Christmas cactii, Elsie, Cookie, leftover blocks, labels

Michael left at 9:30 on Monday morning (11/30) to run a ton of errands (the bank, chiro, Omaha Steak to send food to the kids for Christmas, WALMART, liquor store for more Asti, BJ’s) and I headed to the studio.  He didn’t get home until almost 3 PM (!!!) and he also went to a couple of mysterious places that he wouldn’t tell me about (#Christmasiscoming).   

Michael’s second Christmas cactus is blooming!  Remember this first one:   

Well, here is the second one:   

 They live on the window sill in our laundry room.   

Anyway, before I headed downstairs, I had to take 2 more pictures.  Apparently “big sis” has usurped the coveted quilted spot:  

 So younger sis has had to drop back to her space in the kitchen:   

she didn't look happy

 I finally headed to the studio to face 2 new problems.  One of the sewing things I have a problem with in my studio is the leftover “bits & bobs” that come when I’ve finished a project.  I currently have 2 sets of orphan blocks and in cleaning up my studio I’ve decided to concentrate into turning them into…..something!  I’m going to keep track of the evolution on my design wall and we’ll all see together what exactly comes out of it.  Here’s what I’m starting with as leftovers from the THREE DUDES QUILT I am currently binding:  

so far I've just laid out in same pattern as the quilt; this is only 24" by 24"

I also have some leftover ends of strata that are too small to cut additional blocks out of, 

 so I spent the evening starting to rip them apart for future incorporation into this made up quilt:

The second set of leftovers is a lot of blues from the 2 blue quilts (both originally for Michael as you may remember).  I had a few 9 patches, a few strata pieces and some solids:

 I got the center sewn together and decided I had enough in the outside square to make the white part bigger (some solid blue will go in the white part):

Then Michael came down and evened out my outside square so that all of the lights weren't together:

this is maybe 30" by 30"

It's going to take a lot more fabric to get them close to a Clinton sized quilt....so stay tuned :~)

 During the day I also got 3 labels made (for my last 3 donation quilts for 2015):  

even though my heart about stopped while making the third one because my machine is making a funny noise :~(.  I’ve had this machine for at least 17 years and it has served me well…and I do NOT want anything to happen to it because I do NOT want to buy a new machine and new software….so cross your fingers…ok?  And I also spent time going through my stash to find a blue that I could conceivably use on the THREE DUDES quilt.  I found something and got the binding put together before it was time to head upstairs for leftovers and TV watching (and ripping) for the rest of the night.