The Last Little Details

Seven more sleeps and the Holly Bazaar will be here so I'm putting the finishing touches on a few smaller projects, mostly hand stitching bindings.

My runners have been finished for a while but I also like to donate a variety of potholders as smaller items that our guests can look forward to picking up from the craft table. This floral fabric sort of fell into my hands as one that I'd like to try and use up and it worked up nicely.

And my binding remnants revealed this gingham. It's not a choice that I would have thought of initially but when I put the two together it proved to be a good match.

My niece Julia makes these darling little crocheted stockings so I've been filling them will sweets for the bake table. It was the perfect excuse to use this cute little gnome ribbon. Lots of little details for our guests to browse and enjoy...M 

Deconstructionism

The Official Cookie Tester did not grow up in a home with a quilter so the process still mystifies him to a certain extent. He continues to wrap his mind around taking large pieces of fabric, cutting them into smaller pieces and then sewing them back into large pieces. He calls it deconstructionism, and he's not wrong. These pumpkins of mine could easily fall into that bucket because I seemed to be constantly assembling then disassembling to get me to where I wanted to go.

Not fussy on the pumpkins stacked one on top of each other for a runner (at least not for my table - it's just not large enough) Plan B became placemats. But they needed a little something extra. How about a bit of a sawtooth border to echo that pumpkin stalk? Rustic enough and just that added bit of interest.

I found instructions online and then, with a little trial and error, a size that would suit. It's pretty straightforward, you just have to remember which direction to draw your sewing line, depending on the colour of the fabric. 

I'm including them here as much for my future reference as for your info. Brown was always sewn down and to the right...

and the black down and to the left. That's not to say that a few goofs didn't happen, which meant a little time with Jack (the ripper...).

Add in a narrow spacer and voila - a placemat. And all would have been well except for me deciding to randomly trim bits to get the right proportions, first from the top, and then the sides. It didn't help. Not sure where to go, I let them sit for a bit....M

Cinderella Pumpkins

With Halloween now in the rearview mirror I will be busy making my pumpkins from the front porch into puree for the freezer. But, I've also been making pumpkins since the beginning of August. Sadly, it's proving the be one of those 'two steps forward, one step back' types of projects, one that's been hard to get some serious traction with.

I'm using the Laugh Yourself Into Stitches Cinderella Pumpkins pattern. It's well written, even if the first step for making HSTs includes the words "Trim to 1"!

But if you just take a deep breath and methodically work through the instructions, in no time you have several darling one-inch HSTs.

And shortly thereafter, a very nice rustic pumpkin.

But when I started laying out a column of them for my runner it just wasn't doing it for me. Stay tuned for Plan B....M

Sidestepping the Turkeys

I dropped a few items off to Roberta this week for quilting and she happened to mention a backing that she is anxious to find a use for so I brought a small piece home to play with. 

Not sure what the print is called, but I've taken to calling it Turkey Talk because of this little guy who is scattered throughout, along with a pumpkin and a green squirrel. I've got lots of the orange check for the backing and binding so I landed on green for the star, but not this one.

This one either, though I think that any of the three would work.

Initially, I was looking for quilt patterns where a fairly large square could be incorporated but when I came across a set of star potholders that have been sitting in a drawer I shifted gears and downsized my initial plan. They can always use potholders for the craft table at the Holly Bazaar and it would scratch my itch to do something with this print.

I downsized the Flying Geese just a little so that each potholder will be about 7" square.

The turkey ended up being a little awkward to fit into the star. Ideally, the pumpkin would go with him but the centre square just wasn't large enough to accommodate both, and he looks a little clunky on his own.

After a little bit of playing with it I decided to sidestep him this time around because of the size of the block and just focus on the foliage bits. It feels like a completely different print when the turkey isn't the focus and I love the airiness of it.

I've got them quilted and the binding sewn on so this will be today's hand stitching. There lots more fabric so I wouldn't be surprised if another set comes to life soon. This was a helpful exercise in terms of trying to figure out a pattern that works well with this print - more thinking to do!....M