Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

 

What a fun year it has been!  I've been able to play along with all the blog hops hosted by Carla, Carol, and Joan this year.  It has been so much fun and full of inspiration all year long and this month's hop hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt is no exception!  Everyone in the hop has shown off some fun and fantastic treats so far, both of the fabric and eating variety and we still have one more day to go!




Today I am showing of a fabric treat.  I am calling this one Peppermint Cookies.  


The inspiration for this quilt actually came last year when I went to my Brother's house for Christmas.  He had his house decorated in red and white with a little bit of silver.  No green anywhere. It was pretty cool.  I noticed the only thing missing in his décor was a red and white Christmas quilt to drape over his white couch.  

I went home and looked up red and white quilts and came across a blog post by Barbara Brackman about red and white quilts.  You can see it HERE.  Halfway down the post is her version of this quilt and she even gave sizes.  Her snowballs were 12 inch blocks.  I wanted something smaller so I opened EQ8 and drew up blocks and sashing half that size. I also added some Square in a Square cornerstones and an inner border to finish up the stars on the edges. 





During the rest of December last year and throughout 2022 I snatched up some red and white prints. Some Christmassy and some just red and white.  I  ended up using 24 different prints for the snowball blocks.  The star points are more of a solid red without any white.  I contemplated using scrappy prints for these, but decided to go with one darker print to help bring everything together.



I even found the perfect fabric for the back.  Some red and silver ornaments.

I had the intention to make some white chocolate chip peppermint cookies to show off with this quilt, but alas, I feel more at home in the sewing room lately than in the kitchen, so that part didn't make for this hop,  But I can give you the base recipe for this Peppermint Cookie Quilt!


Yardage Needed:

Red: About Three Yards.  Can be a total of Scraps or one print for everything.
White:  About 2 3/4 yards.


Ingredients for a quilt that measures approximately 58 x 74 inches:

Use your favorite method to make each specific block,
or click for either a free Paper Piecing PDF or a Template PDF option for some of them. 


48 Snowball Blocks:  6.5 inch unfinished
Paper Piece PDF,   Template PDF

110 Rectangle Star Sashing:  6.5 x 2.5 inch unfinished
Paper Piece PDF,   Template PDF

28 White Rectangles:  6.5 x 2.5 inch unfinished 

32 Triangle in a square blocks:  2.5 inch unfinished
Paper Piece PDF  

31 Square in a Square blocks:  2.5 unfinished
Paper Piece PDF

32 Red Squares: 2.5 inch unfinished

4 White Squares: 2.5 unfinished


2 Border Strips: 2.5 inch x 70.5 unfinished
2 Border Strips: 2.5 inch x 58.5 unfinished.


Instructions:



  1. Layout the snowballs in a grid of 6 across and 8 down
  2. Fill in with rectangle star sashing.
  3. Add cornerstones from top to bottom, starting with a solid red squares and alternating with a Square in a Square block.  
  4. Use the White Rectangles, White Squares, and Triangles in a Square to make first inner border.  The Triangles in a Square blocks make the final outer star points. 
  5. Add the white outer borders:  Sew on the side borders and then the top.
  6. Quilt, Bind, Snuggle under and eat some real homemade peppermint cookies.







Be sure to check out the other blogs today. 

You are sure to see some great recipes and fun decorating ideas!

December 5



Happy Sewing!


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Sunday, November 20, 2022

Christmas Stocking - Island Batik Style


This month Island Batik Ambassadors are making Christmas Stockings!  We were asked to show off creations from fun and funky to traditional.








I opted for Traditional colors. I love red! So I tend to lean toward that color most.  Throw in some green and gold and I'm hooked! 




 This stocking used up some of the last of my Island Batik Winter Wonders collection by Kathy Engle.  I threw in some other red and green Island Batik scraps to finish out the stocking.  




My diamonds were cut from 2 inch strips.   I laid them out in alternating reds and greens.


Once I had all the diamonds sewn together I used the used the Large stocking pattern from LearnCreateSew.  I liked the shape of her Easy Christmas Stocking and used the large size pattern.  It is a free pattern you can get here.  I altered the cuff a bit too to have bit of green peek out after you turn the cuff, but the base pattern is a good starting point.



This stocking has Hobbs inside!  I had a nice rectangle piece of leftover Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting just perfect for the two sides of the stocking.  










I quilted the top using red Aurifil Thread and Schmetz Needles.
I love how the red thread pops on the green fabrics!









Click the Ambassador image below to be taken to the Island Batik webpage for links to see all the all the fun Christmas Stockings this month.





Happy Sewing!


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Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Music Blog Hop


Welcome to day three of the Music Blog Hop. Today I am showing off my newest quilted tote bag!




It's getting close to that time of year when Christmas Carols are played all the time around here.  I'll admit I even play them from time to time through out the year.  Some of them are just so great you can't go a year without hearing them.  I myself am not musically inclined, but I sure like to surround myself with it and encourage my children to develop their own musical talents.  




Not too long ago I found a panel that had these festive music prints.  The panel was laid out kind of odd and I had to buy a little extra to get five complete sets, which also gave me a few extra squares.  


When Carla announced the Music Blog Hop, I knew I wouldn't have time to work on a full size quilt, but I would have time to use one of the extra blocks in small project.




 At Christmas time I always end up transporting little gifts in reusable grocery sacks, but this year I will have a festive bag to tote my little treasures. 




And check out these paper flowers made out of sheet music.  They were a gift to my son from a class mate of his when he was at the South Carolina Governor's School for Arts and Humanities.

SCGSAH is a boarding school for high School Juniors and Seniors who specialize in the arts.  Any child who auditions and gets selected can go, it doesn't matter their financial situation.  I love that!  The school recruits the best young musicians and artists across the state and gives anyone who auditions a chance at a fantastic education that focuses on what they love to do. My son got accepted for Music.  

It was a little hard to have him gone his last two years of high school, but he was only three hours away and got to come home once a month for a long weekend.  So that helped.  It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.  The school really helped him get ready for College and get a scholarship for Music.  Next Spring he will graduate college with a degree in Commercial Music.





Boonky, my quilt inspector in training, was falling asleep on the job again, but he was wide awake when I was trying to take photos.  He and Carl can't resist jumping into the light box when ever I get it out.




Make sure to check out all the blogs and get inspired by the music themed creations  this week!



Monday, November 14th


Tuesday, November 15th

Wednesday, November 16th


Thursday, November 17th



Happy Sewing!


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Saturday, November 12, 2022

Cityscape One Block Wonder

 


I bought seven cityscape panels in September of 2019 when they went on sale. 
I finally cut into them this March.




It was my nephew that got these panels moved to the top of the One Block Wonder list. He had gone to an exhibit earlier in the year and saw a quilt using a similar panel, but it had different shading and various quilt blocks surrounding it.  It wasn't a one block wonder.   He sent me a photo and asked I could make something like that.



I showed him the panels I had bought and told him I planned to make a One Block Wonder quilt with them. He wasn't sure what a One Block Wonder was, so I sent him some photos of my others ones.





He thought they were super cool. So I told him when I finished this one he could have it.




I finally finished it on Friday, but with the remains of Hurricane Nicole coming through it was hard to get some good photos.




But now the sun is out and the wind isn't nearly as strong.




It's really hard to take photos of a quilt in tropical storm force winds.  lol




I am loving this city scene I found for the back.






Now that it has had it's photo shoot, it is time to package it up and get it in the mail.

This is my 11th One Block Wonder and I still have more on my list to make!






Happy Sewing!


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Sunday, November 6, 2022

Green Cottage One Block Wonder



A long time UFO is finally finished!





I purchased the fabric for this in the summer of 2014.  Shortly after I bought the Universe fabric for my very first One Block Wonder.  I cut everything out and fiddled with it on and off over the years.

I even put it away for a while thinking I had picked a bad fabric with too much green.

Every know and then I would think about what to do with it.  It sat for years without being touched.
Then earlier his year I decided to see what all this green would look like when I put it on the design wall




It actually turned out pretty good!  I had forgotten there was so many other colors in there.
My next dilemma was trying to decide on a background color.  Luckily this dilemma only delayed the project just a little and not years.   Once I got it out this year, it was the main project that always got worked on in-between my other monthly projects with deadlines.  I sewed rows and made sure they stayed on the design wall while I searched for the perfect background fabric. I did not want this to go back in the UFO pile.  

For the background, I started out with a dark green fabric and even sewed it on the right side, but I kept thinking I should try a lighter color.  After trying several, I eventually auditioned the lighter green on the left and liked it much better.

I unstitched the darker fabric and finished the top with the light green.





With the background picked out, I finally got the top complete and immediately made the backing and got it quilted.




The binding had to wait about a week while I finished up my October projects,  but last Wednesday night I finally had a completed quilt!






In my brain I thought this project was mostly shades of medium green.  I guess because that is what was on top of the hexagon pile for years.




At one time I even contemplated adding brown triangles around the hexagons to make stars, which could have been cool...




but when I finally got it up on the design wall there was enough contrasting shades that I didn't need to add anything else.




I had fun trying to decide on a layout, but finally chose a spiral.




Leaving the hexagons on the wall for several days staring at placement is one of my favorite parts about making these types of quilts.




I love moving hexagons around, seeing what fits better in different spots.
When the quilt stays stills for a few days I know I have the perfect design.




I kept calling this one the Green Cottage One Block Wonder as I worked on it.
There isn't a cottage in it, but the brown well and all the flowers mixed with shades of green made me think of a cute cottage in the woods.





So I took it to the edge of the woods for a photo shoot.

I enjoyed finishing this one up this year.  I made it a slow process, but I find I enjoy going slow more than rushing and trying to get a finished product.  I really enjoy watching the project grow and staring at it for days in different stages.  The is the best part of quilting for me right now.


Now on the the next one!





Happy Sewing!


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Posted by at 4:34 PM 2 comments
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