This one. It’s overflowing. And has been for a while. So I’m currently working on transforming it into these:

Blocks for a scrap quilt of the future. I’m piecing them improvisationally without making too many decisions about the color (the good news is that most of the scraps go together, since I picked them all out at some point). The funny thing is, that for the first block (on the left) I thought a lot between each seam. And I like it least. The basic idea is to blindly grab 2 pieces, sew them together, trim if necessary, add another piece (trimming if necessary) and so on. I mean, I do think about where they go. But not terribly- I don’t lay out the whole block or anything and obviously I didn’t pre-cut most of the pieces. And I do sometimes use the curve in the shape of the scrap (a la Denyse Schmidt). It’s fun for when I want to sew, but don’t necessarily want to think. It’s rather pink, but, I’m sure I’ll find a use or recipient for it.

I’m also unoficially not buying any more fabric in the near future. I have 2 shelves full of it, and enough is enough. I’ve been pining over the new Denyse Schmidt stuff for a month but so far, so good. I only have stuff I like in my stash, so it shouldn’t be hard to use it. But I should probably stop reading the blogs that showcase pretty fabrics.  Haha!

In other news, here’s how Montana looks today. The weather is gorgeous. We’ve been having some thunderstorms, but they’re kind of nice since they cool us off.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend– and stay tuned this week for a book review and giveaway.

I used some hand dyed wool, flannel, suiting and cotton. This was my first attemp with the triangles, and I think they came out pretty well. Although I must say that I cannot WAIT till I get to use my walking foot! Here’s a closeup.

Peep peep!

Here are some overall shots of the quilt on our bed.  It’s pretty big– 40 x 50 inches, so hopefully my sister’s kiddo will be able to use it for a lot of years. I was noticing as I bound it that it would make a nice lap quilt…. but no, I must part with it.

You can see some more details on flickr.  Here it is with my first quilt, which was offended that I balled it up in order to make room to shoot the new one.

And if that’s not enough excitement for the day, check out my Holiday Swap Ornaments over at Reprodepot.  Here’s a peek.

I got two of mine in the mail today– they were sooo cute! I squealed “Ornament swap, ornament swap!” when Paul brought in the padded envelopes. I’ll share them all, but I want to save the surprise in case my swap group is reading.

It’s baby quilt binding day! The almost-done quilt has been sitting in my closet since whenever I last posted it, just waiting for the finishing touch. I think that’s just part of the process, to let it breathe before you go in and do the final, possibly most pesky part of the quilt-making. (I know my mom has a few quilts that just need to be bound in her closet, Ahem.)  I got myself together and  made the binding last night with my trusty bias tape maker.

The plan was to machine stitch the back this afternoon (in our wee window of the day where there’s actually light) so that I could work the hand stitched front tonight while Paul watches his beloved Spurs. Sometimes I think crochet wins out over sewing just because I can be semi-social with it, so I like to think of ways to bring my other crafts to the couch.

I made quite a bit more binding than I needed, since I had the whole operation going anyway. I always end up using it on things like oven mitts or contrast collars, and it’s fun to have some prints in my stash. In fact, I just used some a couple weeks ago to make this fabric box for the craft fair. I was inspired by this tutorial, but changed it up and stacked the box parts, closing them with the bias edge. I used more bias tape to create the removable button-on divider (because I had necklaces on one side and earrings on the other, and because after a certain width, the box doesn’t want to hold it’s sides in). Now it can be my bias tape/binding stash. As if I needed another stash.

By the way, thanks for all your nice comments about the craft fair. I know they can be hit or miss, and selling my hats is not my #1 priority anyway, but the last time I did one it went so well that I guess I was hoping for a similar response. It’s no big deal, and I’ve placed most of the inventory, I just wanted to vent. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend- I’ll be back Monday (if not sooner) to show you some cool stuff I found at last weekend’s Christmas Stroll.

We woke up Saturday morning to a big blanket of snow. I was really excited to go outside and run around in it. Although I’m sure that at some point I’ll be sick of it, I didn’t grow up in a snowy area, so snow is still somewhat magical to me. Yay!

There’s my shiny new bike. I guess I need some major winter gear in order to ride it when it’s cold. I need to ride it more than I have been!

I spent today working on my sister’s baby quilt. I have one more long row to do, then assembling and basting and the dreaded quilting process. I have been debating on whether to have it professionally quilted, but I’m stubborn (and poor!) and think I want to do it myself.

It’s actually oriented the other way (like if you flipped this photo on it’s side) but this is how it hangs on the wall. I am really loving it. Plus it’s a nice break from my crochet projects!

Tonight I am going to do some cooking. I’m  trying out this recipe, I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll also post the acorn squash recipe later this week if I have a chance, since people have been asking for it (hi mom!). I ended up tossing the leftover squash and chicken with feta, butter, olive oil and pasta and it was divine!