A REALLY SCRAPPY QUILT

I know, it's been far too long since I posted.  My apologies!  There has been just too much going on, and I'll mention that later, but for now, just "hot off the needle" a really, really scrappy quilt.

We in the sewing room are gifted with many, many fabrics.  There was a small stack of 5" squares, and my friend Joan had brought two long strips of "piano keys" meaning sidewise small strips sewn together.  I had finished the last quilt I was working on for the sewing room and was looking for another project.  We combined the strips with the 5" squares, cut them apart and arranged them in this order, "sandwiched" them and yesterday I machine quilted them in a meander pattern and bound them with the left over fabric from the backing.  We think it's kind of cute and proof that you can put anything together in a scrappy quilt.  The squares that look black are actually navy print fabrics.  So this makes a third finish this year for the Sewing Room's stack of quilts to give away.

Here is the second finish:

 

This quilt, like the next one was printed material that we "sandwiched," quilted and bound.  A rather plain quilt, but perhaps someone will like it.  And the first finish (actually first in order of time) was also printed fabric, "sandwiched," machine quilted and bound.  Not a bad tally for the time spent on them.  

 

Now I'm desiring to make a quilt "from scratch"--not just a printed piece of material, but make the blocks, sew them together and make a "real" quilt.  In the quilt room on Thursday three of us were joking around about a remark a very, very precise woman made a few years ago.  She said, offhand to a woman she was teaching how to quilt, that what we made were not "real quilts"!  We decided to call them "stuffed blankets."

The very first thing I did here this fall was get the binding on this nice little December wall hanging that is currently on our patio wall.  I don't have a hanging for January, so maybe I'll leave this one up for a few weeks yet.

                           

Another project finished just this past week was a pair of socks for my brother-in-law.  He really loves his hand-knit socks so I make him a pair every year.  I started these at the end of September but finished them only last week, a pair for Christmas instead of his birthday this year.  The picture is actually of last year's socks for our grandson, but I neglected to take a picture of Wayne's socks which were the same, so substituted this picture for the one I forgot to take.

There have also been rehearsals and concerts, so much fun!  Here's a snap or two from the Santa Lucia Christmas Concert at church.  My friend Nan took these pictures:

                                 

There were three choirs involved, and a bell choir, piano, organ, small orchestra.  Quite a group to manage all together.  We had a total of 900 people attending over the two nights.  A really good crowd, considering the church seats 480 people!

It's evident I enjoyed it:

That Friday morning Nan and I attended a short Jr.Hi. concert in the Community Center foyer.  This school comes every year to serenade us.  There was a small string group (5 violins and 2 cellos), a fairly large choir (to the left waiting for their turn) and a small band group.  The choir was amazing!  They had memorized all their songs--at least twelve and were obviously enjoying singing.  One girl in the back row was so into the songs, swaying and waving her hands.  One young boy in the front row chewed busily on some gum in between phrases!  What a hoot!

Because the choir had memorized their songs they were all almost always watching the director.  Kudos to them!  I look forward to these musical treats each year.

The Sun Cities Orchestra did not give a December concert this year, but we have one coming up the last Sunday of January.  Something more to look forward to!

Plus there has been lots of choir music.  In addition to the concert we sing at services each Sunday.  This morning I played Brahm's "Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming" on the organ during communion, and I've played a few violin pieces and a viola piece during various services.  AAAH, what a lot of fun I've had!

So, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!