I’ve been thoroughly enjoying meandering through sewing projects all year. However, we’re now half way through November, Christmas is looming, and I’m finding the number of projects I have on the go beginning to stifle rather than promote creativity. Time for a reality check! What am I likely to work on through to Christmas? To answer this question, I tidied the Sewing Room, storing away several projects, clearing space on the worktops (and on my ‘thinking seat’ aka the sofa bed), choosing a limited number of projects to concentrate on in the weeks before the Festive Season takes over completely.

It might be a bit hard to see in these photos but I’ve cleared away several projects from around my sewing machine. Eagle-eyed readers might also notice I’ve swapped to my heavy duty machine as one of my pre-festive projects is the quilting of a top I made this time last year. Using beautiful Moda French General fabrics, mainly from the Rouenneries Deux collection, I designed and pieced this patchwork but ran out of time to piece the backing.

Somehow it feels right to be bringing this out of the UFO Cupboard of Shame a year on from when the first waves of creative enthusiasm were running through me. So that’s the first of the pre-Christmas projects I’ve chosen to work on. Since tidying my room and retrieving the quilt top, I’ve made the binding and pieced the backing. Now I’m waiting on delivery of a pack of Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding before basting and quilting.

My second project is another begun this time last year: my knitted cardigan. I completed the back, front panels and sleeves but got a bit stuck trying to remember how to pick up stitches for the button panels and collar (it is a l-o-n-g time since I knitted a garment!).

At the start of this year a kind friend showed me how to neatly pick up stitches but I was in full meandering mode and didn’t get on and do it! Same friend has recently shown me again how to pick up stitches and the project is now on my pre-Christmas action list. As the weather turns cooler the thought of having a finished Aran weight cardigan is growing more and more appealing!

My third pre-Christmas project is the Fall Foliage quilt. I’ve left the completed blocks up on the design wall and class this as my ‘background project’. One to play with when I need a bit of time creating. I don’t expect to finish this quilt before the end of the year but I will enjoy turning to it as an antidote to the mounting pressures of the season!

As you can see from the photos the Ohio Star Table Runner is finished.

Quilted and binding attached.

I’m pleased with this design and hope it will encourage people to join my Beginners Patchwork Quilting Course (more details on my Workshop page). And actually that leads neatly to the fourth of my pre-Christmas projects: finish writing the Ohio Star Runner pattern ready for the Course in January.

So the Meandering is straightened out a little but there’s still the option to move between projects and, who knows, there may be another meandering turn (or two) before the year is out 😉

Allison