'Tis the Season . . .

for last-minute quilting. I've finished three quilts and have one in process that I haven't posted about here yet.

This is the first rag quilt I've ever made, and my DP, my dog, and I all fight over it. I'm obviously going to have to make another one after Christmas. It's made from flannel and we love it. It was super-easy and fast to put together--the hardest part, I think, was getting it washed at the laundrymat so the threads wouldn't destroy my machine.

The second quilt was from a kit that I bought last summer at a quilt show. It's an adorable Christmas quilt, and of course at the time I thought, "I have MONTHS to get this done." Ha. A couple of weeks ago, I decided I better get busy or we wouldn't be enjoying it until NEXT Christmas. Fortunately, it was very easy to piece. I machine-quilted it with an all-over stipple and invisible thread, which was much easier than I thought it would be. I had heard nightmares about invisible thread tangling and breaking, but I had no problems at all with it.
The third quilt is a gift, so I can't say anymore about it until after Christmas, except this: I HATE machine-quilting with polyester thread. Is it just my imagination, or does it make trying to get even stitches a nightmare?

The fourth quilt is also a gift, and I'm (fairly) confident I'll get it finished in time.

In between quilting, I took a break to try my hand at dyeing fabric. I've painted a lot of fabric, but never tried dyeing. The first attempt was with Procion MX red dye, and I was shocked at how it turned out; the more I looked at the fabric, though, the more I loved the tie-dye effect, so I tried to replicate it in turquoise. This was the result I had been expecting, but now I want to replicate the tie-dye look!