Noon and Night Makes an Appearance

I’ve reached that point in the season where I begin panicking because I realize it’s time to make Christmas presents. I’d prefer to start panicking, say, in August, but that’s usually right smack in the middle of canning season. Part of the issue is my desire to gift handmade items. The number of people on my list divided by hours in the day is a math problem with no solution. (I do have some breathing room this year because some people are getting wedding prints and albums.) Still, Thanksgiving is only a week away and Christmas rushes up right after that. I need to look at and rearrange the sewing to-do list this weekend.

The apron order is done. The Noon and Night quilt has been sashed and bordered. This is how it looked before I put the borders on:

I am quite tickled with it. I like the size, I like the overall look, and now I can move forward with writing the rest of the pattern.

I also need to address the backing fabric and batting. Tera and I talked about doing a combo of two different kinds of batts to help make the stitching pop. I have a black batt that will be placed just underneath the front. If I used a white batt there, I’d run the risk of “bearding,” or having the white fibers come through the stitching and show. That won’t be an issue on the backing, though, and I can have a second, white batt of either wool or polyester against that fabric.

I’ve had an ongoing issue with storing cones of thread. I prefer to keep my thread in boxes because the house gets so dusty. About a year ago, I picked up some great plastic storage bins at Hobby Lobby that were perfect for my serger and quilting thread cones. When the pandemic hit, they disappeared and I haven’t seen them since, despite checking at every Hobby Lobby between here and Seattle. The regular thread storage containers are back in stock. I finally broke down and bought a couple of these ArtBin boxes (6990SO):

and paired them with these inserts (6901AB):

I’m using the ArtBin boxes to hold my quilting thread and the Hobby Lobby ones for my serger thread. The ArtBin ones are much bigger, although they have handles and the Hobby Lobby ones don’t.

It’s time to start cutting out some tops, too. I want to get all the cutting done at once so I can assembly line pieces through the serger and the coverstitch without having to change threads too many times. I don’t care if my thread matches the fabric exactly, but it has to be reasonably close.

Accuquilt released a new die this week. It is so cute!

I have no idea what I would do with it, other than to appliqué gnomes all over everything.

I’ve got one more batch of beef stock to run through the canner, and I still need to defrost the freezer in the old garage. I’m almost done with one prayer shawl—it will need fringed—and have knitted a third of another one. At some point, I’ll get back to embroidering squash.