Monday, November 30, 2009

Guess what I have been up to...

I am happily working on some Christmas gifts and decorations. We didn't have a decent tree skirt anymore and I have always wanted a quilted one. But, the tree went up Friday evening and I didn't think about it until we were going through boxes and didn't have one anymore.

Then my friend Bev mentioned making one and not quilting it until after the New Year, which makes loads of sense (especially since she is primarily a hand quilter and I am not). I liked the idea but didn't know what I could do with it quickly.

I looked for patterns and ideas and finally found a blog with a tutorial with a cute, really wonky, log cabin tree skirt. It was a square. I got to looking at it, and thinking about it, and changing a few things about what I was planning and--lo, and behold.

It's nothing like the tutorial I used :-). Well, it's a square. Other than that, I took the ball and ran with the concept. I am really proud of myself for being able to improvise to that level--I can almost say that I "designed" it, but that might really be pushing it!

I made a roughly 40 inch (finished) quilt as you go log cabin square. Yep, one big, luscious square. The backing is gorgeous and looks nicely quilted in a little grid design. When I wash it, it will pucker up a bit and look soft and loved. Ahhh. Well, it will when I get it finished with the binding. Sigh.

I slashed through a diagonal to put in my opening. The straight grain edges are self-bound (in the process, anyway). I will use scraps to bind up to the center opening. The center will have to be bound with bias binding and I am wondering if I will have a piece of fabric big enough to make bias binding or if I will buy a pack of red and just go around the edge and leave lengths to tie. Hmmm. We will have to figure that out this week!

But, I had a bit of the fabrics left over that I made my skirt from, so I began playing with a mantle quilt for the holidays. I was inspired by one I saw in The Olde Quilt Shoppe in Olde Towne Morrow last weekend. So, now it is pieced (log cabins on point) and half-way machine quilted in a freehand grid (not too perfect, want it to be homey). Tomorrow I will finish that and begin to figure out a binding for it as well.

I am seriously toying with the idea to machine sew the binding to the back and ask my mom to sew down the fronts so that I can move to other projects. She might like a litte cash this time of year, after all. She is a whiz at hand sewing and can go nearly as fast by hand as I can on machine and she doesn't make mistakes like I do. And on a machine, I can make them really fast!

Today, I found some cute coaster patterns that look durable, cute, and easy. I can use up spare stash to make them and I would like to get them started for gifts. There is so much that I want to do now that I have given myself permission to get started again! Will try and get pics up as soon as things are finished!

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