Jingle BOM Pieced Block No. 5 Completed

Jingle BOM Pieced Block No. 5

Design Wall: 8 Applique Blocks and 6 Pieced Blocks

I finished another block in my Jingle Block of the Month.  This is Pieced Block No. 5 (I'm doing them out of order) and now I have only two more pieced blocks left.  I continue to waste obnoxious quantities of fabric by cutting out my triangles the wrong size with my specialty rulers, and piecing these blocks is really nerve-wracking for me.  I may just lay those fancy rulers aside and try following Erin's DIRECTIONS on the last two blocks.  Imagine that -- following the directions!!    What an admission of defeat THAT would be...

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Anders with the Studio Christmas Tree

Today was a busy Saturday.  We had piano and violin recitals for Lars and Anders and went out for a celebratory brunch afterwards.  Then Bernie installed a new ceiling fan in Lars's bedroom and the boys attempted to cooperatively decorate a small Christmas tree in my sewing room.  Only one ornament was smashed and neither boy is bleeding, so I'm going to call it a SMASHING SUCCESS!

I've never had a Christmas tree in my studio before, but this is the first Christmas since we remodeled the room to suit my creative needs.  That project still is not finished -- still need to figure out how I want my sewing machine cabinet rebuilt, and a few other things -- but the room is very functional at this point. 

My Studio Today, Ready for Christmas!

The boys are hanging out with me in the Studio now, working on their own projects or homework while I'm sewing, and I'm sure there will be even more time for us to spend together in this room over Winter Break.  All of the Christmas giftwrapping will be done in the Studio, too, so it's fitting that there should be a Christmas tree twinkling away in there, don't you think?  Nevermind that I already have a full-size Christmas tree in my Living room and another one in the family room that opens into my kitchen...  My home is Christmas Central from now through Epiphany.   Considering that it has taken me a week to decorate all of these trees, maybe I'll just leave them up until Epiphany 2015?

Tomorrow we're going to see a touring performance of the Broadway revival of Godspell after church, and then Lars will be painting with Grammy and Anders will be coming up to the sewing room to work on his quilt, which is why I have his Featherweight all set up and ready for him. 

Hey, here's a question for you quilters: Anders opted to use UNWASHED cotton fabrics for his pieced quilt top, but now he wants to use Minky for the backing.  I would have prewashed his fabrics if I'd known that ahead of time, and now I'm concerned about what will happen the first time we wash his quilt if all of the cotton fabrics in the quilt top shrink and the polyester Minky backing does not.  Is there a safe way to shrink his completed quilt top before it gets layered with batting and quilted?  I don't want all his 1/4" seams to ravel apart, and I don't want the quilt top to get stretched or distorted from being handled wet.  Do you think that I can shrink it enough with a hot iron and plenty of steam? 

What if I layer just the quilt top with a very thin 100% cotton batting and quilt in the ditch to secure along seam lines, then baste a temporary backing fabric around the perimeter RST, turn inside out like a pillowcase and baste close, and THEN throw it in the wash machine to shrink it?  I could remove that temporary backing after the laundering.  Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Have a great weekend!