Hi!  Welcome to my little corner of blogland, and to my entry into Sew Cal Gal’s Christmas Quilt Show!  Thanks for stopping by!

Years ago, I bought a pattern from Bee Creative Studios for a small tree quilt – appliqued, off kilter and fun.  I always meant to do it and never got around to it.  Other priorities at Christmas, you know!  When I finally decided to do it, and I wanted the rest of the patterns (Tree Trimmin’ was one of a set of four) they were out of print.  I could find one here, and one there, and nowhere for the last one. 

So I punted.  Punting is a technical term.  It has nothing to do with football.  It has more to do with creating a ‘make it work’ moment.

(Yes, I am addicted to Project Runway.)

On the back of the one pattern I had were pictures of the set of four.  I re-drafted the wonky backgrounds, then replicated the spirit of the fun blocks, replacing the last one with another Christmas thing altogether.  Then I copied it all onto freezer paper.  Ironed the freezer paper to the incorrect side of the fabric and started cutting.  Oops!  And, I barely remembered to add the seam allowance when cutting. 

Well, keep on moving, right?

So now I sew bigger-than-intended strips of green onto the background.  Applique the elements down, in the most casual sense of the word applique.  I straight stitched around the pieces.  Period.  No   turning under, no fusible, no anything else.   I did have the forethought to make the snowman a double thickness of white.  I though the snowman looked fine, but with the photography and the flash the green behind is shadowing through.

There’s a way to do a quilt in a day, and it doesn’t involve Eleanor Burns.  (I love Quilt in a Day patterns and shop.  But in no universe where you can’t bend time can a queen sized birds in the air quilt top be made in a day.)  The way to do it is to cut every corner you can possibly find.

Another oops.  (Move too fast and you can make a lot of these.)  I meant to trim the green, then sew on the red (to make the whole quilt top), then applique things on.  Oh well, it’s just a bit bigger now.  Then I lopped some off the green to make the blocks a bit wonkier.

So now I look at how much red fabric I have (1/2 yard) and figure out how to cut the ‘sashing’ and ‘borders’.  And, for that matter, how to sew them on!  I want to make this as simple as possible.  So I sew 2″ strips to two sides of each block (the inside sides) and 5″ strips to the other two sides.  The 2″ strips will end up being mock-sashing and the 5″ strips will end up being a mock-border.  I call them ‘mock’ because they’re really just logs around the centers.

I laid the blocks out on my cutting mat (good thing the top was small enough!)  and get everything lined up how I like it.  With my longest ruler, I take a deep breath and cut a straight line up the center, and through the middle.  I sew the four blocks of my quilt together.  Then cut again along the outside, making sure the outside ends up with straight sides and square corners.

Pin, quilt as desired, and bind!  I quilted this very simply – just a few straight lines echoing the outlines of the blocks.  The binding is this really cool Christmas fabric I just got – peppermint sticks, and it’s printed diagonally!  No bias binding!

Even with going to a guild board meeting, I still got this quilt done in a day.  And I love it!  It’s fun and bright and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Thanks to Sew Cal Gal for hosting this Christmas Quilt Show and allowing us to all participate.   There are lots of great quilts entered in this virtual quilt show, so why don’t you head on back to Sew Cal Gal and click on some more?

Deb

What ese have I been working on?  Well, a couple of trials at a baby quilt for my cousin’s new arrival, due later this month. 

 The first quilt didn’t go so well.  I mean, it sewed out and everything but it didn’t speak to me.  It screamed.  What did it say?  “I have a value problem!!!”  And my daughter agreed. 

So I stewed for a week, trying to figure out what else to do, and got the Dresden Plate die from AccuQuilt that had been backordered for three weeks.  I played with the die with some scrap fabric, and right now am sewing quilt number two using the dresden plate pointy-end blades and a striped pirate fabric.  It looks much better than it sounds!