Tuesday To:Do #40: Catching Up and ARMY WINS!

The big day is getting close--just 12 days

until Christmas.  Who has all their shopping

 done?  All the gifts wrapped? Everything else?

I'm getting close but I still need my lists to

keep me in line so it's time again to join the

Tuesday Link-Up over at Texas Quilt Gal.

Let's review last week because hey, it was a doozy!

You might want to grab a coffee for this one.

Last Week's Goals

1) The Big Bucket List Item

If you saw my IG posts, you figured it out:

We went to the Army/Navy game in Philadelphia

this past weekend!  And what a game to see!

We visited Philly's historical center several years

ago (see post here) so this time hubs and I spent

some time visiting Valley Forge.

Washington's Valley Forge headquarters.

The cadet drove down from WP on Friday afternoon

and stayed with us through Sunday.

(We had a good time with this waitress.  She felt bad

that she walked right into our selfie but I thought

it was funny and I had to show it to her!)

Saturday arrived!

Game day!

March-On (two hours before kick-off!)

Tickets are not easy to obtain, and unless you are

a major donor and/or alumni, your seats are chosen 

randomly for you.  So our seats weren't great--so high

 up there! yikes!--and we froze but we were there!

The cadet was actually in the very front row of the

Corps of Cadets section so he had a fantastic time!

Not only did he end up on the jumbotron multiple times,

he also showed up on the broadcast.  The in-laws

snapped this for us back home.

The rivalry between these two teams is huge--perhaps

the biggest in the country.  For them, it's practically

the Super Bowl.

We were a little worried when Army wasn't playing well

but in a crazy double overtime, they pulled it off and

it ended with a fantastic Army victory! 

The Army fans went WILD!

The cadets stormed the field and enjoyed the

much sought-after right to "sing second"!

What a thrill to be there!

These West Point experiences just keep coming!

I haven't had a chance to share that the Firsties

"branched" a couple weeks ago and our cadet

received his first choice--Infantry--so he is happy! 

 (He hopes to be a Ranger eventually.)

He also took first place in the first track meet

of the season and has been assigned Platoon

Leader for next semester.  Lots going on!

And Firstie/Senior pics also arrived.  These are

the only ones with the sword and the hat.

So, so cool right?!?

2) Finish/top off pre-holiday cleaning

All I accomplished here was cleaning out the

fridge but that's a big chore around here.

3) Start a gift for in-laws?

Hubs found something else so there won't need

to be any last-minute mad-quilt-making.

Whew!

But I need to get on this for next year because
I'd like to make them a quilt for their lake house.

4) Wedding gift quilt

Keep thinking on/looking for fabrics

No progress here.

On those pillows I mentioned last week...

I did get all of them done!  Yay!

These are for our basement family room.

.

...and these are for our bed.

I rushed them but I was able to get all of these

done before we headed out of town.

That pretty much wraps up my great week.

The cadet will be home in just a few days, and our

other son will be here soon after.  We all know

how nice it is to have everything done before the

guests arrive so that is my focus in the week to come.

1) Make cookies with the grandkids

2) Finish Christmas shopping & wrapping

3) Finish house cleaning

4) Work on that wedding quilt

Happy quilting!

2022 Tuesday To Do #39: Last Finish of the Year? And Oh, btw Go Army! Beat Navy!

Cue Andy Williams:

🎶 "It's the holiday season!" 🎶

I have always loved traditional and older Christmas

music.   It just has the real vibe of the holidays for me.  

I've been kind of off / on with the holiday feels so far.

In our society (esp in retail!) it's sometimes easy to

forget that it's only early December and we have

plenty of time ahead of us to prepare.  And the actual

celebrating doesn't even start until Jesus comes.  So if

anyone out there is feeling a bit panicky, I'm sending

a gentle reminder to relax. You have time.

Now, let's all make our lists and just have some fun.
I invite you to join the rest of the do'ers on the

Tuesday Link-Up over at Texas Quilt Gal.

Last Week's Goals

1) Finish Midnight Pines

DONE! 

This is a big finish.  It's funny how I forget just how much

more work a full queen quilt is.   It's like it's 1.5 times

as big as my usual but somehow 2.5 times more work.

The finished top ended up about 89x108.

Hubs and I prefer a good-sized quilt on our bed so I was

using it for sizing--until I learned my daughter didn't really

 want a pillow tuck so the whole thing was just too long.

If you're going to trim, you might as well make it a

useable trim right?  So I cut 2.5" off the top and counted

 on the quilting to shrink it another 2-3".  Trimming

from the top keeps the shorter border under the pillows

(though I think it looks fine if it shows) and would bring

the quilt up from the bottom so that last row of trees

ends at the edge of the bed instead of hanging off.

In the end, it came out 88x104 so it's likely still

too big but at least by not quite as much.

Sometimes as the maker you get so caught up in

constructing a quilt that the final full finish can

catch you by surprise.  This one has kind of

blown me away--and the pics don't do it justice.

For reference, the pattern is Holiday Forest by Edyta Sitar.

(I increased it in size--about double?)

2) Plan quilt for wedding gift, maybe even start pulling.

DONE, mostly.

The colors are "burgundies, blues and grays" and

style-wise: "minimalistic, doesn't like lace or florals."

However, I still want a slightly traditional quilt feel to it.

The grays are "on the cool side," and I prefer warms.

This might be a struggle so an easy quilt would be helpful.

With that in mind, I think I'm going for this, but with

 a neutral (background fabric?) border:

"Circle of Friends" Jelly Roll Quilts In a Weekend

by Pam Lintott and Nicky Lintott

I'll likely have to add to the color scheme for some pop

and avoiding flowers is next to impossible but I'll see

what I can find.  I don't think I'm trying for an actual

bed quilt here, just a throw.  If anyone knows of any

fabric lines that might fit this, let me know but I'll

likely just make my own jelly roll.

(I really like the colors in the pic!)

3) MAKE SOMETHING FUN JUST FOR OUR HOME!

Very little but I'm still looking for ideas.

I've started on some holiday pillows from panels.

I'm pretty anti-panel but these match our basement

holiday decor to a "T" so I thought "Eh, what the heck?"

On the side of these are smaller panels that I'm not

real sure what I'll be doing with but I'm open to ideas.

I could work them into a throw quilt but again,

I'm anti-panel so not sure about that...

My anti-panel excuse for my other pillow project is

that they match our bed quilt so well and they were

also clearance deals.  As much as I hate dinking with it,

I'll probably add some trim to these if I can find some.

All of these have seen at least one or two seasons

go by so it will feel great getting them done.

And I think some no-brain sewing will be as welcome

as getting these things out of the sewing room.

In other news

To finish Midnight Pines, I took a trip up to my fave LQS

(for one of the borders and the binding) and found a

super-awesome bargain that I have to share.

I just know her $5/yd clearance price is going to go up

(or disappear completely--*gasp!*) one of these days so

I always feel like I need to take advantage of the deals.

(Ivory/black)

You all will totally understand why I grabbed the entire

bolt here.  It was very clear to me nothing had been taken

off of it but because she didn't want to bother with the

hassle of measuring, she only charged me for 13yds 

"just in case"--if that was okay with me?

So, 14 yds of Moda fabric for $65.  (Yeah, buddy!)

Tell me this wouldn't make great backings!

Maybe even backgrounds?

It matches so much of what I work with!

Quilty friends, keep situations like this in mind in a few

weeks when I come out with my final fabric tracking

numbers for the year.  The numbers are exponential,

and sort of embarrassing!  (Sort of....)

So don't judge.

Back to those holiday feels...

I did finish decorating but there have been two major

hurdles to jump before I let myself completely relax

 and do all the fun things like finish my shopping, wrap

gifts, etc.  The first was that ginormous quilt for my

daughter; the second comes at the end of this week.  

It's a bit of a bucket list item so I'm pretty excited!
(It's prob not an easy one but any guesses?)

And after that it'll be full on-Christmas fun!

SO, for next week:

1) The Big Bucket List Item

Woot woot!

2) Finish/top off pre-holiday cleaning

3) Start a gift for in-laws?

Waiting for hubs to find something first.  If not...

My MIL loves quilts but the issues there are 1) they

are more for her than both of them and 2) it would

be more from me than from both hubs and I.

But when people are really hard to buy for....?

4) Wedding gift quilt

Keep thinking on/looking for fabrics

Happy quilting!

Go Army! Beat Navy this week!

P. S.

I spent hours in a coffee shop writing this post and playing

online.  I haven't done this me-time thing in quite a while;

it's so therapeutic and somehow it really brings order to

my brain! I recommend doing this for pre-holiday sanity.

I might have to engage in a repeat in another week or so!

December Monthly Goal

Hello and welcome to goal day.  I'm linking

up to Elm Street Quilts' "One Monthly Goal"

to share my single goal for December.

To take this "center" and turn it into a

completed quilt for my daughter's queen bed.

You'll notice I said "single goal".

Well that's the plan, and anything else

will be all just for fun!

I hope you all have an easy December ahead, too,

with lots of time to spend on preparing for

Christmas and spending time with family!

Happy quilting!