Finishing up some old projects

I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but here in Central Coast California, we skipped Fall and went right into winter!  Temperatures have dropped and we've had frost a couple of mornings already.  

Now that the Christmas projects for this year are done, its time to bring out some of the projects that I have started this year (and several are older than that!) and finish them up.  I made a deal with myself that I could only start a new project after finishing up two old projects, or at least, get back to working on them.  I tend to get bored working on the same project for days in a row so I tend to mix it up a bit.  I'm lucky to have a big enough work area that I can have several projects going at one time.  I don't know if you remember me working on the Pineapple Rainbow Quilt, but I only had three blocks left to finish it up and I had all the other rows sewn together.  I even had the border pieces cut.  I decided that would be an easy project to finish.

I got all of the pieces in order for the border (which you can see in the picture) and thought if I could get one border strip done each day, by Thursday I would have them all done and then putting it together would be easy.  I did take an extra two days to get a couple other small projects finished up but today I've got it all together.  Yippee!  The really fun part of this border is the corners.  I really don't like making mitered borders although I do love the way they look.  So, I made a cheater corner block for piano key borders.

I also love to have the outer border pieced on our foundations because it keeps from having a wavy edge.  The foundation is just enough support to keep the shape and size of the border and quilt.  I feel so bad when I see quilts hung that have waves in them; all that work and it doesn't hang right.  

I also got a project done for my oldest grandson.  They celebrate Hannukah at his mother's home and I had seen a cute little quilt in a very old quilt magazine years ago that I remembered.

The eight flames across the top have velcro on the back side so he can add a flame each night.  I made a label/pocket for the back side to keep the flames in until its time to "light" another one.  

Its been a pretty productive week around here and I hope it continues again this week.  Its looking more and more like things are going to be closing down a bit more due to the spike in covid cases.  Thank goodness my business/passion can continue through this time and I don't mind having to stay home.  I feel so blessed that I have this; wish it could be that way for everyone.  In the meantime, I hope you all are staying safe and especially staying healthy and taking good care of yourselves; both mentally and physically.  Keep quilting as much as you can, its good for the soul.