Start Early and Still Be Late

Have you ever walked into a big box store in the fall to find Halloween decorations displayed right along with the Christmas fare? While many people would roll their eyes in disgust, I would not. For me, skeletons next to the stockings is a bellwether that holiday quilt making is nigh! You can’t start too early, in my opinion. I say that from experience as I have a treasure trove of unfinished holiday projects. Every year I say I’m going to start early but every year I end up with a craft fair’s worth of unfinished projects.

I’m still working on a Christmas table topper that I started four years ago. It’s just a table topper… thank goodness it isn’t a memory quilt! Worse than that, I have a bag of kitschy satin thread-covered Styrofoam ball Christmas ornaments that you decorate with ribbon and about a million beads held on with pins. I bought that kit way back in the 80’s because I thought it would be a fun project to do with the kids. The kids grew up and moved out years ago. The ornaments remain not started and ever hopeful that their time will come. Maybe this year.

I bought some Alexander Henry holiday prints that I planned to make placemats out of three houses ago, back when I used to have an epic dining room table. I’ve packed that fabric up and moved it three times since then. I can’t bring myself to get rid of it because I know it’s going to make beautiful placements someday, whatever table it eventually ends up on.

The top for a log cabin quilt made with beautiful, muted holiday colors is finished but it’s still waiting for batting, backing, quilting, and binding. This was the second or third quilt I ever made, back when all I knew how to make was Log Cabin blocks. My quilting expertise has improved considerably since then and I could make any quilt block now. Maybe its rudimentary design is keeping me from finishing this one, but I do have an amazing sleigh-ride print for the backing fabric which keeps this quilt full of promise.

Whatever holiday projects you haven’t finished, do not despair. There is always next year!

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Please join us here every other Wednesday for another fun, fiber-filled installment of By the Yard. You can read more By the Yard® at www.bytheyardcomics.com and check out the By the Yard 2023 Calendar for Quilters, a great gift for the quilters in your life.