with fabric in a way I normally wouldn't.  See the previous post and the Windham pleated fabric challenge.  The quilt here is for the "Take the Shirt From My Back" challenge lead by Diane.  She has already secured sites for exhibition.  In my previous life quilting I have made many quilts from shirts.  Look at Bradley LeGrand in this blog's index.  Deconstructing men's shirts? hunting them down?  No.  But new member Amy and Diane both gave me shirts in colors I wanted to work with.  And I already had the self-drafted templates for an elliptical drunkard's block.  The deadline for this project is the January CMQG meeting.  But I rushed to finish this because I am hand quilting a scrap quilt and really enjoying it. It is labelled and has a hanging sleeve.  John, who often comments about little I do, actually likes this one.  Go figure. 

In the daytime I've been working on a quilt for daughter Jennifer.  I think we have finally honed in our her fabrics, and we also have a pattern that both she and Rog like.  This pattern is Weighted by Alex Hoffman. I've made the baby quilt of this pattern and am just enjoying working on this king size. 

Here is a very tentative palette that I've been changing slightly as I go along.  And just below is almost half of the blocks needed for this quilt.  It's a bit difficult to keep track of things with 17 fabrics.  But the pattern is well written and even includes some hand organizers. 

And of course December sewing must include some little presents - pencil cases, zip punches, bigger totes, clever little zip bags.  Making these little things brings great joy.  Again I say go figure.   It's a most wonderful time of the year!