We don't do much for Christmas, no grandkids and everyone pretty much settled so I'm working on my own projects. A few years ago I realized that although I made quilts all the time I gave them away and my own were falling apart so I decided that I would have one themed quilt for me for each month of the year. I just got back from visiting a friend in the Phoenix area and we shopped her stash for a few more fan blades for my Thanksgiving Turkey fan project. I'm making 25 blocks, each blade (200) is a different fabric. I have fussy cut turkey fabric for the pie piece of the fan. Today I will be combining 2-blade sections into 4-blades, then it's just one more seam for all 8 blades, so maybe I'll get that done too. I'll be using what I'm calling the Eleanor Burns method of using rickrack on the curved seams, basically appliqueing the pie and blade pieces onto a background so the rickrack shows as a textural element. I know I don't describe it well, here is a video (the rickrack part starts around minute 18)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktzb2wMMwzc
While I was visiting my friend, she gifted me her previous primary machine, a nice modern Bernina. That came in the mail last night and so needs to be unpacked and set up. I'm not sure, I'll need to move some furniture around to find out but I might have to change out the electrical outlet to a three-prong one, my house was built in 1963 with 2-prong and I've upgraded all the other outlets.
My next project which will be done on the new machine is another one for me. It's for the month of June and the theme is vacation/travel. I have collected a wide variety of actual postcard sized pieces. I went on a trip back home to Alaska (grew up there from ages 10-23 -- my friend in Phoenix was actually a roommate back around 1982 or so) and got quite a few, and another 2 while in Phoenix. Very simple attic window sets around the postcards and then a black background grid so it sort of recalls the old scrapbooks. I've got my 58+ postcards needed and it will go fast.
That should take me through the rest of the year. I have a bunch of tops to quilt down, will try a couple of donation crib sized quilts on the Bernina. I have one other quilt in progress, August whose theme is "Farm/Harvest" which is very different than my usual traditional style. It will have a few pieced blocks, the large Barn block is done, there will be a hen and chicks, 2 tiny hummingbirds, a horse face, pig face, couple others, and the rest of the quilt will be random sized largish pieces of fabric of crops (only those grown in Washington so no lemons or pineapples!), with some roads between the crops on the bottom. Then various farm animals in the middle including the pieced blocks. The Barn & Hummingbirds will be in the top third, as will the horses and will go up to a lake with ducks and trees and other farm scenes in the distance. It will be simply quilted with a chicken wire grid and then embellished with all sorts of things like tractors in the roads, bunny buttons in the cabbages, an owl patch in the upper barn opening, etc. etc.
And then I have fabric collected and ready to go for several projects :) I've gotten a number of ideas for new projects from this board... the only downside to being here!