Quiet Christmas 2020

We had a quiet Christmas. DD#2 flew here on Wednesday and left on a very early flight this morning as she has to work this afternoon. I was part of a group of eight or so in church on Christmas Eve to help lead the service; everyone else was on Zoom. We had video chats yesterday afternoon with my mother and sister in Cleveland—where they had 10” of fresh snow—and with DD#1 and her husband in Washington state.

DSIL’s mother gifted me an ELCA Lutheran Hymnal, spiral-bound accompanist edition:

Oddly enough, even though I play for an ELCA congregation during Advent and Lent (except for this year, of course), I’ve never gotten my own copy. This is a most welcome addition to my hymnal collection!

DD#2 had asked me to make an apron for one of her coworkers with some Mickey Mouse fabric, so on my way to the airport on Wednesday, I stopped at Joanns and picked up two different Mickey fabrics and some red polka dot for lining and accent. I liked one of the fabrics better than the other and bought what was left on the bolt, which was a bit more than a yard. I started making up the apron on Thursday, but apparently, I cannot visit and work at the same time. After folding the pattern piece to make it a bit narrower, I somehow managed to cut it with the wrong edge on the fold. Ugh.

Even with the additional bit of yardage, I couldn’t make that fabric work. The repeat of the print was too large for me to piece what I needed. DD#2 pronounced the other Mickey print entirely suitable, so I made the apron out of that yard and made a cute dog bandana out of the print I originally wanted to use and it all worked out.

I sewed down the binding on the multicolored Candy Coated quilt:

Noon and Night is up next, after which I’ve got a king size scrap quilt for our bed to do as well as two small lap quilts. One of the lap quilts is basted. I did that Tuesday afternoon, although I didn’t realize until the backing and batting were laid out on the floor that the quilt top still needed two borders. I was unwilling to leave that project half-basted, so I went stash diving and came up with fabric for a narrow inner border of white and an outer border of a navy blue leaf print. The navy blue print coordinated perfectly with the colors and the floral prints in the quilt. I had exactly enough and the top is ready for quilting.

I also stopped at the quilt store Wednesday afternoon and picked up a couple of cute embroidery patterns. I would like to get a stack of things lined up to work on when I don’t have quilts to bind. One is this Bluebird Pincushion pattern from Primitive Gatherings:

I still do not have enough pincushions for all the machines I have.

The other is this Pig Heaven wall hanging by Crane Design, because why not?

I’m in the process of putting my cutting room back together—I had to move the table out so DD#2 could sleep there—and then it’s full steam ahead. I have much to do in the next couple of weeks.