Highs and Lows in gift giving.

I finished this quilt months ago but I have been holding it back because it looks Christmasy to me.  It is covering my navy blue couch.  It still needs some tweaking because the blue toile curtains look out of place and fortunately the "U" flag is coming down because they lost yesterday and that is the end of season.  I'm really not upset about the flag coming down (not at all!) but it is sad.

I made two mini quilts for Christmas gifts.  I fell in love with the dark print of the forest scene in this line called Juniper Berry.  This little quilt got aqua borders and a red Christmas mouse backing.  I also embroidered little star outlines around the dots.  I did minimal machine quilting.

The other little quilt had red borders and red lettered fabric from the same line on the back.  It also had a different arrangement of the four patches and solid blocks. I did more machine quilting on this one.  I really like this one the best but, it's already wrapped so only the recipient and I will be able to see it -ha!

A few posts back I was so excited because this little quilt turned out so well.  I carefully handquilted the whole thing and was pleased with the way it turned.

It's a case of "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" because I put it into the washer for a cold rinse to get the blue marker out and it bled.  I rinsed it again, I  used "color catchers" both times. But, not only did it run but the batting I used shrunk excessively.  It is the same batting I have on many of my little quilts.  It was the batting suggested in my Jo Morton class, Mountain Mist all cotton batting.

I guess I won't be washing the other minis.  That, or I'll have to block them to dry.  I couldn't do that with this mini with the chance that the red fabrics would bleed even more while drying .

The pictures below are after I pressed it with steam on the back side to get it to lay flat.

These pictures show where the red bled into the white.

 So. . . I couldn't give this little quilt away with it's flaws.  I had to make another one.  I decided to do something different because the quilt above was tricky to sew and I was determined to not add any red fabric.  I also needed a project that I could finish quickly.

This is what I came up with.  I used a lot more of the knitting fabric and bought a FAMILY hanger to use.  I don't like it as well as the other version but it's done and it's bright and cheerful.

The colors are truer in this picture.

I used "Big Stitch" on both this quilt and the one below.

I also made this cute little mini.  I really want to keep it as it would go in my red, white, and blue living room very well.  But, it will soon be wrapped and on it's way.

My husband decided he wanted to get solar panels for our roof.  Then he remembered that we needed a new cooler.  He knew the it would be better to get the cooler before they solar panels were installed.  So, here it is November and we bought a new cooler that our son and SIL helped install.

The next 3 pictures were the progress of the sunrise on Friday morning.  Sometimes it pays to get up early.

Thanks for checkin' in,
Robin

I'm going to link up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday.