three quilts?

When it rains quilty goodness around here, it pours.

I haven't done much in the last two weeks, but today I got up knowing I had three quilts I want finished for/by Christmas.

The tops were done.  The backs were pieced.  I had the right color thread.

After a marathon shopping day yesterday, the hubby declared today a stay-at-home day.  Which is what I needed.  If I try to plan one, he invariably decides that we need to go do something about 5 minutes after I start doing ANYthing.

So after a few small chores, I loaded up the baby quilt.  She's due soon, so this was the most urgent.

After the first pass, I remembered to take a photo.  It looks a little redder here than it actually is, but at least I have proof that it's being quilted, right?

I finished this about lunchtime - and the hubby went up for a nap after making himself breakfast around 9:30 - so I took a break to eat some leftovers by myself.

Then I loaded up the HoHoHo quilt because this one is FOR Christmas.

If you take the photo from the wrong angle it looks like it says OhOhOh, but you know better.

My longarm was behaving quite nicely until the second pass on this quilt.  I had a bobbin change and I don't know what was going on, but that second pass had more thread breaks than the rest of my quilting day combined.  I cleaned and adjusted and did what I could and pass three went much better.  Pass four was even better.  Apparently it just needed to have a tantrum.  Maybe I should have shared my lunch?  (Do longarms like burritos?)

And with this done and daylight still available, I decided to load up the mystery quilt from earlier this year.  This is going to my great-niece and isn't intended as a Christmas gift, but I'd like to get it to her before she's too big to use it.  (It's not very big.)

The longarm was still behaving tolerably well and this only took two full passes, plus a third half-width pass.  So it went quickly.

I'm so happy!

Of course, I still have a fair amount of work to go - longarming goes quite fast, particularly if you just put overall free-hand swirls on everything.  So next up is getting binding on, but with the cooler weather here, I won't mind sitting under a quilt while I sew that on.  And since I have the holiday weekend off (I never expected that, but I'm NOT complaining), but the hubby has to work at least Friday, I should have some solid time to get it done.  Well, some of it.

In other news, Toby got a new bed.

As I was wandering through my (more than just) grocery store, wondering why they have 400,000 Christmas toys and treats for dogsand none for cats, I came across this dog bed.  It's clearly not for the holiday, but when I saw a Squishmallow octopus "dog" bed, you know that went directly into my cart, right?  So stinking cute!

I think he likes it.

The signage said there was also a shark.  I haven't found the shark.  That might be a good thing.

I stopped at the local pet store a few days later and found them some Christmas toys.  That are probably all lost under furniture by now.  (It was fun while it lasted and I'll eventually clean and move said furniture and then it will be like Christmas again!)

Though my sewing has slowed down, I am still reading.  It's easier to do that when I'm exhausted after a 12-hour shift at work.  But the first book I'll share took For. Ever. to read, so the amount of books doesn't look like much for two weeks.

The best part of this book was the old lady who called people "fart blossom."  I like that term.  I must remember to use it.

I'd read another book by this author and it was much the same.  A lot of words, not much happening.  A lot of flawed characters who go around doing flawed character things.  You hope when they know they're making bad choices, they'll eventually make better ones.  You might even hope for some resolution of the struggles they face.  Nope.

Remind me not to pick up any other books by this author.

The next book, however, made up for it.

Set in the segregated south in the early 1960's, told from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl, this book is sad and frustrating and honest.  She sees a lot of things that she doesn't really understand, but accepts them as how things are.  I understood them, but wondered how much went on in my life when I was her age that I would see differently if I saw it today.

We see a lot of her life for about a year and I was pleased that at the end of the book, her adult life, many years later, is brought into the story.  Seeing how her life turned out is a nice way to end the story, though there is certainly a lot more of her life in front of her that is left to contemplate.

I really enjoyed this book and kept wanting to read just one more chapter or get done with my chores so I could read a little more.

And that's all I have for you for the last two weeks.

I'm excited to have another 4-day weekend coming - 4.5 if you count that we're closing early on Wednesday - even if it includes making cheesecake and driving all over to eat turkey.  Maybe I'll have a finished quilt or two next week?

Happy quilting,

Katie