Small Christmas Quilts for Decorations

I finally finished something I started so long ago I actually don't remember when I started it.  

Christmas Bells.

This is one in a series of several small wall quilts I'd started all at the same time. I completed the applique, piecing and quilting of all of the mini quilts with only the embellishment with embroidery to be done last.  And that's when the entire project came to a screeching halt after I'd finished about four of these little projects. I got halfway through the Christmas Bells that I have just finished and stopped. Now I still have six more to finish.

There's the angle quilt that still needs at least hair embroidered.

The snowflake that isn't frilly enough. I plan to do some embroidery in white around the white snowflake shape.

And several Christmas trees that have no decorations. 

Obviously sitting and doing embroidery is not one of my favorite pastimes but I do appreciate and admire beautiful embroidery.

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen 

Christmas Craft Time, Almost

I did set a goal for myself to start on Christmas projects in August or at lest no later than September. I always have a number of things I want to do and it all takes time. If I want any chance of getting most of it done I need to start early. 

Yep. That didn't work for me this year. I had no Christmas motivation in August and other things to deal with. So, I'm not getting many things done and I'm just starting to look at the Christmas projects. 

But in October I did get one thing done that has been on my to do list for a long time. Remember those color swatches I did earlier this year to pick out colors from my Naif dish pattern?  Well I finally got around to pulling some fabrics from my stash in those colors in order to make a quilt runner to fit on top of my dinning room server. 

I decided to use a simple brick pattern for the runner. You don't generally see much of a tabletop quilt in my house because there is usually so much stuff sitting on top of it.  So I didn't want or need to make some elaborate design for something that would end up mostly covered up. 

I did carefully plan the brick pattern and determined the sizes I needed to cut all the pieces to make it work. Odd thing though when I cut all the pieces, somehow I incorrectly measured and cut them all 1" longer than I planned. Not just a couple of them but ALL of them.  The 4" long blocks all came out 5" and the 3 1/2" blocks all came out 4 1/2".  At least they were all the correct width. I didn't even notice the mistake until I started sewing them together and it wasn't coming out as planned. That's never happened to me before.  I'm blaming the mistake on cutting the fabric while dealing with a migraine and watching videos on my iPad all at the same time. Too much multitasking. But that's OK, it didn't change the plan and I was not going to cut them again and wast all those spare inches. 

This is how it ended up pieced. 

This is the completed runner. 

I chose a light grey binding and quilted in simple parallel lines. 

It looked huge hanging on the design wall but I doubled check all the measurements this time and adjusted the finished size to account for shrinkage after washing.  And it fits perfectly. 

After finishing this quilt runner I finally got around to digging into my stored and set aside projects to figure out what I left unfinished last Christmas and what I'd planned to do but didn't get to. 

I found a couple of unfinished folded fabric star ornaments I was making so that was the first thing I got out of the way. These are usually made with paper and sometimes called German, Moravian, 3D or Danish paper stars.  I figured out a way I like to make them with fabric. It's not a very difficult or time consuming project so there is the immediate satisfaction of getting something done and the added benefit of jump starting my Christmas crafting motivation.

These folded stars are made from cut strips of batik fabric and have been sealed with clear acrylic gloss medium. I used copper wire and glass beads to create hangers for each star. The star on the right has some gold metallic powder mixed in with the gloss medium used to seal the star.

I really liked how these came out so I am planning on jumping in and making a few more right away.  Then I'll dive into my pile of Christmas print fabric and decide which surface in my house needs a new Christmas print quilt top for the holidays. 

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen

A Bunch of Little Quilts

I've been sewing up a small storm of small quilt projects.  First I used up all the leftover fabric from the St. Patrick's Day placemats project that I showed in my last post.  Then I used up some random pastel squares and triangles I had from other projects with some old Easter egg fabric to make a couple Easter themed placemats. 

The completed green mini quilts:

Random scraps.

Tiny one inch squares.

Some leftover two inch squares.

More random leftover pieces.

This Easter egg fabric I've had for several years. I made a quilt square as a table centerpiece with it several years ago and I look at it now and wonder what was I thinking.  It's so bright!

I used fabric colors that matched the bright colors in the print and they really really stand out. When I decided to do something more with this fabric I choose matching pastel fabric and less of the Easter egg print to tone down the overall effect and these Easter placemats are much calmer. 

There are leftover pieces from at least seven different projects in this block.

But the backs of these quilts are bold. 

Besides doing holiday themed placemats, I also put together a quick one that my son would like from this neat matrix like fabric. No patchwork here, just neat prints. 

Thanks for reading.

Aileen Biser

Green Spring Quilts

I ended up making several projects from the St. Paddy's Stonehenge 2 fabric I mentioned in a previous post. I began with eleven fat quarters which amounts to 2 and 3/4 yards of fabric.

My initial goal was four St. Patrick's Day themed placemats. 

One.

Two. 

Three. 

Four. 

Five. 

I ended up with five 14" x 20" quilted placemats.

But I still had leftover fabric and several odd size scraps of fabric. 

So I decided to see what else I could get out of the remaining fabric.

I ended up with four more scrappy patchwork pieces.

But I still have a pile of tiny scraps, and I have an idea for how to use them, 

but that will include some watercolor paper, paint, random stencils and maybe some collage papers. Not sure at all what this will turn out to be.

I wonder how many projects I can squeeze out of this one bundle of fat quarters?

Thanks for Reading.

Aileen

Cat Tested Heart Patchwork Placemats

I finished the Valentine's Day placements yesterday and they are currently undergoing intense cat testing for sleepworthyness. I'd say they were doing a good job. Too bad that bright light is an issue for the kitty. 

The completed quilts before washing:

And after washing:

I love the crinkled softness of the quilted pieces after they are washed.  

My next project: St. Patrick's day placemats with this awesome St. Paddy's Stonehenge 2 fabric. I'm thinking of some sort of celtic knot design but haven't graphed it yet.

Thanks for reading.  

Aileen

Saturday Summary, err Sunday

I've had a busy week. 

I finished two Christmas blocks I showed in  previous post. 

Both have been properly cat tested. 

I made two Christmas blankets from patchwork tops made from pre-printed Christmas storybook fabric with a piece of fleece for the backs. No quilting in theses simple Christmas throws. 

I did get a little side tracked on a scrappy project. Several years ago (~15) I read an article in a quilting magazine about 'mosaic' quilting, a method to use up various odd sizes of fabric scraps. I've done this several times when the piles of scraps grow and I want to organize 'the mess'.

I plan to border all the blocks in white (also leftover scraps) and combine them to make small quilt projects. Maybe place mats, potholders, pencil cases, or tabletop quilts.

 

But at least the annoying pile of scraps is gone. In it's place is a neat pile of scrappy squares. There is a difference. Really...  Now I can start making a new annoying pile of scraps! It never ends, the cycle > new project > pile of project scraps > new project from project scraps > next new project > and so on .....

Thanks for Reading.

Aileen

No More Side Projects

Five weeks until Christmas! 35 days! That's nothing, no time at all, or not as much as you think, or I think. I've learned over the years that I always, Always, overestimate how much I can accomplish in a given amount of time. If I think I can get ten projects done in five weeks the reality will be that I get five projects done if I work really hard at it. Of course that doesn't mean I will ever shorten my todo list, I just view it more realistically. But I also tend to get sidetracked and end up doing projects that were not part of the plan. So from here on until Christmas, no more side projects and start working on my project list, highest priority first, because I know the items at the bottom of the list won't get done this year, probably. 

So today I plan to work on a couple small quilts I sewed this week. 

At least this one is with Christmas fabric. I got a mini-charm pack of Solstice by Kate Spain for Moda fabric and added some Christmas theme fabric I had on hand to make this little table quilt. 

This one has nothing to do with Christmas but is also from a charm pack of Elementary by Sweetwater for Moda fabrics. 

My next posts should be all about completed Christmas projects. Definitely. Maybe. 

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen 

All Clear

Yay! I finally got all those miscellaneous projects off the wall. 

I ended up with seven completed quilt tops, which is one more than I started with. The problem is I can't stand having leftover quilt scraps hanging around. I'd rather sew them all together into something scrappy then leave them in a pile someplace. So I ended up with an extra 'leftovers' quilt from the trimmings of my on-point quilt experiment. Those two are shown below. 

Of the next four, two are also mini leftovers quilts. The green Christmas tree block (lower left) was an exercise in sewing 60 degree triangles. And the white with green vine block (upper right) is a test of painting on fabric. 

Most of these design wall orphans were leftovers or just little projects using up odd pieces of fabric or testing an idea. Only one was a drawn out and planned quilt top that got sidelined along the way. I'm very happy to finally have my Valentine quilt square sewn. 

And the puzzle heart block.

This one is small enough to be hand quilted and possibly embroidered in some way. 

Now I can move on to new projects. Next up, Halloween fabric.