Monday

My Christmas Tree Farm

Earlier this month, my husband made me a large pallet Christmas tree for my front porch. I loved it so much I think it inspired him to make some more. So here are smaller versions:

I call this my Christmas tree farm. It's so very cute. I can't wait to decorate the little trees. I think he might be on to something for the craft fair next fall.

By the way doesn't my refrigerator look nice?


I'm ready for the holiday week now.

Friday

Large Print Fabrics - One Pattern, 4 Quilts

My church group received a very large fabric donation this past summer. Us ladies spent some time going through all the beautiful fabrics. I prefer to be the last one to dig in since I have plenty of donated fabrics from other sources that I haven't worked my way through. What was left for me were large print fabrics in 3 yard cuts. I held onto them wondering if I would ever think up a good way to use them. Then I found a pattern called Sidelights by Mountainpeek Creations.

I knew this would work on the large prints. It didn't matter that I wasn't using a panel like on the pattern cover, with a 3-yard piece of fabric I could cut a chunk the same size as a fabric panel and have some fun making the blocks for around the side and bottom.

Floral Fabrics

For the first one I fussy cut the flowers that went in the side and bottom blocks. I also used a large piece of green fabric that was donated to the senior center to make the background.

Christmas Fabrics

I fussy cut trees and snowmen and placed them alternately in the side and bottom blocks. What fun!

Safari Fabrics


I fussy cut different parts of the scenery in this safari print. I like this one the best.

Batman Fabrics

After I finished with the church group's fabric I remembered that I had this collection of batman fabrics in my Quilts for Kids fabric bin. I immediately dug out the fabrics hoping I could use this pattern once again. By now, I didn't need to read the instructions. I know the measurements by heart. Ha! I used the biggest print for the panel piece and the coordinating fabrics for the side and bottom blocks. There was enough to make the nice border  and with all of these quilts, the leftovers are on the backs. I love when I use up the stuff that was donated. 

Wednesday

Sign Painting

Our friend Kevin owns a bar not too far from our home. He hosted a make and take where we painted signs. I asked my husband if he wanted to come but warned him that he might be the only guy doing this. We headed to the bar for a good dinner - luckily the food is really good at this bar. We ate at the bar like usual then headed to the banquet area to pick our designs. I made a sign for the kitchen. I chose an unusual paint color - not sure I really like it but I didn't want a common color. My husband made a sign in our favorite "Green Bay Packers" green. We had a good time sitting and painting together while enjoying a beer and each other's company. We really do work well together. And I was right, there were 20 women there besides us. Good thing those kind of thing don't bother him.

Here are our finished products:


Friday

Olaf Quilt

Quilts for Kids
I finished this Quilts for Kids quilt today. I used a panel I got at one of our QfK meetings a few months back. The panel is so big, I just added an orange border and some scrap pieces of Olaf print fabrics that I found in my stash. A nice big blue border finished it off.

It was quilted with a snowflake pantograph that adds a nice touch along with cool blue and white striped fabric for the backing.

Monday

Flurry Blocks

I am making a bunch of "gift" blocks based on a pattern called Flurry. They are fun to make and I'm planning on using them for a pillow cover and a table runner. There are enough to make an entire quilt but I just don't want another Christmas quilt.

I think I will get a Christmas themed pantograph to use to quilt the pieces once I have them completed. I'm using my Sweetwater fabric collection to make these. I have two years' worth of their Christmas fabrics and I don't want to save them any more. It's time to use them for cute things! I've collected so much of their fabrics that I could make quite a few small projects.

Saturday

Pallet Christmas Tree

I came home from the quilt shop today to find this little gem on my front porch. Apparently while I was away my husband got a little creative. I showed him some pallet Christmas tree photos and mentioned that I would love to have one. He decided to whip one up and I love it. Monday we will go out shopping for lights to put on it. 

While cleaning the living room to prep for the Christmas tree, I discovered that we sure do get a lot of magazines. I was surprised at how many there were. I did order a few subscriptions for my husband when he retired and a few for myself as well. I guess I thought we would actually have time to sit down and read. Boy, was I wrong! 


Wednesday

Crazy Christmas Tree Table Runner

Cut Loose Press Oh What Fun Sandy GervaisI've had this table runner called the Crazy Christmas Tree Table Runner by Cut Loose pinned to my Pinterest board for a very long time. I finally purchased the pattern in October and bought a layer cake a few weeks ago that would work well with the pattern. The fabric line is called Oh What Fun by Sandy Gervais. The background was made using pieces from my low volume fabric collection.

It went together quickly although I found the instructions regarding cutting some of the background pieces rather confusing. In fact, I'm not sure I did it correctly but I made it work. I also learned about color placement while making this. Next time I will be more careful with how I sort the pieces that get sliced into sections. That way I won't have the same colors next to each other. like in the tree on the far right.

Another table runner I had saved in Pinterest is this one made using a half hexagon ruler. I decided to take a crack at it without any instructions. I took scraps of 4 different green fabrics and cut 2 half hexagons out of each piece. I then cut the same size half hexagons out of white background fabric. I cut the white half hexagons in half down the center of each piece. I sewed the white pieces to each side of the green tree pieces and then sewed them together in columns. I added an appliqued star to the center and a red border. I think it turned out pretty well considering I made it from a photo off the internet - ha!


Sunday

What's on the design board?

Missouri Star Pattern
I cut out the fabrics for a bordered nine patch quilt during the summer. I used a jelly roll from the Saturday Morning by Basic Grey fabric line. I shopped for some of the colors of Grunge that were in the jelly roll to use for the background but since the fabric collection is a few years old, it was impossible to find.

After a few months of looking, I found something that worked great for the background. I packed up my little quilt kit and took it to the senior center where it took me a few weeks to chain-piece the fabrics. When I went to sew the rows together, they didn't quite fit. I discovered that my quarter-inch foot on my traveling machine was off. I just had to re-stitch the pieces to get the proper and accurate quarter-inch seams. Now they started to fit!

I sewed the blocks and added them to my design wall. I counted the blocks and recounted the blocks. I was one short. After looking everywhere I could think of for the missing block I decided to concede the loss and just make another block. As luck would have it, I can't find the leftover fabrics. It was summer when I started cutting the blocks and now I have no idea where to start looking.

This project has been quite the disaster from the beginning but I am not giving up. I do know where the yardage is to make the borders so I can always cut another block from that fabric. But I think for now I will just let this project sit for a while to see if I run across the leftovers somewhere I haven't looked.