Last post for 2020!

It's hard to believe that this crazy year is almost over, but here we are - almost at New Years Eve. What a strange year it has been, we've had incredible highs and some dreadfully low issues to deal with too - honestly I don't think any of us will be forgetting 2020 any time soon.

So, what has been going on here this past month? Well, in my last post I mentioned that I was working on some secret squirrel things - they were small gifts for the lovely girls that come to my class:

The applique portion of this block is from Sue Garman's 'Afternoon Delight' quilt. I made one for each of the sweet ladies - they all have different green fabrics, and a variety of background fabrics too. I really liked making them, and hopefully my ladies liked them too.

Then it was back to quilting on the baby quilt - I'm one quarter the way through the final border now:

It's hard to take a good photo of the quilting - I'll try to get one when it's finished with the hubster's help - he always manages to take great photos. When this darling project is finished, I'm going to put the white queen size wholecloth into the quilting hoop. It's not something I want to finish in a hurry, but it'll be nice to be able to sit and quilt on it a little when I feel like it.

And in the week before Christmas, I put together this year's gingerbread house which is a tradition for our family. I wanted to make it a big one this year, and I think I accomplished that!

Marty printed a template on his 3D printer for me to stamp the gingerbread pieces prior to baking, and that made the lovely brick effect. It took me a few goes to figure out how it all lined up properly, but it didn't take long before I was zooming along with it. We still haven't eaten any of the house (which is unusual) the quilting ladies asked if we could keep it intact until they start visiting again at the end of January. I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises!

Next year it may all be much lower key as we'll have a 9 month old grandbaby with us, so time may be delightfully scarcer!

And last of all, something I could have shared last time - I have an almost new overlocker!

I have wanted one of these for the longest time - I'd done some research and decided that the 644D was the one I wanted - it's apparently great for a beginner and super easy to thread. I'd obviously even chattered to Marty about it - but never pulled the trigger on buying one - I was worried it'd be a fad for me and I'd never really use it much. $600 to $700 is a lot of money to spend on something you're not sure about.

Marty must have listened carefully as he found this on a chance trip to Cash Converters and it appears to have barely been used. All the accessories were still in their plastic storage bags, and it came with a trolley case too. He bargained them down further to $229 and brought it home for me. Colour me happy! 

I'm still not too sure about it - I'm admittedly a terrible perfectionist, and I find it a bit out of control - it's flat out or stop! But I've been watching some you tube videos and playing with some scraps and so far have managed to put most of a tennis skirt together. I'm determined to do some classes next year to learn to use it properly and look out, I'll be making lots of garments!

Now, last of all, I feel the need to offer my readers (and in particular those of you who have posted comments) a huge apology!

After my last post I was looking around in the settings of my blog and learned that at some stage 'comment moderation' had been activated on my blog. It was set to kick if anyone posted a comment more than 5 days after the date of a blog post. It also did not alert me by email that something was waiting for me to approve it. So, I looked into the comments awaiting approval, and there were hundreds of them! A good portion were junk, but I'd say a quarter of them were sweet readers with comments and questions. OMG, I was mortified! So please do forgive me for not getting back to you when you sent through your comments - I simply had no idea they were there. 

I've rectified the problem, I've asked it to mail me when something is awaiting moderation, and I've set the day limit to a longer time. I don't think I'm ready to let moderation go entirely based on some of the spammy messages in there - but I'll see how it goes. So, please forgive me for my ignorance - I'll do much better going forward.

In the lead up to New Years, please have a lovely time ringing in 2021 in any way you're able to, and I'll look forward to sharing more quilty content with you next year! xoxox