what you do on New Years Day.........

.............you will do throughout the year.  Ordinarily I make a special point to work on something pro bono.  Today was no exception but I also decided I was going to focus on a little bit of several aspects of quiltmaking.

First out was my green Bee Tree Designs basket block.  I haven't touched this since early November but I have been busy with other things!  Normally I drag this with me to the quilt guild meeting but that is going to be out since I am the incoming guild secretary, LOL.   I stitched for a little over an hour so get it moved forward a little bit.

Next, I turned to hand quilting.  Bird Brain  Designs "Here Comes Santa".  5th block of 12 in progress.  I stuck with it long enough to finish this particular block.  I would dearly love for this to be up on the wall NEXT holiday season.   Maybe if I set aside one day of the week to hand quilt I will get there.

I told Norma that I didn't want to do any housework, laundry or binding today, that being my least favorite part of quilting.  She asked if I was going to leave it off all my quilts this year.   NO!   I relented.  I had quilted up the Give Thanks Button Up on New Year's Eve.  If I had been willing to push the hand finishing, I could have counted it as my last finish for 2011.  I am no glutton for punishment, I was tired and it could wait.    I got to just past the corner and the label till I set it aside.   I DID do a tad of embroidery on this one too----the turkey's legs and sewed on a button for his eye.

Next I moved on to the pro bono quilt.  I have 24 blocks from the fall sew-in to assemble along with a pile of strips from Jane, Lois, Bev and others to use for the sashing.  Some is cut to size and some isn't.   One row is done.  5 more to go.   I will finish it up sometime this week so we can pin it at our first January meeting.

Lastly,  I chose a personal project sewing.  I was working BEHIND on these Button Up projects last year a  good bit of the time.  Well, perfect example was the "Give Thanks" piece---pieced in December and quilted on New Years Eve!  I thought maybe I would get a jump start on February's heart piece.  I had it all cut out last year but got stumped about how to add the jumbo rick rack when I have the hearts prepped over freezer paper.  Actually I am STILL stumped but figured I could at least prep the base unit.   If any one has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.  To see a picture of where I am headed try this Joined at the Hip---#BU2.

I hate working with strips 1 1/2 inch and smaller.  The red strip finishes at 1/2 inch.  Ugh, fumble fingers territory.  I had drawn the sashing sections up in EQ last year so I could  more accurately piece it to a foundation.   That's the point I was at when I took the picture.  Before I quit for the night I had the blocks sashed.  The vertical sections are joined and awaiting the band between the block area that says "February".  I'll get that part done tomorrow and the borders on the base----maybe the appliqued basted and/or fused.   I prepped all that last year.

All in all, a productive day---