Hometown Christmas and General Quilty News

I've been feeling pretty guilty lately for having fallen behind in the Hometown Christmas project--as of January 15th, I should have had three more sections done than I did have. What kind of "leader" am I anyway? Not a very good one, I guess! I hope to catch up soon, but one of the sections will be applique, so that will take a little longer--it will replace the section that's supposed to look like holly and berries if you squinch up your eyes and turn your head sideways.

I DID get one section done tonight, though--that's it in the photo above. And yes, as a matter of fact, I did change it a bit. This is the one that's in the second row down on the right side--in the original pattern, it's a house, then two trees together to the right of the house, and then a couple filler blocks on the end. I made a different tree (the same tree block I used in the Winter/Valentine's quilt but a little smaller) and reversed the tree and house. The house is the same as the original pattern though. So, now I just have two more sections to make, and I'll be caught up. Well, except that another one will be due by the end of January! You can't see all of the sections (my design wall's not even wide enough for them!), but here's a quick photo of a couple I have up on the wall. I was looking at them tonight, and I think I want to add some applique embellishments to a few. It's probably best if I do that before they get too large to handle easily.

Sometime around the end of December, I said I planned to spend January getting some quilt projects finished up, and I've been doing just that. In the last week, I've gotten three small quilts quilted and bound. The first two are from my Jo's Little Women Club. The 9-patch blocks in the first one are 1-1/2" finished. I think those rail fence-type blocks in the second one are 1" finished. I haven't had a chance to wash them yet, so you'll still see the quilt markings on them--sorry about that!

The third one I finished is one of the two Trees on the Table toppers I made from Marcie's free pattern. I'm either really, really late for Christmas or I'm really early. Since I'm so late on Hometown Christmas, let's just pretend I'm really early with this one for next Christmas! I'm not sure they show up very well in the photo, but I used a decorative machine stitch for tree "garland" and sewed on colored buttons for "ornaments."

The weekend's here! I'm SOOOO envious of all the quilters attending Road to California. My husband and I talked a little bit about going this year but never did make any real plans--maybe we'll go next year. Whatever you're doing this weekend, I hope you have a great one!