Projects New and Old

Hard to believe that it's been nearly a month since my last post - this year is really flying by!  The past few weeks have been fairly productive - I've made progress on a couple of old projects and started (or prepared to start) a few new ones.  First, a finish - I finally completed my Vines and Flowers rug from Anita's class last November.

My Tulip Cross rug is keeping my frame occupied until I head to Janice's for a workshop next month. I've hooked a little on it but it is tough getting back into a project after a 5+ year hiatus. I really need to stick with it and finish that rug. It is still one of my favorite projects. If only there wasn't SO much border!

I also finished a few more 6" LeMoyne Stars. I am getting very close to having all of these blocks completed.   I'm thinking I should get on a quilter's list for February to force myself to finish up.  I always do better when I have a deadline!

I attended a local retreat a couple of weekends ago and spent all three days working on my Celtic Solstice.  My goal is to have the top finished before the next one begins Nov 28. I am getting very close - the center is together and I started piecing the borders over the weekend. My plan is take over the family room and get the borders on when the hubby heads to Florida.

I've decided to stick with Bonnie's colors for this year's mystery.  I thought I would go Civil War, but I like the colors she went with and seem to have almost everything I need in my stash.  Here's what I have so far:

I need to add a couple more fat quarters of pink and black.  I didn't have much of either in my stash, but I have all of the other colors well covered.  It's always exciting to be able to use up 10+ yards of stash!

I didn't spend my entire weekend in the sewing room.  On Friday night I drove down to Rolla to see Home Free perform.  It was a fantastic show - so much fun!  They are incredibly talented. I'm completely bummed that they won't be coming anywhere close to St. Louis on their Christmas tour.  I would love to see them again!

And speaking of Christmas (shudder!), I started another new project over the weekend - a block of the month tree skirt in wool. I've been wanting to make a tree skirt for years and this pattern is adorable.  It's wool applique, too - much more "do-able" than the Judy Niemeyer pattern I've been considering for years.  Here's the first prepped section...no sewing done yet:

It didn't occur to me until after I had pressed the fusible onto the wool that I forgot to reverse the pattern.  Oh well... No one will ever know, right???