Leela

One week before Christmas

Me: If Dan has no other plans, ask him to join us for dinner on Christmas Eve. 
Paul: Will do.
Me: Do you know what you want to eat?
Paul (excitedly): Let's get Chinese...like in Christmas Story. 
Me (realistically): Are you sure Dan will be OK with it?
Paul: I dunno. 
Me: Let's just do the regular turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc.  We can do the Chinese for New Years, when it is just us.
Paul: OK. Then let me pick up the meal from Harris-Teeter.
Me: How much?
Paul: $50 for turkey and sides.
Me: That sounds reasonable.

A New Finish

However when Paul went to order online, the price was $80. The turkey was pre-cooked and would require re-heating as would all the sides.  I put my foot down.

Me: I do not wish to overpay for mediocre food that was prepared in bulk and refrigerated that I will have to re-heat anyways.  
Paul: Then you have to do the cooking. 

Me: Seriously American food is easy to prepare.

Paul: You are awesome.

Can you guess?

Yellow Backing, Striped Binding

The backing is super fun!

The following convo happened about 4:00PM on Christmas Eve.

Me: I put the turkey in the crock-pot around noon. Should be ready by 6:00.
Paul: Cool.
Me: I am done cleaning and tidying up.
Paul: Looks nice here. 
Me: So I am going to take a shower now and do the rest of the cooking later.  Because I can mash the potatoes in front of Dan but I cannot take a shower in front of him...
Paul: But it is Christmas...

For the next few minutes, I forgot the shower and the spuds because I was laughing so hard.  Paul certainly puts the Merry in my Christmas :-)

Meet Leela. The Sanskrit word Leela means Play(noun). The nine colors are playing beautifully in this quilt made of Picket Star Quilt Blocks. 

Leela

Orange

  

Purple

Rust Brown

Turquoise

Yellow

Medium Blue

Pink

Green (this was the very first RSC block for 2020)

Red

Happiness is a Rainbow

I added a border to protect the points. I chose to have fun with the backing. Continuing the theme of the rainbow scrap challenge on the back I made a few scrappy log cabins. A focus strip of these log cabins was added to the backing fabric to add sparkle :-)  

Pieced Backing with a Strip of Log Cabin Blocks

I was concerned that this pieced strip may not be completely straight/vertical after quilting.  The truth is that it isn't exactly vertical but almost straight is good enough :-)

Fun Fabrics

Embrace the Wonkiness

Cute Kitty (pink) & Lovely Gal (green)

Did you see the elephant?

Dragonflies make me smile :-)

The mummy and the all seeing eye

Is it Crawfish or Lobster - I'll eat them both

Used a serpentine stitch with my walking foot to go over the seams. Since the seams are pressed open, I feel that a wider stitch pattern like the zig-zag or the serpentine better secures the seams. 

Quilting Detail

Loveliness

I wanted the multicolored diagonal stripe fabric for binding but I did not have enough of it :-( 

So I combined with a white fabric for a faux piped binding. I got the desired overall effect with the ease of piped binding. What seemed like a challenge turned out to be a blessing in disguise. 

Faux Piped Binding

Leela finished at 53" square and I am happy that I completed at least one RSC quilt before the end of the year.  I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties including Angela's Linky Party. 

I am in love with the binding!!!

Labelled

One Last Look

Hope your Christmas was Merry, your Holidays are blessed and your New Year is Joyful. 

Should you have any thoughts about the holiday season or my festive quilt, please let me know.  Your comments enhance my merriment :-)