The Countdown is On!

Last year I didn't decorate for the holidays until just a few days prior to Christmas, and then I ended up leaving everything up until the Superbowl because I wanted to enjoy it once it was up. 

This year, I got myself together and put everything up today. We just have a tree, some lights on our banister, and then stocking holders with some knicknacks on the alcove area in our entry way but it looks nice. 

After spending the majority of the morning working on decorating around 2pm I checked the status of my Missouri Quilt order from Monday which has all the goods for my to be Christmas skirt. I was so excited when I saw it was out for delivery, and by 3pm I had everything in my hands! 

Two Dear Claus Charm Packs for the Quilt Top of the Xmas Tree Skirt, 1 Yard Fabric which was intended for the border or backing of skirt, but may be used for something else, a fusion pen that erases with heat!, and a Fruits and Veggie Charm Pack that was 75 cents. 

I rewatched the Missouri Quilt Co. video on the Adorable Xmas Tree Skirt  prior to getting the mail so I could take my notes and be sure that I could start right away when I got my new stuff.

My first item of business was sorting the charm pack there were 4 snow flake patterns, 3 snowman patterns, 5 ornament patterns (3 versions of one type, 2 versions of a second type), 2 stripes block patterns, and 2 merry Christmas music patterns. I had multiples of each of these as each pack came with 42 charms (5by5inch squares). The video shows the tree skirt being made with 81 charms, but the show a second smaller one made with 64 charms that I liked the size of better so I went that route. 

I wanted a pretty random pattern so I laid out 4 rows across (8 charms in each row), then I I built the rest of the rows but building upward (essentially making columns of 8). Once that was complete I had to sew each row together, then I had to sew row one to row two, and so on until all 8 rows were connected. (By the way, in anticipation of starting this project I finally re-organized my stuff so I could utilize the dining room table for showing stuff off and planning!)

Sorry For the Blur, I take these with my phone. Here is the original sew of all the charms in to 8 rows of 8. 

Close Up so you can hopefully see some of the cute fabrics

The next step after getting all the charms together was cutting the corners so it has a more traditional rounded shape. As instructed by the video I went one and a half squares in on each corner and cut straight across leaving a quarter inch of the first square still intact. The reason for these square corners is the great border technique the video teaches, it makes it very easy to complete the corners in borders. 

Quilt Top Cut Down in all Four Corners

Clearer picture of the fabrics. 

Once I finished this portion I took the yard of fabric I had purchased with the charms (which is from the same line provided by Moda) and placed it next to the skirt to see what it would look like. Unfortunetly it is just too busy and bright to serve as the outside border so either tomorrow or Monday I'll be headed out to find a border fabric. I thought I might use it as backing instead, but I only have a yard and once I put a border on the skirt it will need more than a yard I'm pretty sure. 

So until I go get fabric this project is on hold, but I still had 20 some odd charms and a whole yard of pretty fabric so I decided to see what type of patterns I could find that I might want to do. I ended up finding a bunch of fun things that I saved for the future, but didn't find anything that scream use xmas fabric for this. So I watched the Craftsy, Block of the Month May 2012 video which goes over non-traditional log-cabin patterns. One of the patterns was a totally "wonky" log cabin which looked like a lot of fun because it was all about using scraps, and I have a good amount of scraps from the xmas fabrics. 

I decided to give it ago, and you'll have to watch the video to understand how it's made, but my final product turned out pretty well. The only thing that didn't go as planned is I ended up cutting my block down to 11.5 inches round because one side was too short to be 12.5 inches. 

Crazy Wonky Log Cabin Block

All in all quite the productive day. 

Quick and Easy

Last night I started attempted to take my original log cabin block (see below) and turn it into a hot pad. I cut the backing and batting, pinned the layers together, quilted the areas desired, and then cut and ironed the binding. Pretty good for a quick turn around if you ask me! 

 Below are pictures of the project in action!

Original Log Cabin Block

During Quilting/Binding Process. Added the batting/backing, and pins, this point I had completed the machine quilting. I did the stitch in the ditch which turned out pretty well! 

Quilted Edges using Stitch 23

Quilted Edges Closeup, White thread for the Navy, and Multi-Color for the Red/Green

 All that I had to do today when I arrive home was finish pinning the binding and then sew it on. Even though I knew machine binding is not the cleanest way to go I decided to attempt it again. This time I knew going in that I would want to cut my excess binding and backing down to just a 1/4 inch to ensure I'd have enough room to fold the binding from front to back properly. I rewatched the Missouri Quilts video on how to bind a quilt and stole their trick for making the edges look nice. Funny thing is I had no problem pinning and sewing it on two corners but the other two corners made me totally confused and I eventually got them pinned but when I sew them I accidentally sewed them shut and had to use my seam ripper to release them in the end. Thankfully you can't see those mistakes in the finished product but crazy how you can easily do something and then the next time you try it you can totally mess it up. 

Ta Da: The Finished Hot Pad

If you're wondering why none of my photos of table toppers or hot pads are on my table, its because the table has been taken over by fabric, sewing machine, cutting mat, and so much more! 

Completed Front Side and Completed Back Side of Hot Pad

Closeup of Binding, Quilting, and Top/Back

Matching Hot Pad and Table Runner! 

After finishing these projects I decided to just make a fun block that could potentially be used later or if not I figured maybe it could be a hot pad. Using the Peacock Fabric and the 3 types of pink/mauve that I had I took the Bridle block from week one and made it my own. Here is the result:

Instead of having 4 sets of the outer most corners in the middle nested together I decided to just emphasize the pretty peacock fabric and put it in the middle as an accent.

Christmas Quilting on Thanksgiving!

Day Four:

On Thanksgiving Morning I had a few hours of quiet to work on some quilting. I spent the first 20 minute of the morning ripping out the seam the last row of the Bridle Block I created on Day 3 at 2am :) I finally came to my sense and realized that even though the snowmen would be upside down, they'd look a whole lot better with the blue and white fabric going in the same direction as the rest of the block. It took me about 40 minutes all together to remove the seam between the 2nd and 3rd row, and between the end squares and blue/white blocks, but I was able to piece the block back together with much prettier results.

Ok, Day Four Means Perfection instead of Practice.

After feeling I had a successful block with the Bridle pattern I went back to McCall's website and picked out the Log Cabin Block. Part of the reason I chose this block was because I really wanted to let my snowmen get their featured role, since they all got cut in half in the Bridle block!  This block took about an hour and a half from cutting, sewing, and pressing but it was very easy to follow along and turned out beautifully. I even did a great job of ironing to the dark (which helps the block lay flat and look super nice)! 

My plan is to add batting and a backing and make it a table topper.. when I learn to do those things of course.

After this block was completed it was time to get the Thanksgiving Festivities started. When I returned home about 8pm I chose another square to try. This time I picked one with just two fabrics, it is a Shoo-Fly Block. Partly I choose this because I've really only been using the fun Christmas fabrics and I need to go out and get more variety to play with.  I cut out all of the pieces, ironed them and then arranged them and then took them to the sewing machine. I really enjoyed this block because it didn't need me to pin any of the squares as I fed them through the machine :) I think it turned out really nicely, but my husband informed me it reminds him of a Ninja Star with Christmas Fabric so he wouldn't encourage me to use it in an actual quilt.

What are you thoughts? Ninja star or Great Block Pattern?