Quilt Progress

So I'm a few weeks into the rainbow quilt project now, and I'm pretty excited about the progress I have made.  There have, of course, been some setbacks (there always are, aren't there?), for instance, not being able to find my rotary cutter.  I looked in every place I thought I would have packed it, and I kept finding all these extra blades and even a couple of blade sharpeners, but no cutter.  So eventually my sweet hubby just ordered me a new one.

Once I got my new cutter, I could get to work cutting all those squares (1008 to be exact).  Of course, being that I am trying to use up a bunch of scrap pieces of fabric, I didn't really have a definite plan of how many of each color I would need.  So I just kind of winged it and started cutting away.  And of course I didn't keep track of how many squares total I had cut (what fun would that be?!?), so I'm at a point where I need to start laying them all out to see where I stand.  So for now, here are the rainbow quilt squares:

Oh, and that missing rotary cutter?  I just found it in my box of thread.  :\

A Little Touch of Christmas Decor

Moving in mid December is definitely a challenge for someone who loves to decorate for Christmas.  I wasn't about to drag out all my Christmas decorations with our move quickly approaching, but I couldn't stand to have nothing up.  Fortunately, as I was packing last week, I came across this little vintage Christmas tea towel.

This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations and has been in my family for many years.  It was embroidered by my grandmother, and I remember my parents putting it out every year when I was a child.  I've always loved the quiet little scene so intricately depicted on it.  I have been intending to frame it for quite some time now, so that I could more easily display it on my wall at Christmas time.  Last year  I left it out after Christmas, thinking that at some point during the year, I would get it done for this Christmas.  Then in typical me fashion, I got busy, set it aside, and forgot about it.  But when I uncovered it last week, I decided it was time to take a break from the packing, and get right to it!

I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to how I would frame it, but I've seen some things like this framed right in embroidery hoops and thought that might be a good option, especially since there were several stains on the non-embroidered parts.  And it just so happened that I had an embroidery hoop not yet packed up that was the right size.  Perfect!  I liked the contrast of the red edge of the towel, so I decided to paint the hoop red to keep the same look.  So here is our one and only Christmas decoration we have put up:

I think it came out quite nice!  It may not be much as far as decorating is concerned, but it is definitely special to me, and it's just enough of a touch of Christmas to tide me over until we move later this week.  Then we can get many more decorations out!