The holidays just aren't complete without a jigsaw, but I'm ready to give up on this one. 3000 pieces and 4 feet wide is just too big in my book. We've done even more since I took this picture yesterday, but it's only getting harder and harder. The pieces that are left are just a blur of muddled colours- I don't think photos are meant to be blown up this big.
Keryn is more obsessive than me(she's done all the hard bits in the foreground and I did the roofs and hills, which were much easier. But I did them upside down, because we can't both work on one side of the table, so that made it more difficult. I have a lovely jigsaw that I really want to do, so if this one gets the flick (my goodness, look at that SKY!!) I'll have the new one set up in a flash. And that's only 1000 pieces, so it should be done in no time....

Keryn helped me weed out some material to cut up for pieced backings. There were a few tussles over bits she thought should be cut up, and which I was still a bit too fond of, but we managed to agree to the total of 12 and a half metres. Not too bad. According to her theory of stashout=stashin, does that mean I can go buy 12 metres? (perhaps I'd better sew these up first, I haven't technically used them up yet)

We each chose a project that we wanted to finish quickly this week and here's mine. I had the anvil blocks as a kit that I took to our patchwork meetings, so they didn't get worked on regularly. I was a bit sick of them hanging around and wasn't in love with how they were turning out so I decided to make a little top and call it quits. The broken dishes blocks were from another lot of scraps and became the border. I like this idea of using two sets of blocks in one top, and it turned out so well I might make it from nice fabric next time.

Also completed were 48 leader-ender four patches from 1 and 1/2" squares, the drawer is almost empty now so I'll have to cut up some more scraps. I'll tuck these away for later, Keryn and I want to tackle the orphan blocks soon, and these may be good for spacer units.
Three more bindings done, and I don't want to see another one for a while, thankyou very much.!
Keryn and I are making New Year's Lists and we'll probably see 2008 in with a glass of port or wine as we reflect on the year behind us, and welcome the one ahead.....