Anyhooo. I decided to do the "Quilted Ball Ornament" that is all over the web. How hard could it be? There are tons of them shown online. I figured go for it. I bought a slew of styrofoam balls and egg shapes. The egg shapes would be to make the pinecone version.
This morning I cut enough fabric to make one ornament to try it out. The prep time took me about a half hour to cut and fold/iron all the pieces. It then took me about an hour to assemble the bugger. I'm not loving my color choice on it but it is what it is. I'm not taking it apart that's for sure. So it took an hour and a half to make one stinking ornament. That is not going to be fast enough to produce enough ornaments to really decorate the tree.
So I figured okay. Let me see if a second one will be any faster. I invested a half hour in to it already and it's less than half done so I'm thinking that an hour and a half is the time frame for making one of these beasts no matter how many you make. You'd think the more practice you got the quicker you'd get at it. Nah. I think an hour and a half - and a really sore thumb is what it is.
The sore thumb part? That is thanks to the pushing of the pins in to the styrofoam. I don't hand sew AT ALL if I can help it so I don't have a thumble on hand. I know there's one somewhere in this house but I'm sure it's still in a box that I haven't unpacked after moving here two years ago.
So I followed this tutorial by Crafter without a Cat. She should really add a thimble to the list of required items....
I accidentally sewed some of the blocks incorrectly but did not want to take it apart. The end result is a somewhat southwestern look thanks to the ugly fabrics I used (never use pretty fabric when testing a pattern that you know you aren't going to keep) and the oops.
The newest issue is out including the pattern for it so I can now share my picture of the 26 Acts of Kindness quilt. It still hasn't been quilted. It will end up as a donation quilt one of these days. It's been added to the "what were you thinking" pile.