Thursday, August 12, 2010

Better late than never, right?

A short while ago (well, back in July), I stumbled across Monkey Dog Quilts and her Christmas In July Blitz giveaway. Basically, she was fired up about getting started on some Christmas quilts, and wanted company. I signed up - heck, I'm tired of trying to get all my Christmas sewing done between December 20 and December 24 at 11:59 PM. Besides, I could win some Christmas fabrics! Well, I didn't win, but I did make a Christmas Tree Skirt, which I've been wanting forever! While it is not completely done, it is done enough to show and demonstrate that I followed through on my commitment to actually make something.

Hand quilting this puppy has been much more time consuming than putting it together. Honestly, this isn't a project that I wanted to commit hours and hours of hand quilting to, as it is going to be just peeking out from under a tree and likely covered by presents. That motivated me to go online yesterday and order a set of quilting feet for my machine - a walking foot and a free motion darning foot, along with a couple others. Machine quilting, here I come!


In the meantime, here's what I did on the Tree Skirt: outline quilting inside each of the tan pieces

and outline quilting around the circumference of the inner and outer darker (red and green) circles. Right now there is only one row of quilting in those circles, but I plan to at least do one more in each.


My plans to complete this by the quilt guild meeting on Saturday have been thwarted by the fact that Jason and I are taking a Nunchuck camp at karate this week, which translates into 3 HOURS of karate every day, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

By the time I get home, it is 8 PM. I have to prepare dinner and put the kids to bed, and then I'm asleep. I made a date with the hubby last night to watch our Netflix selection (the pilot of the HBO series, The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency), and while I was enjoying it, I was asleep within half an hour. My wonderful husband just turned it off and sent me to bed. (By the way, this same WONDERFUL HUSBAND fixed our dryer yesterday!!! YAY! I probably won't use it anytime soon, but when cold weather hits, I surely don't want to be out taking frozen - and still wet - clothes from the clothesline.)

So, while I'm a little bummed about being behind schedule on this Tree Skirt, in reality, I am WAAAAY ahead of schedule, right? I guarantee it will be done a full 4 months before Christmas. And I bet this Tree Skirt will have siblings and cousins before all is said and done, since it was so much fun to make.

8 comments:

Becky said...

You go girl! I agree that a tree skirt is the perfect place to machine quilt...have fun. The karate sounds like fun, especially since you are doing it with your buddies. Good husbands are hard to find...mine is a keeper too. He fixed my dishwasher and his tractor himself so labor charges weren't involved! WooHoo!

Auntie Em said...

I can't get over how quickly you get things quilted by hand. I'd say that you were way, way ahead of the game.
Love the nunchuck picture. Have fun at karate camp.

Trish said...

Your hand quilting stitches are beautiful!!! Did you teach yourself or take a class?

Rhoda said...

Your tree skirt is so cute, and you do sew really fast! I think you will love the creativity of fmq. It's sort of like jumping off a cliff when you start, but then you figure out it isn't so bad!

Cheryl Willis said...

I cant even imagine how much you are going to produce once you start machine quilting! - cw

Shirley said...

Love the tree skirt! Quilting it looks like a lot of work but I'm really enjoying learning to hand quilt. It's so relaxing if I don't have a deadline.

Nunchucks huh? Husband was at Dallas Airport once and there is a sign on the door entering the terminal building. No guns, no knives, no nunchucks. *LOL* That one gave him a second look. It's bad enough there they had to specify it? So if you fly to Dallas keep your nunchucks in your checked baggage.

Em said...

I love seeing those little stitches!

The Cozy Quilter said...

Way to go getting that Christmas tree skirt going so far ahead of the holiday season! I fall asleep during movies all the time! I am glad I am not alone.