Holiday Sewing

A few years ago I made a quilt using holiday prints. It challenged me when it came to assembly, quilting and ultimately even the washing.

Somehow, I still have more holiday prints than I know what to do with. It was time to put together another holiday quilt in the hope of using up some of this fabric. I decided it was time to play with the Quick Curve Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful again. This time with the Metro Rings pattern. Everyone that has tried it says it is the quickest way to get to a double wedding ring without templates or tears.

I played with placement of colors and prints. More as an experiment than as real planning. This is generally how I make quilts. I rarely plan something from start to finish with every detail defined. It just isn't how my creative process works. Besides, in the end it is just fabric.

Slowly blocks came together. When I would run out of a component I would pull more from the stack and cut.

Before long I had the center, or what I thought was the center.

I played with placement and reached the point where I had enough blocks to make a good-sized throw quilt. (This is somewhere in the 60" by 70" range.)

So much movement!

All that movement, and an abundance of green fabric with candy canes, made me go for a 3" wide border. I think this one needed a frame. Partly to frame the work and partly to add the stability a border can add.

I took advantage of a sale at a local quilt shop for the (not holiday) backing fabric so I hope to have this one quilted, washed and on the couch well in advance of mid-winter. The bin of holiday prints still has fabric in it, but not enough for another throw quilt, so I will consider this a win. And no tears!

The Anchor: Piecing it all Together - part two

After I got the top half rows pieced together, I sewed them together and made room for the bottom half on the design wall.

This is where I realized I should have started from the bottom.

Look at all those tiny pieces!

Since I was unable to cut the bottom row pieces as called for in the directions I had to make a small modification to the row. I think it turned out okay.

All the rows pieced together and the outside edge stay-stitched. I've put this one in a time-out until I have a chance to pick up some batting and a suitable backing.

In the Mail Monday

When Superior Threads has a sale I can't resist to throw a couple things in the cart with my monthly thread subscription. This time it was some So Fine! pre-wound bobbins. The thread for the month included black to go with the M-style bobbins. I'm ready for Halloween quilting.

A few weeks ago Spoonflower had a free shipping deal and I've been watching a couple brain-themed fabrics. I ordered a yard of this fun brain print. I think I'm going to use it to line a couple Walking Dead knitting project bags.

The other cut is a yard of this super fun project to make brainkerchiefs in four different colors! If you know someone that would love a head-covering that is fun and funky this is great.

Odds and Ends

I participated in some totally unwarranted retail therapy over the weekend. I picked up some fabrics that I don't need but I couldn't walk away from. I see some holiday gifts in this pile of fun fabrics.

I came across this buck during one of my afternoon walks. It took him two tries to find a comfortable place to lie down.

 I pulled out my stack of holiday prints and decided it was time to make something with them. I swear, I do not buy these so I have no idea how some of them came to be in my house.

I'm using a pattern and ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful. This is Metro Rings made with the Quick Curve Ruler. I figure I have enough holiday fabric to make a good-sized quilt with these. This is my first try at this pattern and some of my blocks are less than perfect. I'm getting better trimming and getting blocks close enough to the right size. So much to learn!

I've been making slow progress on my Time Traveler shawl. Pattern is Virus Shawl, yarn from Knit Picks.