Tops and Bottoms

Today I finished up two tops and three bottoms. If I can get my housework done this afternoon, I might have time to finish one more of each.

First, I finished putting the border on the Christmas table topper I've been working on.

This is my project for the Let's Book It challenge

Adapted from a pattern in this book:

That completes the top. And would you believe I ran out of bobbin thread

with this much left to sew?

I blame Obama for this.

Once I had my bobbin rewound, I pieced together this back for it. I had in mind to use a different fabric, but then realized I didn't have enough. I'm happy with this peppermint batik. This one came from a quilt shop in Montana, as I recall.

I'm planning to use this peppermint stripe for the binding. And I've decided to call this quilt "Peppermint Star".

Then I finished up the quilt top for the Never Underestimate piece. You guys were pretty much evenly split on helping me choose the right color for the stop border. I resorted to the Eeny Meeny Miny Moe method of choosing, because these things are important enough to be earth-shattering. And after I'd done the Eeny Meeny Miny Moe, I started wondering what that means anyway. It's been a while since I looked up some obscure phraseology, and so I can only suppose I am at the curious phase of the month. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

[A] children's counting rhyme, used to select a person to be "it" for games (such as tag) and similar purposes such as counting out a child who has to be excluded from a group of children as part of a playground game. It is one of a large group of similar 'counting-out rhymes' where the child pointed-to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820, and is common in many languages with similar-sounding nonsense syllables."

So, around since 1820, which explains why I'm so familiar with it. I think I remember using it sometime around 1823. (Only kidding...it was actually sometime during the 14th Century, so Wikipedia clearly has its dates wrong.) Actually, I learned quite a bit about Eeny Meeny Miny Moe. Maybe it was the recent election that got me started on that again since that was how I was able to settle on some of the city commissioners. (Like...who knows anything about those local people beyond reading the voter's pamphlet? And who even knows what they do?) Anyway...You can read all about it right here.

Okay...so, back to the sewing. Here's my piece. Eeny Meeny Miny Moe prompted me to choose the green fabric.

And I am loving that border fabric, even though it was printed cattywampus on the fabric, which made it a pain to cut straight. I could get off on a whole tangent about "cattywampus" here, but I'll save that for another day. For now, I'm going to show you what I have in mind for the binding on this quilt.

When I was still trying to decide on the color, I was digging around in my stripes and polka dots looking for something for the binding, and I happened on that stripe you see on the left side of the image above. It has all the right colors, but I thought it might be too busy next to that border fabric. Then I decided to use the green to put a flange between the quilt and the binding, and I think that is going to look just ducky. I hope you agree.

Also today I made the back for the Gardener's Journal quilt. It's just a plain back using this fabric:

I had in mind to sandwich all three quilts at the same time. I have to clear everything off my ping pong table to make way for sandwiching, and so I might as well do them all at the same time. Then I remembered, I'm just about an hour away from finishing this other Christmas wall hanging too. And I figure, in for a pound, in for a penny. Obviously, this is my day for idioms. And I'll spare you that tangent as well.

Anyway...it was tempting to finish putting the borders on this one too, but I decided I needed a break.

Smitty was totally stressed out by this time. He needed a break too. (A tidier person might take is bed outside and shake off all the catnip, but then a tidier person might ruin the bed for the cat doing that.)

And I really do need to do some housework too. I might get back to it later on, but probably it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Now here's something: Remember when I told you about the Astronomical Quilt Challenge in my post from a few days ago? Well, pictures of all 28 quilts have been posted on Facebook now, and I found the one that has my block! Cool!

I'm not sure if you can see this without having a Facebook account, but the photos appear to be public. Try clicking on this link, and you might be able to see the rest of the quilts.

Also, I think it's safe to post my project from the other day. This is a little mug rug I made for a friend from high school in a pay-it-forward challenge. I haven't heard from her, but she should have it by now.

Cute, huh? This is a free pattern from Jenny of Elefantz. Her stuff is always so pretty and delicate.

Finally, it's the last day to link up to the October NewFO Linky Party and Giveaway. Just a few hours left, so don't miss out!