Little Christmas Pieces

It's certainly "that time of year." Time to worry about all the little Christmas gifts you need for the people in your life. I'm not talking about your kids or your parents...they're kind of a given. But where to you draw the line? Co-workers? Friends? Friends' kids? Mailman? Teller at the bank that always gets your deposit wrong but he's so nice about it you're not supposed to hold it against him?

I usually draw a pretty tight circle. Partly because most people I know have so much (more than they need) that worrying about giving more seems almost improper. Not that I won't pick something up if I think a certain person will like it, but I don't worry about it. Except for work...

I know we are having a Christmas party at the end of December. I know that my coworkers will be giving gifts around (based on last year's precedent). And I will feel bad if I have nothing to give in return. A little resentful that we are playing this game, but bad nonetheless. Last year you may recall that I made mini knitted stockings. This year, I have just finished little mini quilts (about 6"x8") that can be hung or used as a "mug rug." (Think coaster, but a little bigger so it can hold a drink and a snack.)

I have to admit I think they are pretty cute. Maybe I will even have to make one for myself.

Before I show them all to you, I will give you advance notice that I will be asking you to vote for which one you think should grace the front of my Christmas card this year.

And so, without any further comments, here they are:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)


















Ok, here's the poll. Please vote on which mug rug you would like to see on my Christmas card. You may vote for more than one, if you'd like.


You have until December 10 if you want your vote to count.

Returning to the quilts themselves, the backs of the quilts are all single pieces of fabric.

I quilted them all the same. I think you can see it here pretty well:

It's a basic outline of the tree and the box around it. (The inside edge of the border.) And then of course, I stitched around the appliqued star as you can see in the very first picture. I used my "light neutral" piecing thread for all of the quilting on all the quilts, regardless of fabric. And I used my shiny gold "lame" thread for zig zagging around the star.

The design itself was paper pieced and you can get a copy of the pattern for yourself here. (You're welcome!)

You may have noticed that even though I said the mug rugs could be hung if desired, I didn't add any pockets (like these) or loops to hang it with. I didn't want any hardware on the back which would unbalance a glass and decided a simpler, less permanent solution would work:

A safety pin! The quilts are small enough that they will hang from the pin--all you need to do is get it reasonably centered. Here's proof:

There it is merrily hanging on a wall from a safety pin. And if you don't want to hang it, just take the pin off.

And now's the part where I give you a little tip. It's something I picked up from my sister when we were having a quilting bee. We had four of us set up on four sides of a quilt we were binding so we could all work on the same quilt at once. I couldn't help but notice that my sister really was just whizzing along. Finally she showed me her secret, and now I'll show you:

I love simple tricks.So obvious once you're told.

I think I have gone on long enough now. I hope you've voted. I hope you are able to use my tip one day while binding. I hope you have a merry advent season, giving with a cheerful heart! (Set me a good example.)

Christmas Mini: Quick Like a Bunny

We may be well into January, but I'm not done with Christmas yet. I bought some flannel fat quarters to repair the corn bags a mouse had destroyed. (Or maybe it was "mice" as we have caught quite a few but there seems to be always more.) Anyway, I had enough left over fabric to make me think that I should do something with it. (In case you're still wondering, corn bags are little "pillows" filled with corn that you heat in the microwave and take to bed to warm it for you. They stay warm for at least 30 minutes. So cozy. Really.)

I was so enamored with the reds, greens and pop of orange in the right one. The snowmen and plaids didn't hurt either.

Then yesterday, I was looking at some quilting books that a friend had passed on to me. This pattern jumped out at me and said, "Here I am! Make me! Make me!" (It's from Marti Michell's Weekend Log Cabin Quilts. Yeah, Marti Michell is the one whose book I'm using to quilt in sections. Obviously I like her stuff!) I really like log cabin blocks and all the layout options you have with them. But not being in the mood for all that piecing, and not thinking I had enough variety or quantity of fabric, I decided to do the same design with half-square triangles.

I thought about the fabric choices of what goes where. Some things were easy--the light plaid was the only one that qualified as a "light" colour and the red was an obvious choice for the star points. Some were harder--where to use the green and the small-scale plaid. When I thought I had a good idea in my mind, I went ahead and drew it out to see what I thought:

Good enough!! You can see I also did some figuring on what I needed for pieces on the bottom. It never hurts to write something down so you can be sure.

From there, I cut some squares, pieced some triangles (sewing a 1/4 inch from the diagonal on all squares to get 2 half-square triangles from each set of squares--not only easier with less cutting, it helps to keep the bias stitching from stretching), and then stitched pairs and then rows together.

Et voila! A mini quilt to hang at Christmas:

It's just under 12" square. You can see that I added a red  border around the piecing. It's actually laid in like piping (without the actually piping) so it does cover up all my points. This may look like a way to hide sloppy piecing, but really I just like to do it that way. (It's the same trim I did on my recent Kaffe Fassett pillow (which the mice also chewed up by the way!!), and on the outside border of the mini crossed canoes quilt, except that one did have piping. Wow! Three of my last three finished projects had it--I must really like it!!)

I then added a border of the small-scale plaid, but cut it on the bias. I wanted something to contrast with all the straight lines of the quilt center. The fabric wasn't long enough to do the usual border (add strips to sides, add strips to top and bottom) or a log cabin (add strips in a circular direction). I thought about using cornerstones but really didn't want to.

I ended up adding strips that were each the length of the piece plus one border width. You go around adding the strips, but you have to sew the first strip on in two parts because you need the butt end there to sew the next strip but you can't sew to the end until the last strip is sewn in. (If anyone knows the name of this style, please let me know. I can't think of it, and it's driving me crazy.)

I layered the back, front and a scrap of cotton batting and quilted a big X across it. Then I echoed the X in the four quadrants to emphasize the angle of the star points. I judged the distance between lines as an 1/8" from the edge of my walking foot. They're not all exactly even, but close enough. I was disappointed at first that I would be quilting right over the loose red trim, but then decided I wasn't going to worry about it.

I then finished it off with the red binding. I cut it 1" wide and used it single thickness. (Lots of quilt bindings are done doubled, but with this being a wall hanging and the flannel already being so thick, it just wasn't necessary or practical.) I will say 1" is too narrow and I don't recommend it. But I got it done.

Three of my four binding corners came out impeccably and I'm very pleased about it! (The fourth was "good enough.")

Out of all the green fabric I used, only one snowman survived. He peeks out at you from the top corner of the quilt...too cute:

The back was pieced from leftovers. I had the most of the green, but still not enough. So another scrap of the small-scale plaid (on the bias again since that's the only way it would cut out) made it big enough to use.

I almost forgot to add the hanging triangles, but remembered in time that I didn't have to rip anything out to get them on there. I didn't have enough of a single fabric so the are pieced as well. (More half-square triangles, but this time I folded them over on the seam.)

I had a lot of fun making this. I kept myself from worrying about the "why" and what I was going to do with it in the end, and just enjoyed making it. It was a hoot. It didn't hurt that I managed to get it done all in one day. It might be my first quilting project that got done before it could be considered a UFO! Yay, me!