Good morning, my friends. The title of this post probably sounds more ominous than it should. I really only mean it's the beginning of the end of the year. December 1st. It's all downhill from here. When we reach the bottom, it'll be 2026. To this blogger born in the 1950's it has me thinking I've entered some kind of futuristic sci-fi novel. The good news is that I'm the one writing the story...for now, at least.
It was a productive day yesterday. I managed to force myself into getting in a Bowflex workout. Yay me. Today I'll force myself onto the treadmill. Even after a few days off, it's hard to force myself back into those good habits. And just to show you that I'm the boss of my bad habits, I started the day by baking some Gingerbread Biscotti. My drizzling technique leaves something to be desired. I didn't get any on the walls or ceiling, so I figure I'm okay.
These are made with a half-cup of crystallized ginger. Sometimes it's hard to find crystallized ginger, and so I bought a rather large quantity from Penzey's last year. It was an experiment to see if it would keep over time. After using it last year, I left it in the plastic bag it came in, and then I put the whole bag inside an air-tight jar...you know the kind with the clamp-on lid. When it took it out yesterday, it was still moist enough to allow chopping with a regular kitchen knife. So that was a happy end to my experiment. I'll never go hungry for crystallized ginger again now that I have a ready source.
When that was finished, I did my Bowflex workout. I figured I probably added calories to the day's allotment just by baking the biscotti. It was fairly late in the day by the time I was ready to do any sewing, but my excellent helper cat was there to help move things along.
He looked at the scraps we already had, and then helped me select a good mix.
And like any good sewing helper, Smitty knows that any job is done better if you stick your tongue out as you work.
Sadie was in standby mode. She knows that too many cats spoil the broth...or something like that.
With so much help, I managed to finish the fifth of five blocks for the third row. Now they're all sewn together.
If you look at that image above, you can probably see that some of the rectangular neutrals are placed horizontally and some are placed vertically. They're all supposed to be vertical. I didn't notice that until I'd finished the second row. If you want my opinion (and, let's face it, everyone is entitled to my opinion), it doesn't matter. And I'll fight anyone who says it does. Consider yourself warned.
Moving on, I sewed together a back for the Merry, Merry Snowmen from the fabric purchased on Saturday.
And then I searched high and low for a binding fabric. I had just enough of the dark red shown below.
Now the Merry, Merry Snowmen can go on the quilts to be sandwiched pile. For the time being, I'm working on my list of WIPs. Next up, I'll make another row of five blocks for the Gumballs project. These are kind of fun to sew together...or maybe it's just a nice change from the tedium of the Stair Steps blocks.
I'll keep working through my list of WIP's until I've finished with them. After that, I'm going to be moving into the Quilter's Choice section of my white board. My choice this time is to make kits for when we travel south this winter. It's hard to cut yardage in the limited space available in our RV. I've learned to take my bags of bonus triangles, cut-off pieces, and orphan blocks and start sewing those into something. But I've also learned I can do the cutting for small quilts and make up "kits" to use. On the days when I set things up for sewing, I can make small projects. This year, I've selected four different small quilt projects. These have been in my to-do pattern pile for quite some time.
Next, this
Tulip Time project from Inspired by Fabric.
And with all that needing to be done within the next month, I decided to make this kitting up process my goal for December's
My goal will be to make kits for all four projects. To be clear, nothing will be sewn together. I'm just cutting the pieces and kitting them up to be sewn on the road.
Doesn't it seem like I should have my own "Sewing on the Road" TV show? I mean, if there can be an Antique Road Show, then why not an Antique Quilter Sewing on the Road?
Okay, so there's something weird going on with Google. I can't search for anything. I've used Microsoft Edge to copy the links in this post. I can't open Google Photos or anything else I'm ordinarily using when I'm sitting at the computer. This has been the case for more than 12 hours. What's up with you, Google? Anyway...all of that to say I'm only hoping I'll be able to post this and that you'll be able to read it. Maybe today will be my lucky day. Fingers crossed. Here we go. Publish.
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