Piccadilly Topper

I've been switching between Christmas and Hallowe'en themed toppers and now I'm back to Hallowe'en. 

The inspiration for this one came from Pinterest and it really reminds me of a city block where you might go trick or treating. 

The pattern is called Piccadilly from Doug Leko's book Tabletastic.

I simplified things a bit, making the centre one 6" block rather than a four patch. And, despite my penchant for scrappy, I used the same cream print throughout, letting the blacks, oranges and greys do their thing.

And, similar to the inspiration piece, I also opted to make the first border from the cream rather than a darker print, and I really like it - it lightens things up nicely.

Despite not being a huge fan of Hallowe'en, I do find that I enjoy sewing with some of the themed prints, like these little pumpkin dots (I tend to avoid the gory side of the holiday).

I debated using a dark grey and white for the outer border...

but landed on the black and white, and I think it was a good move. 

It finishes off around 25" square, so it's a good size and will be nice on a table. Needless to say, I'll be asking Roberta to quilt it with the little pumpkin panto....M

No Need To Trim The Trees

If you play around with something long enough a solution is bound to appear. Or fall out of your stash.

You will recall my initial idea of laying out two rows of my Christmas Pines to create a runner or two for the Holly Bazaar...

and how even the idea of cutting the blocks down a bit was still going to leave them very oversized.

Well, as I kept pondering my options...

this appeared from my stash. Perfect!

I am SO happy with them! Very cheery. And, there was enough to make at least two and back them with the check as well. They are off being quilted but I'm hoping that there's enough fabric left to make at least one more (heaven knows I have enough trees...), even if I have to find a different backing....M

Peppermint Pines

I've shifted seasonal gears temporarily from autumn to Christmas, from pumpkins to trees, from runners to placemats.

Using Christmas Pines from The Pattern Basket I set to work making a forest of red and white trees, happily digging into the scrap bins to maximize the variety, though I got a bit carried away as I wanted to use up all of the strips that I had cut.

You start by creating these 'layer cake' bits for the tree...

and then add the side pieces to fill out the block. Stumps and side pieces finish it off. Once I got into it, I pieced a few at a time and then finally just finished up the pile. I ended up with more than 40 trees!

Enough to get me thinking that a longer version of this was going to be my layout, so I kept sewing and sewing.

Well, when I laid them out it was waaaaaay too large. The trees finish at 9" tall so you would need a very large table to pull off a runner that is two trees wide by seven or eight long. It was heading into tablecloth territory.

What to do? I decided to try using three in a placemat; finishing them off with a white on white dot that looks like snowballs seemed fun though I have to admit that I'm not certain all of that white is very functional for a placemat. Ah well, maybe someone will think that they work for their holiday décor. Hope so, because I made four!

I did finally come up with an idea for a runner too. Stay tuned....M

Pumpkin Spice

In my search for new Holly Bazaar ideas Roberta kindly offered up a pumpkin pattern that she thought might suit. She was bang on.

It's called Autumn Spice by The Pattern Basket. Not certain that I would ever make the full quilt, but it's going to make a pretty autumn table runner.

The pattern is really well written and the pumpkins come together quite quickly. I also like the scrappiness of it. Didn't notice until after my cutting was complete that I had accidentally selected all dots for my pumpkins, but I like that, too.

The stems could have been scrappy as well but I opted to simplify things a bit and made them all from the same grey.

I started out thinking that I was going to make a square table topper and experiment with a border. For whatever reason, I cut enough for two blocks, but when the block came together I just felt that it would be lost inside the border (it's about 12" square). 

So, I cut a third and made a runner instead and I am happy that I did. I had plans to use an orange and black gingham for the border but it's just a tad too harsh for the rest of it, so I will keep things simple and stay with a white border bound with green.....M

And Sew It Begins

Amazingly, we are already a week into September so time to pitter patter and start getting serious about a little Holly Bazaar sewing because November really isn't that far away and this year the plan is to return to an in-person event - YAY!

I have made so many versions of these stars over the years that I could make them in my sleep, and I still love them, in large part because you can whip them up so quickly. I had cut enough blocks to make this table topper and then a second rectangular option with white stars surrounded by floral blocks (sorry, no photo).

Two down and not so sure how many more to go, but it's great to have a start. The goal is to have all of the toppers sewn by the end of the month and then bind them in October while I plan my list of things to bake for the sweet table....M