Does the end of the calendar year approaching make you work on projects even more? It is always a motivator to me and I usually have time off work at the end of the year which allows me to spend more time that usual sewing and stitching. This December was no different, but even more sweet because my daughter came home in the middle of the month so I have been able to spend lots of time with her. We had a nice Christmas with my parents on Christmas Day and then my cousins the day after and we counted down to the new year with friends last night.
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| Christmas Dinner |
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| Cousins, Aunts and Uncles |
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| Making candles with my mom and daughters |
My next two pieces were quick starts and finishes in December and I am happy to have two more ornaments ready to make for the tree.
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| Woodland Peace by Heart in Hand stitched on kit fabric with kit threads |
I also fully finished three (more) items, wrapping up my FFO challenge strong!
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| Canoeing Santa by The Prairie Schooler stitched on a scrap of linen with DMC threads |
I stitched Chilly Penguins in 2022 and it has been on my design wall ever since - I knew I wanted to finish it into a wall hanging but hadn't taken the time to do the measurements or select fabrics, which I finally did. It really went together quickly after that and I am so happy with how it turned out. I am on the fence on whether I am going to keep or gift this one but I have a while before I need to make that decision, for the moment, I am happy to have it finished.
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| Chilly Penguins by The Birdhouse Designs |
The next one is a little salty - I stitched it earlier this year as a gift for a friend and the phrase is perfect for her ;) - this one is finished as a flat fold and I added a bit of chenille to the edge.
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| Sorry by Stitchy Little Fox on Etsy |
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| Spell Binding by Plum Pudding Needlearts |
On the quilting front, my main goal for this month was to finish up a few of my projects - from this year and UFOs - so that I go into 2024 with a bit shorter list of unfinished quilting projects.
Candy Blossoms was quilted last month and just needed binding, as were my US States wall hangings. Before I started binding things, I decided to get one more top quilted and finished up Fit to be Geese, made in 2021. I quilted this one with cross-hatching on my Janome 6600. Once all three were quilted, I lined them up assembly line style and got them all bound. The first two were fully bound by machine, and the third one was attached to the front by machine and then hand stitched to the back. I am really happy to have these three finished before year-end.
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| Fit to be Geese Quilt/wall hanging |
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| Candy Blossoms quilt/table topper |
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| US States Wall Hangings |
December was a great month for wrapping things up and I will have another post soon summarizing my year. For now, let's cover the monthly metrics.
Stitching time with Kate at Life in Pieces: 29/31 days with at least 15 minutes of crafting = 94%
Stash Report with Donna at quiltpaintcreate:
Fabric used this month: 1 3/8 yards
Fabric added year to date: 16 1/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 27 3/4 yards
Net fabric used: 11 1/2 yards
Stitching projects: +3 finishes, -4 FFOs (but one of them wasn't on my original list!) = 36 to be finished
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