After three days of sewing non-stop, except for the time when I went out to Costco to buy vegetables, or the time I took to talk on the phone to my mother and others, I finished the quilt top for Santa’s Village. (My apologies if you heard the sewing machine whirring along while we talked.) Pattern Plusses: the very cute Santa in the middle. Pattern Minuses: the directions that needed to go to about 20 more pattern testers before they released it to the public. I’ll have an errata sheet later on, when I’m not bonkers from sewing.
This is where I started this morning. Only I think I only had one side on the roofs of the houses. Hard to remember.
Houses and trees done and arranged. I’m tired, but I press on. I want to be done with the quilt top before I stop.
Oh, and Friday I finished up Leanne’s quilt blocks for the Always Bee Learning Bee. And finally the weather started to turn from the near 90-degree weather on Thursday to something more respectably autumn-like. At her house in Canada, Leanne had snow. Shoveling snow can make you tired.
I became even more tired when I called for reservations at The Fancy Restaurant for Thanksgiving and was told they were already booked up. (All of our children and their families are scattered to in-laws or other, and this is just not the year to cook.) But the Other Restaurant in the moderately fancy chain hotel has a buffet, and it’s not booked up. Now I can spend time in the sewing room, giving thanks for Santa being finished. Or. . . maybe quilting him, before and after our Thanksgiving feast. I used to be a purist, never going out on the holiday because I remember when my son had to work on Thanksgiving and I was ticked off about him not being at the table with family. Funny how things change as you age. My apologies if your son has to work at the local restaurant because little old ladies are too tired to cook. (And PS, I’m not shopping at Target that day, nor WalMart, nor any of the other stores who are open that day. I do have my limits. . . and my inconconsistencies.)
When you are this tired, it’s good to trim the HSTs leftover from the roofs, and start playing around. It’s good to have a piecing marathon behind me as on Monday, papers come in, and on Tuesday, I teach my class on the Pleated Tote at Bluebird Quilts (our LQS), and I need to make samples on how to easily make a zipper pocket in the lining. I loved teaching the last class there and am looking forward to this one.
Happy Sewing!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
Your Santa quilt looks fabulous! It will be a real talking point come Christmas time!
I love my blocks, thank you. And the Santa’s Village top is wonderful! Is it a pattern that you are writing?
I so love this quilt. Every step of the way it has made me smile. It such a great use of traditional piecing! Thanks so much for bringing us along. 🙂
What a marathon! You did great, and it looks so GOOD! Enjoy your Sunday
You wear me out, girlfriend!! Love, love the Santa quilt and mine will come along very slowly, trust me.
IMPRESSIVE. Is there no such thing as QA-ing for you?
WaHoo!!!! And there is still time before Christmas arrives. I have several Christmas tops I hang up around the house. Notice I say top because none (well maybe 2-or 3) are actual real quilts. One of these years I might even finish them. ha Yours is just too cute> Congrats for pressing on.
Santa is lovely! Sorry you had to work through a pattern with poor directions. I like how you played with the half square triangles around the house. That in itself is a cute little quilt. Have fun quilting it.
I, too, appreciate that some people are willing to serve food to those who for some reason or another wish to dine out on Thanksgiving. I draw the limit there, too.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I love the pop of blue in the village! This quilt has really turned out nice.
You are amazing, Elizabeth! I have a pet peeve about patterns that obviously haven’t been tested before publishing. Sorry for you.
I saw your quilt in Instagram and had to come over to see it in more detail! What a super fun round robin! I love christmas quilts, and yours is awesome! Where is the santa appilque from? It looks like Sandy Gervais design maybe? i’d love to buy that pattern for it. Looking forward to seeing how you quilt it!
I wonder if my friends are bothered when I sew while on the phone?! We are having a small Thanksgiving this year…just three of us–my husband, me, and our oldest. The girls will be with their in-laws. My son suggested we just go out, but is just couldn’t do that…not yet!
I can’t believe how quickly you pieced the houses and assembled the quilt top!!! It’s absolutely gorgeous!!!! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! I agree with you….no shopping on that day 😉