Merry Christmas!

With all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas now behind us, I'm settling in to enjoy what I consider my day of indulgence. Usually on Boxing Day I stay in my PJs, find a puzzle and work on it until it's finished in the wee hours of the morning - no running, no meal prep, no nothing, except a little quiet time for moi. This year, I'm switching it up a bit and picking up my cross stitch. There'll be Christmas carols, munchies and likely a holiday bevvy or two - my perfect day of stillness amid all of the hustle and bustle.

Merry Christmas to you and yours and may you find time to enjoy your special moments as well....M

One Quilter's Trash...

You know that saying, "One man's trash in another man's treasure"? Well, there was a little bit of that going on for the Holly Bazaar this year as well. Jan had brought remnants from a friend in to the quilting group so I brought them home to take a good look at them and found 6 panels of this fruit print that had obviously been cut for a project and never used. 

I couldn't get them out of my head and so when matched up with this green and cream, they became the fodder for a set of four placemats.

Originally the green was to be a narrow strip separating the cream and the larger print...

but as time went on I transitioned the green to the binding instead, using only two prints for the placemats themselves. Simple diagonal quilting was enough to finish them off.

And this butterscotch check made for a nice backing.

There were two more panels left so I whipped them up into matching potholders, only this time I used the check instead of the cream print.

In a moment of inspiration I realized that I could lay them both out at the same time to machine quilt them rather than quilt them individually. And one or two strokes with my Hera marker was all that was needed to get them started; I used the guide on my walking foot to do the rest of the spacing. Easy peasy. 

Even with my small projects I like to pin them so things don't shift in the quilting.

I played a little thread chicken along the way. Thankfully I ran out close to the edge, so not a lot of ripping out.

In my wisdom, I didn't take photos of either of the finishes, but they did turn out nicely and now someone is enjoying them on their table. Just love making good use of scraps, both mine and someone else's....M

I Made A Christmas Topper, Too

It's always nice to have good variety on the Holly Bazaar's craft table so during October and November I was busy trying to ensure that happened.

This little topper pattern I found on Pinterest, but I could find neither the maker nor the pattern name, so I made up my own pattern from the image. Interestingly, similar to the nine patch that I showed a few posts ago, it also had a fair bit of black in it, which is unusual for me to use in Christmas pieces.

It was helpful to lay everything out and then systematically work through the pieces and sections, 

starting with the corner units.

After all of the quilting that I put into the last runner the quilting on this one was a breeze!

The inspiration photo that I was working from showed a black binding, which made sense given the black cornerstones, but that just seemed a little too lugubrious for the holidays, 

so I used the red that was in the topper. Much more Christmassy.

And it's backed with a red gingham, which continued to cheer it up.

Ta-da!

It must have sold fairly quickly because I don't remember seeing it hang around on the craft table for very long. I love knowing that my pieces are being enjoyed by others....M

Another Christmas Table Runner

This project might seem like a bit of déjà vu...

primarily because it's made with remnant Peppermint Pines blocks from one of the Holly Bazaar runners that I made in 2022. Love their scrappy, graphic nature.

I loved that red border check and had a hard time reimagining what I could do with a few more blocks, but when I landed on the green and narrow green check I knew that I was onto something.

It's quilted with diamonds that mirror the angle of the trees and I really like the finish, though I cannot help but smile about the amount of thread that it took to do it!

And the fun white polka dot on red backing reminds me of a snappy sports jacket lining - love it! There's just a hint of it showing here, but you get the idea.

This one is quite large, about 16" x 44" so it will definitely make a statement on someone's table....M