Getting ready for Christmas

With the last few work projects heading out the door, I'm scrambling to get everything else ready in time for the holidays. The tree, though, has been up for a while, displaying ornaments plucked from thrift and antique shops by the Other, the Mother, and me. I think the Other considers my colour coordination of the tree a little fascist. I can live with that.

Slash/Backslash quilt top

I should probably be devoting all sewing time to Christmas presents, but I was feeling the quilting bug and threw this top together. It's another one I designed a while ago. I'm pretty much over the colours, but it used up fabric I'd been gathering to go with Plain Spoken and Day at the Beach.

Piecing the triangles wasn't as scary as I'd been led to believe—the hardest part was working out the math so I could sew squares (and then slice 'em apart afterwards) rather than actual triangles. Oddly enough, I found it much easier to match the points on opposing 45-degree angles than I did on the perpendicular lines. I'm quite looking forward to putting my walking foot to use with the quilting, now that I've finally got one.

So now, thanks to a coupon from Jo-Ann.com, I'm off for a half-off batting....

January/Febrary Quilter's Home out

The latest issue of Quilter's Home has been spotted in the wild, so head to your local quilt shop if you'd like to check out my article on killing off lingering UFOs. I'm looking forward to reading about Quiltzillas, McQuilters, and other characters from quiltland....

Update: And thanks to Whip Up for featuring my Transport pillow in their recent What's Quilting post!