Christmas Cheer!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the lead up to Christmas is in full swing. For me, I don't get excited about a holiday until it's 3-6 weeks away and maybe you're like that too.

With that in mind, and just for Santa, I'm sharing some of my Christmas runners and wall hangings that I've made within those weeks before the big holiday. I'm sure Santa will be happy to see them again - he certainly can't miss them as they adorn every available space in the house!

At the top of my nice list is Gnome for the Holidays, a super cute applique runner with a Santa gnome, his gingerbread-esque home, a few wonky snow coated trees, and snowflakes to set the scene.

Here's a closer look - he's just so cute!

Next on my nice list is the Peppermint Candy runner. I love this one for it's simplicity - red and white stripes with pinwheels in between. 

Those snowmen sure look like they're enjoying the scene!

Of course Christmas wouldn't be complete without trees and several tree patterns have made my nice list. I especially love this one, aptly named Christmas Trees.

Filled with small Christmas print appliques, then outlined with snow, three of them stacked make a great wall hanging, or I could have placed them side-by-side for a festive table runner. Maybe next year!

Another favorite tree runner, Holiday Forest, is a more modern design, with several trees reaching for the sky on a snow-filled background.

I liked these so much, I even made a set of placemats

Now as you know, Santa couldn't do his job without the help of his nine reindeer, especially Rudolph - they are quite the team! I'm sure that when Santa sees my Reindeer Wreath wall hanging, he'll remember how special they all are and give them more carrots!

Hmm, with all the quilts to see in my house, I hope I don't delay Santa too much from his duties!

Merry Christmas!

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Midweek Makers 307

Welcome to Midweek Makers and Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sure everyone is busy prepping for the holiday, as we welcome guests back to the table. Sure feels good, doesn't it? But if you're still on the fence about gathering, I totally understand. Whichever way you go, enjoy the festivities!

In giveaway news, let's congratulate Gail on winning the Cool Cotton and Whimsical Wool quilt book! From the questions asked, cotton applique outnumbered wool 2-1 for applique. Maybe this book will inspire more wool projects!

As for sharing, there's not much from me today. The cat quilt is still in progress, having had a few interruptions, and now a delay as we make our way out again to work on the relative's house. Guess there's no better way to spend a holiday!

And from the party last week, I was very impressed with all the scrappy goodness that showed. Take a look as these:

from Grace and Peace, this sew-along quilt called Phoenix,

Scrapbox Quilts working on her X and O project,

while Quiltpiecer shows us her blocks.

And the one that really caught my eye was a camping journal quilt from Melva Loves Scraps - wow! One could spend hours looking at this!

Nice work quilters! Who's got a share today? Totally understandable if the holiday has taken away your quilting time!

• please link directly to your post
• please link a quilt related item
• visit with the other guests and leave some comment love

Have fun!

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Quilt Fills - A Few Favorites

A couple of recent quilts, Jack O Lantern and my in-progress cat quilt, have left me pondering quilt fills that fit the quilt. There is no one fill that fits for every situation, though for me, stippling comes darn close. 

With that aside, I'm going to go over three of my favorite fills, with links to the tutorials and videos on how to make them. 

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First up is the Structured Doodle Weave, a terrific freehand fill that's quite impressive!

All that's required is marking a grid on-point, then filling in each square on the diagonal, changing direction from square to square.

Here's a completed grid,

and another view on the completed project, the Sweetheart runner.

My next favorite, and one I considered for Jack O Lantern, is the Echoed Triangle Fill.

I love the spikey randomness of this fill and I think you can see why it was considered for Jack. Ultimately, Jack O Lantern has a an un-echoed version as the triangles were perfect for him.

Anyway, the Echoed Triangle Fill is easy but does take a bit of concentration to determine the direction the fill needs to go due to the echoing.

With more echoed triangles, the fill looks like this,

making for a great background texture. Take a look at the Echo Triangle Quilt Fill video to see it quilted in real time.

My last favorite fill is what I call a Dragon Fruit Fill, with a combo of curls and spikes.

The Dragon Fruit fill is a fun, organic fill that's soft and sharp at the same time. It all starts with the curls, then the addition of three spikes around the curl, a bit of echoing, then it starts again.

Definitely a great fill! See this one quilted in action with my YouTube video, Dragon Fruit Quilt Fill.

Of course, this post is just a quick overview of favorite fills. I highly recommend checking the links to go directly to the tutorial or video where there's more detail on creating these fills. Enjoy!

Happy Quilting!

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Giveaway Day!

Who's up for a giveaway? This time it's a special treat of adorable wool appliques in Kim Schaefer's book Cool Cotton and Whimsical Wool Quilts book (affiliate link).  

Just look at that incredibly cute owl quilt on the cover - colorful and fun! Kim has done it again!

Yes, she is prolific in creating quilts and writing numerous books - check out all of these seen on Amazon - there's over a dozen. Two that I hold onto are Skinny Quilts (affiliate link) and Black and White, Bright and Bold (affiliate link), featured here years ago when I made at least three quilts from the book.

Kim's creativity has only improved over the years, as quilts in this book are just too cute! Here's a few thumbnails of what you'll find between the covers.

One that I found especially cute is Floozy Flamingo - take a look.

Coming in a close second for me is Spotted Pots - just too sweet!

Her combining cotton and wool has really made some contemporary and vibrant quilts, perfect for the folk art quilter.

Want to win a copy of Cool Cotton and Whimsical Wool Quilts? Just enter via Rafflecopter below now until midnight Sunday, November 21. Giveaway is limited to residents of the continental US only - no Alaska, Hawaii, or International entries at this time - sorry.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

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Midweek Makers 306

Welcome to Midweek Makers! Here we are in the thick of fall and I'm sure everyone is feverishly sewing for the holidays - except me. With all I've got going on, I'm doing the bare minimum in the sewing department.

But that doesn't mean I'm not finishing things up. After a very early morning decision (3 am to be exact), the wide borders and mouse idea for the cat quilt was tossed aside. Now I'm going with a narrow, simple border and letting the cat applique blocks be the focus. With that decided, the cat quilt is on the frame and in the process of being quilted. Here's blocks 1 and 3 featuring echo quilting and stippling.

How I've chosen to quilt this has turned out to be very labor intensive. Exhaustion can happen quite easily, so I've kept the quilting to two 2 1/2 hours sessions per day, with mini breaks during the sessions. That's about all my mind and body can handle right now, but at least it's progress.

As for the shares seen last week, I'm seeing stars!

From Kathy's Quilting Blog, she finished up her Happy Little Accident quilt,

while Scrapbox Quilts finished putting together her Puppy Parade quilt top,

and Bastelhexe's Kreativecke made this beautiful star quilt.

Nice work quilters! And now it's your turn - come link up what you're working on!

• please link directly to your post
• please link a quilt related item
• visit with the others and leave some comment love

Have fun!

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Flower Coasters for the Mug Rug Hop

Pull up a chair and get ready to rest your favorite holiday mug on one of these delightful flower coasters!

Aren't these flower coasters just perfect for the Mug Rug Blog Hop, hosted by Carla of Creatin' In the Sticks? Someone bring out the coffee and tea!

This hop runs from today thru Thursday, November 18 - just look at the list of participants:

Monday, November 15th

Just Let Me Quilt
SameliasMum

QuiltFabrication

Inflorescence

Karrin's Crazy World

Ms P Designs USA

Tuesday, November 16th

MooseStashQuilting
Words & Stitches

Quilting Gail

Patchouli Moon Studio

Quilt Schmilt

Selina Quilts

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Wednesday, November 17th

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Hill Valley Quilter

Just Sew Quilter

Den syende himmel

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Thursday, November 18th

Creatin' in the Sticks
Sew Many Yarns

Beaquilter

Songbird Designs

Beckys Adventures in Quilting and Travel 

Scrapdash.com

Creative Latitude

Since I'm in the Christmas mood lately, after all of those free Christmas quilt patterns shown on Friday, I decided to start using my poinsettia flower coasters a bit early.

These pretty blooms are my own design, using a modified Dresden Plate block to make both the flower and the greenery - both are super easy to sew. To make a daisy or a Black-eyed Susan, all that's needed is a change of flower color and a different center applique. The full Flower Coaster pattern includes templates for both the petals, leaves, and the different centers.

Here's a brief tutorial on how easy it is to sew these adorable Dresden Plate Flower Coasters - you'll want to make more than one!

For the poinsettia, I chose Kona Rich Red and Basil Green. After cutting a strip from each color, the Dresden Plate pieces are cut out using the pattern provided template. 

Here's a hint to keep from trimming the template: Put a ruler alongside the edge of the template, 

hold the ruler in place and move the template aside before making the cut. Certainly wouldn't want to have the template get smaller! 

Now all of the Dresden Plate pieces are cut and ready to go, so it's off to the machine.

Sewn just like any regular Dresden Plate, it helps to make an angled clip at the fold to reduce bulk.

After opening the seam and turning right side out, the pieces are given a gentle press to make a kite shape.  

After stitching the petals (or Dresden Plates) together, the seams are pressed in a circular fashion, and, for the poinsettia, three small circles fused in the center.

Then comes a bit detail stitching on the center appliques and also some leaf veins, which bring this poinsettia to life!

Repeating the construction in green provides the back of the Flower Coaster, which is rotated so that the 'leaves' are exposed between the flower petals. 

With a bit of stitching in the ditch and along the outer edges, the poinsettia coaster is now finished!

Here's the back, with a touch of sealant, such as Fray Check, in the center to take care of any fraying.

I had a ton of fun making these Flower Coasters, and I'm enjoying them with my morning coffee. Won't you join me?

Happy Quilting!

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