Not Everything Was Christmassy

We aim to have a variety of seasonal items on the Holly Bazaar tables so I made a few additional runners and potholders that didn't say Christmas.

The check of browns and oranges that I used for the border seemed like a suitable fit for a collection of leaf blocks that I had made. The hint of green that runs throughout gives it a nice autumn feel.

It's called Hello Autumn,

and someone had fun designing the selvage for it.

A mottled brown binding finshed things off nicely.

I love the acorn panto that Roberta quilted it with. It's a little tough to see at first, but these gorgeous little acorns are scattered in amongst a frilly leaf pattern.

And then there was this pretty yellow braid all trimmed up with a soft green. This one really felt like spring to me. Unfortunately, the lighting on this photo is not great but you will have to take my word for it, it was very pretty and light.

You can get a better sense of its true colours in this photo. The green and white Spring Chicken check that I used for the backing and binding had a fun selvage, too.

My niece Julia crocheted these beautiful cotton dishcloths that we sold in pairs. The stitch that she used is so interesting - it looks more like knitting than crochet to me. Almost too pretty for washing dishes...

And she also crocheted a bundle of these chunky star tree decos hung from a bit of twine. So, at the end of the day there was a very healthy bag of goodies to drop off for the gals at the craft table....M

A Few Bits from the Holly Bazaar

Though it seems like the Holly Bazaar was ages ago, its just been a few weeks but prep for it kept me even busier this year because I was asked to co-convene it. I was patting myself on the back for having started my sewing early because something would have had to give if I had left it all to the last minute.

This is one of the holiday-themed runners that I made. It's a Kim Deihl pattern called Double Dipped and was lots of fun to make; I particularly like the little red pin dot background with all of those Christmas prints. 

Roberta quilted it with a swoon-worthy holly and berry panto.

It looked great as a runner, but the blocks could have been a little bit smaller if it were for my table. That said, someone bought it so it obviously works for their table. 

It has a lovely argyle feel to it and is scrappy to boot; the pattern would make up into a beautiful throw.

I got all five Christmas stockings finished...

And remember these placemats that I'd found on 'the chair'? (I made a set last year from remnant HSTs.)

With so many prints in the HSTs I opted for a subtle red check for the binding so that it didn't compete for attention.

And they are quilted in the same beautiful holly and berry panto that Roberta used for the runner above. It would be great to use the reverse side of them sometimes so that you could enjoy that quilting to the fullest.

I really debated giving these away but fear not, my partner in crime came to the rescue. When they proved to also be a favourite of The Official Cookie Tester's, he bought them. They never made it to the craft table 😉.

There were still plenty of Christmassy HSTs left to play with so I whipped up a pair of cute potholders  - love that candy cane binding - and managed to give them to the cause. I can't keep everything!....M

Where Does The Time Go?

Boy oh boy! I'm looking at the date of my last post and cannot believe how busy things have been since then. It's been a month - time to get caught up. Let's start with yesterday. I had a few batches of cookies that I wanted to finish up, so on went the carols and I spent the day in the kitchen. 

You know what it's like when there's one or two recipes that you miss if they aren't on the plate... Some have already been gifted!

And this was after we baked all day a few weeks ago at our annual Christmas Cookie Bakeoff.

We did the math and figured out that this was the 30th time that we had held the bakeoff, which is pretty amazing (it would have been 31, except for Covid). 

Julia graciously hosted us again this year and was in her element decorating our wares.

Needless to say, the gals all have the routine down pat and everything went like clockwork. By the end of day we had parceled up 1,530 cookies - just under 128 dozen.

Before all of the holiday baking, cleaning and decorating began, there was the Holly Bazaar. It too was a great success. We welcomed so many visitors to our little church - I think more than ever - and there was plenty of seasonal cheer to go around. I'll share more on that next time, and I promise that it won't take me a month to post it! 

Hope that if you celebrate Christmas that your holiday prep is well under way....M

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

The Carp Fair Raffle Quilt

I have been meaning to post about this quilt since the spring but for some reason it keeps getting lost in the ether.

Remember last spring/summer Betty and I were helping our friend Jean work through the details of what the Carp Fair was going to do for their annual quilt block competition? Well, the fair was held in late September, as usual, and by all accounts was a raring success - the best attendance ever. We didn't make it this year but I did help Jean with pulling together all of last year's blocks into this year's raffle quilt.

It was an interesting process because I tend not to make sampler quilts, but I was up for the challenge.

There were 25 blocks so I landed on placing them all on point creating a little more interest. I needed more blue for the border but was working on assembly a good six month after we'd bought the fabrics for the blocks. Fortunately, was able to pick more up at the same shop.

This was Betty's block.

And this was mine. Until I saw these pics again I'd forgotten that I'd use the narrow grey sashing and dark blue cornerstones to set the blocks.

I think that this was the only block to include a bit of applique.

And this beehive block was a lovely homage to the blue bee print included in the fabric package. Sweet. I think that those bees were included in everyone's block.

Roberta generously donated her time to quilt it, along with the backing, and she nailed it with rows and rows of beautiful feathers, a lovely nod to this handmade tradition.

It looked equally nice on the check that we used for the backing which had a nice agricultural feel to it. 

Jean was thrilled. Red, black and white are the fair's colours so many of the previous raffle quilts were made using this palette but she wanted something a little different and this fit the bill nicely. 

In the spring Jean took it to a few agricultural/seed shows as a way to sell tickets and generate interest in the fair, and it looked beautiful when it was hung. This pic makes it look square but it isn't - I made the top and bottom borders deeper than those on the sides.

She  asked if I could also make a lap quilt using the same fabrics to accompany the fair quilt in the hopes of encouraging folks to sit for a bit and quilt a few stitches.

I landed on the 54-40 or Fight pattern. Roberta has long had a beautiful version of this quilt on a wall in her quilting studio and it has always appealed to me. 

It was a great pattern to work on and I would definitely make it again.

Jean is not a quilter so I drafted a suggested quilting pattern and sent her ideas for items to include in a sewing kit that could travel with the quilt, which she really appreciated. Last I heard, there weren't as many takers as they would have liked; I'll have to check and see where things ended up with it.

These two quilts were a big project and consumed a fair bit of last fall/early winter, but I was happy to help a friend out....M