I finished up the first Oriental Baltimore block, Maple leaves. I really saw a lot of improvement as I worked on this and am pretty please with the result. I have to do applique in small chunks as it really bothers my back but I quite enjoyed it. Next up will be an iris block.

This pincushion has been on my todo list for awhile. It’s one of the Christmas gifts I’d planned to make but now I’m glad I went another route. It’s cute but not quite what I’d hope for. I’d like a pointier face/beak and a rounder body. I’ll keep searching for the right pincushion pattern for my friend and in the meantime this will work nicely for me. You can find the pattern here. My inspector says, “It’s cute but not good to eat.” I changed a few things. I used batting to “stuff” my wings and tail and I love how well that worked. I also stuffed my birdie with crushed walnut shell and skipped the insert that’s meant to weigh it down.

Two more holiday gifts made it off the sewing machine but I’m not sure I’ll get all the way through my list so there might be one or two last minute purchased ones. The leafy table runner worked out nicely with plan B and it’s all set to be gifted. This is a sweet shopping bag for a special someone who I think will appreciate the theme.

For the most part I store my files digitally but some of them I use over and over and those are useful to keep in printed form, particularly the pattern pieces. When we trekked down to the Container Store for my Elfa drawers, I also picked up a little file storage and some file folders because I’d outgrown my little expandafile. It’s nice to have it all tidy again and this is actually much easier to flip through.

When we last visited this project it wasn’t going so well. Despite having sewn all sorts of curves for clothing, this curved piecing just wasn’t working for me so I went to plan B. I cut new muslin blocks and cut them in half on the diagonal and then appliqued my leaf halves onto them. Inserting the stems wasn’t too tough but I did have to resquare all the blocks afterward. I think directions for this pattern were fairly lacking in detail leaving an inexperienced quilter to just wing it but I made it work in the end. If I do it again, I need a rounder leaf template. It’s all pinned and waiting for quilting now.

Yesterday I worked on birthday gifts instead of Christmas gifts. I’ve been meaning to make some of these shopping bags for a friend of mine for ages and this year I finally got it done. I’ve been using my own set of shopping bags for a few years now and they have really held up well despite regularly being loaded down with heavy groceries. It’s really easy to scale the bag or up or down and it’s still my favorite pattern.

It’s not ALL holiday gift sewing around here. On Sunday afternoon, I took a break in order to attend a class at the Quilted Crow on invisible machine applique. It was an excellent class with very clear instructions and quite organized. There was quite a bit of homework beforehand and this is not a fast technique though it’s certainly faster than hand applique. I would absolutely do this again for a small special project. We finished 1/4 of the design during class and I was very glad I took the time to clean and oil my machine before I went because it was the most well-behaved machine of the bunch.

I’ve wanted some elfa drawer storage for the sewing room for awhile now and when Daniel asked for some flat totes for under-the-bed storage I had just the excuse I needed. I bought two elfa “start a stack” units and easily cleared out 3 of those tubs as well as stacks of stuff from various and sundry surfaces in the craft room. Being in the middle of gift sewing, I haven’t really properly organized the fabric but this is so much easier to use than those heavy totes.

Here’s another finished table topper. I had some trouble with the quilting and after the fact I realized I should have run my bobbin thread through the “finger” for a little added bobbin tension.

I was excited to find tea towel yardage at the quilt shop now at very affordable prices. I picked up a redwork book and plant to embroider these for yet another holiday gift.