Christmas Meadowland Motif Quilting

 Today's sewing room activity was dedicated to the Meadowland Christmas Quilt.  I really want this completed before it is time to clear away all the season's decor!  To that end, I concentrated on the white squares. I drew up a peppermint candy swirl on freezer paper. 

The fabric had a six section red and white candy, as you can see above, but I added another "arm" to the swirl for the large white squares.  I used a six inch plate to draw the circle and then cut apart a fairly freeform drawing of the swirls.  The swirls didn't take too long to draw into the 9 white squares in erasable pen.  Note: the designer's pattern called for smaller squares that met in the corner of the big blocks; I wanted to eliminate those lines so assembled my version differently from Meghan's pattern (Then Came June).

I stitched these in white thread but they would be cute in red or green thread too.  

The nine squares are all quilted, burying the threads is on tomorrow's agenda.  The final quilting job will be the rectangles on the sides.  I'm considering either wooden spoons or candy canes there.  Oh! and the corner squares will also need something...

More Gift-making

We did not get to see our son's wife and son at Christmas Eve, as our grandson had been sick with a high fever for a couple of days prior.  I got a little more time, then, to finish up a few things for my DIL  However, our younger daughter felt a bit under the weather a couple of days after our gathering and it turned out she has COVID, after 3 years of avoiding it!  I am the only sibling of my family who has not had it yet, amazingly.  Luckily, I am not working this week.

I had leftover Windham fabrics from the Sewtopia challenge--my sister gave me her set.  I decided to make reusable gift bags for my DIL.  She is very consumer-conscious, and a minimalist who avoids having lots of "things" around.  These fabrics were right up her alley, I thought. 

I had already made her a mug mat/hotpad.  The tall fabric bag on the left was my trial effort and I did not do the boxed corners correctly on one end.  I'll keep that one!  The remainder came out very well.  I used a tutorial from Sew Crafty Me. I cut my pieces 9x12".  My boxed corners came out a lot better on this set.  I did not have any ribbon or cording suitable on hand, so went to my local fabric store today, wearing my N95 mask.  I found some striped blue and white cording that I thought would work well. 

I bought 5 yards of the cording, which was very inexpensive.  Hopefully it will hold up to some washing and use.  If not, it is easily replaced through the casings.  Another tutorial I perused did French seams for the bags, but I just used pinking shears on these, as they won't likely get heavy use.  

I love Winter sunsets.  There were lots of clouds moving around tonight and I took many pictures. 

 

This pic was taken only 20 minutes later! 

Design Wall Monday--Christmas Vacation

Design Wall Monday!  See more Design Walls on Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I hope all who celebrate the season had a lovely time with friends and family.  I got all the mug mats made for my co-workers in time to distribute at our holiday party.  

They were well received, no leftovers to take home!

The backs...As you can see, quilting was kept to a minimum, just the center square for most, but a few got some additional lines.  I am sure I'll make many more...maybe even one for myself, lol! 

Hallmark Mischievous Kitten ornaments on the tree.  The newest is the stripped tabby who knocked over the hedgehog planter.  Ridiculously cute!

The binding change on the poinsettia runner.  In the end, I just liked the striped fabric option more!  I did a narrow binding so it is not too overpowering. 

Refreshing the runner and cancelling out the old ill-made solid red binding makes me happy!

My Christmas Meadowland quilt got its plaid binding while I decided what to stitch in the plain squares and rectangles.  

There are a lot of white squares to quilt! I've decided to do peppermint swirl candy shapes in the white squares, and candy canes in the rectangles. I'll make a freezer paper templates for that job.  The quilt is 65" square, a good lap size. Meadowland pattern by Then Came June.  Off to the sewing room for my first day of vacation--I don't have to go back to work until next year :)

Slow Sunday Stitching--Christmas Gifts

Slow Sunday Stitching of some mug mats. 

See more Slow Stitching on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

I have another batch layered, sewn around and turned right side out.  It has been fun to work on these. 

These pastel and bright mini-charms are so pretty. I'll sit by the Christmas Tree and enjoy another cup of tea while Hubby watches football.  Another batch awaits machine stitching and that is planned for today as well. I'd like to make more but completely forgot to look for Insulbrite when I stopped by the fabric store yesterday! I was distracted by picking out a binding fabric. More on that tomorrow:)

Design Wall Monday--Mug Mat Pallooza

 Design Wall Monday---see more great projects on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I was scrolling on Pinterest recently for quick gift projects and came across a Coaster pattern by Crafty Staci.  This was for a small mug mag with a faux binding technique.  I've made other projects by this designer/crafter and like her easy directions and tips for her projects. Though she made hers with 2 1/4" squares, I wanted to utilize  2 1/2" charm packs I've acquired, mostly through gift baskets, etc.  I also wanted to upsize the size to a snack mat size. 

I decided to use 9 squares for each mat. 

What fun I had laying all these out and playing with color.  Easy row sewing for assembly.  The pattern calls for 1" wide strips all around; this forms the "binding" when the mat is assembled and ditch quilted. 

Initially I was pulling 1.5" strips from my scrap drawer system to trim down for the narrow borders, but switched to 2" strips for more mileage out of each strip length, since they could be sliced in half lengthwise for the 1" wide border pieces. Lots of backing squares were also cut from scraps and fat quarters.  I sewed up the first couple of mats...

The mats have batting as well as Insulbrite per the instructions, so are pretty thick.  I left the top right mat unquilted except for the faux binding, and on the black/gray/white one I added quilting just around the  center square.  Many of the mats are intended for my workmates. I did want to try the 4 patch size too, and used Christmas charms.  There is a little hand sewing closing the opening after assembling and turning the right side out, but otherwise lots of fun piecing. I've also sewn together  some of the remaining Christmas charms for a larger hot pad.  I'll cut up all the Insulbrite I have on hand to finish all these, no doubt!

Design Wall Monday--Holiday Quilts

Design Wall Monday--Joining up once again with Judy of Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  

Happy December!  November sure seemed to last a long time, but I know the next few weeks will fly fast.  I spent some time over the weekend getting out Christmas decor; I got a lot of steps counted with all the decorating. 

The projects of the moment in the sewing room are both Christmas related too. 

My arms got quite a workout quilting the Meadowland Christmas quilt. Having quilted all the diagonal lines, I figured out a way to quilt the center shapes in two passes.  My arms did get quite a workout moving around this 65" square quilt. I also ordered fabric from this line (We Whisk You a Merry Christmas) from an Etsy seller for binding--it will be the green/black plaid print.  I will make bias binding for a fun finish. 

I did catch the batting edge at one point, haha, but was able to trim it closely and tease out all the fibers without having to remove any of the quilting.  While I decide on motifs for the white squares, I turned my attention to an old project. 

Many years ago, when I first started quilting, I made this tablerunner. which was an AP&Q magazine cover project. It was an ambitious project for a new quilter!  My binding skills were not great then and I was never entirely happy with the finished look, so I decided finally to remove the too wide binding.  I found the trimmed seam allowance isn't the most even, but I can adjust a little. 

I have two options from stash, a stripe and a dot.  

I like the stripe a lot but am concerned it is distracting from the poinsettias in the center...

...and the dot is okay but is a different shade from the corner squares and the dots are far apart.  Opinions welcome!  

Moving Things Along

 I'll be working on getting tops turned into quilts for some time!  There was more walking foot quilting over the long holiday weekend.  The APQ charity quilt got finished.  I first quilted around all the rows of mini charm squares. 

That left some gaps on the back. 

 

I decided I wanted all the vertical and horizontal lines quilted. The quilt did have to go in time out for a short time when the Sulky variegated thread refused to cooperate at the beginning of the stitching line. 

All done with quilting.  I need to decide on a binding color. 

More walking foot quilting started on the Meadowland quilt. 

I got most of the long diagonal lines ditch stitched. Pondering quilting ideas for the blocks themselves but haven't thought of anything brilliant!

There were lots of folks putting up holiday lights and decorations on the weekend. I'll get started on ours since I de-Fall decorated over the weekend too.