A Couple of Finishes

I've had a busy and happy Thanksgiving weekend with a couple of adult children at home to help with cooking and eating turkey, of course.  Now that it's over and I haven't begun the Christmas activities, I've been able to spend some time in the sewing room.

First of all, I finished this long table runner--it's 65 1/2" long!  I found the free pattern somewhere on the Internet several years ago, and bought the multicolored fabric at that time as well. The fabric is many hued glass Christmas ornament balls jumbled together and I thought it would bring a lot of color to this piece.  Believe me, it did!

It's five 12.5 inch Courthouse Steps blocks with a rather narrow border of three colors of fabric.

 For the quilting, I followed the illustration in the pattern and did a simple buttonhole stitch in gold metallic thread.  The gold/yellow fabric in the centers of the blocks and in the border also has a bit of gold glitz so I think the buttonhole thread worked out well.

This will be in my Etsy shop, Jolly Ruby before noon today.  I just looked at the site and realize I still have the Halloween things in the shop so if you want to get something for next year, it's still available. :)

I also finished the second of the Santa embroideries and am ready for it to be picked up by it's buyer. Again, this is a sale for the Jolly Ruby fund which helps with unexpected expenses of adults with disabilities.  I have a third order for this table runner and I have 2.5 Santas finished and hope to get the rest of them finished before the end of next week. When I was finishing off the one above, I cut the trim and binding and sewed the checkerboard border for the third one, so it should finish up quickly once the embroidery is finished.  This third sale is also for Jolly Ruby.  It won't go into the Etsy shop since I don't have enough time to make another one before the holiday.  But there's always next year!

Lastly, I made up this little quilted Christmas tag/ornament.  It measures about 4.5 inches squarish without the ribbon.  I want to make one for everyone on the gift list and will use a variety of fabrics--some traditional and some modern. Who says a quilted Christmas tree can't be pink and purple? Remember the aluminum trees we had in the 60s?

I've been collecting free ornament patterns on the Internet to make for the shop we'll be having next November at the Quilt Tour event that my guild participates in every other year.  This is a big fundraiser for the domestic abuse shelter in town.  Five or six of the area quilting guilds and groups each have a show, each at a different location. My guild is the largest of them and we hold ours at the largest church and have a craft shop and offer a lunch as well.  It's a lot of fun and not too much work since there are a lot of helping hands to make it all happen.  

I'm also going to make some card wallets, pin cushions, and clothes for 18" dolls.  Hopefully, they will all sell and the guild will fatten up its treasury. :)

I'd better get onto Jolly Ruby and get that table runner listed.  I also want to begin making HST for Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt. I've neglected this for the past few years. but I'm excited to participate in it this year.  So, I have nearly 300 2" half square triangles to get done before tomorrow. Yeah, like that's really going to happen!