#Christmasiscoming

I don't know if you've noticed, but the Christmas music and commercials offering all of the things you should buy are already out. One even had the nerve to start with carolers singing Jingle Bells and the protagonist saying "Noo...it's only November" and then being convinced it is indeed time to start buying buying buying. I did not fall for that one.

But it is true that people who hand make gifts or like to make their own decorations do have to think about these things early. I don't mind if the fabric store has Christmas fabric in July. There's a good reason for that. And for whatever reason, my mind turned to Christmas about a month ago when I came across this image:

I only ever found this image. I couldn't find the source, who made it, whether it was a pattern or an item for sale. But for whatever reason, when I saw the picture, I really wanted to make this star pattern into a Christmas table topper. (Who can predict when inspiration and motivation will strike at the same time? If you could bottle that, "5 hour energy boost" would go out of business and you would be a millionaire.)

It's not surprising I was attracted to a star made from a sixteen-patch and half square triangles. It seems to be what everything I'm doing right now is made of. And it's scrappy. Need I say more?

One problem was that I had absolutely no Christmas fabric scraps. I don't mind using some non-seasonal fabrics if the colours are right, but none? That doesn't seem right. So I called my sister and asked her to bring what she had and was willing to give me. She saved my butt.

We had fun looking through all the fabrics. I had no problem adding some more reds, and then we went shopping where I picked up a few more fat quarters that I thought would work. (Ok, like 10.) We did a general sort of layout where I decided I could group the flowers/stars by colour instead of doing it completely scrappy.

I also decided that there was no need to do HST for the flying geese border. I cut 2.5x4.5 rectangles instead and sewed them together like you would sew a flying geese unit. It saved a lot of seams and made for a smoother look.

I decided I couldn't do this quilt table topper unless I laid it all out and planned where everything would go. With the restriction of the colour placement I wanted and with a piece this small, you can't sew pieces together and arrange them afterward.

In the picture above you can see the three stages of the stars. The blue is laid out but nothing is sewn. I kind of simulated the triangles that would be sewn. The red has the HSTs sewn but none of the squares are sewn together. And the green has all of the star sewn together. (Isn't it amazing how much difference in the size sewing the seams makes, even with only a 1/4" seam?)

In the border above, the rectangles are folded in half so I could see the colour progression. They look like squares but they're not. :)

Once I had the center together, I couldn't stop and put the border together as well.

It's not sewn to the center yet in this picture. I had to put that off for another day.

Here's a close up of each star:

One of the fabrics my sister brought had very fancy gold trimmed poinsettias. I didn't think they would fit in the design (and hated to cut them up), and then I had the brilliant idea to use them for the center of the stars. I love the effect.

You can see the background is made of a lot of scrappy neutrals. This is something I am learning and having fun experimenting with. I did try to group neutrals with green or red or blue in the area around the corresponding star.

After I had the border sewn on, I layered it with a piece of red damask and pin basted it. I decided not to use any kind of batting. I wanted a very flat table topper.

I've started to quilt it and so far I am pleased with how it's going. There is a ways to go, but I am confident I can get it done by Christmas season.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! on Quilting is more fun than Housework.

A Cupboard Facelift

When I designed the kitchen, I put in a couple of open shelves for a break from the monotony of all. those. cupboards. And I thought it would be nice if I could find a way to decorate them so they weren't part of the sea of brown we've got going on. Something like when people wallpaper the inside of their wardrobes or closets with a bright or fun wallpaper.

I even picked up a roll or two of nice wallpapers when I saw them. But I didn't want to commit (or put in the work) of actually wallpapering the back of the cupboards. It's so permanent. And hard to undo. (Because everything, at some point, needs to be undone.)

Then I thought of an idea. Troy came home with about a dozen sheets of some type of plastic covered foam board from work one day. They were ad boards that were supposed to go up in the store, but they were sent all the wrong sizes for their frames! You've seen them on the blog when I've used them as blocking boards.

I decided I would cut one to size:

and cover it with paper. I narrowed it down to two choices:

and decided to go with the strawberries. A little softer, less busy, and too cute to resist.

I wrapped it tight around the foam board and taped it down:

Then I just had to empty the shelves, remove them, and slip the covered foam board into the back of the opening. The shelves are narrower than the frame and there was plenty of room behind them for the thickness of the foam board.

So the upper shelf went from this:

to this:

It has the added benefit of covering up the mounting screws that were visible (you can see them plainly in the "before" picture above):

For the open shelves in the island, one roll of wallpaper wasn't wide enough so I had to make a seam. Since I was using painters' tape, I just taped it in a few places on the front, making sure to match the pattern, and then ran a length of tape along the seam on the back side. Then I removed the tape from the front, et voila:

you can hardly see it even if you do look close.

So the island shelves went from this:

to this:

And from the right angle, you can see both shelves with their cheery backgrounds.

Total time: about an hour. And so re-doable and un-doable it's not funny. It would be a great trick in cupboards with doors too. A nice surprise inside. (Especially if the inside condition isn't that great.) I'm sure a good sturdy cardboard would work as well as the foam board. It's not like there's a lot of stress on it.

Meanwhile I am enjoying my little project, finished and off the "do it someday" list.

New Blind

Our new kitchen has one window, so I want to be sure to do a good job of dressing it. During the construction process, I threw up a scrap piece of fabric. I folded it over at the right height, sewed a large casing and hung it off a tension rod. This gave us the privacy we needed, and it was a cheerful orange, but it wasn't overly pleasing. And, of course, by the end of the process, it was dirty, splattered with concrete, and just done.

By the time the cupboards were in, it just wasn't doing it for me. But it wasn't a priority while we were still putting the kitchen together. I told myself that when I got the tiling on the back splash done, I could reward myself with the new curtains.

I had bought some great fabric last time I was in Missouri visiting family.

I just love these "lollipop" trees and the printed bias stripe.

So when the tiling was done, I set to it. I made a darling little valance. It was lined. (I strongly feel all curtains should be lined--use the same lining for your whole house, and it won't looked so mismatched from outside. Plus the lining helps protect your fabric from UV damage.)

I also did a relatively large hem with the blind hem stitch. I know, it's the standard way to do curtains, nothing new here. But I am still amazed by the effect of a blind hem. Flat and perfect.

For the actual working part of the curtain, I bought a roller blind kit. Once I had the hardware all set, I sewed together a width big enough for the space. Before I actually finished, though, I taped the fabric to the roller with painter's tape and tried it out to make sure I liked it. (Once I fused the fabric to the backing, there would be no going back!)

So here was the final result:

I thought I would love it. But it's a good thing I tried it out, because it just wasn't right. Both my sister and my mom happened to visit while it was up, and while they both were polite, I could tell by their reactions that they agreed it just wasn't right. Although I'm using some bright colours as accents in the room, the yellow and pink tones of the fabric were completely wrong. The print size of the fabric and curtain design didn't seem to do much for the room either. :sigh:

So it was back to the drawing board, and now with a lot less confidence that I knew what was going to look good. But we had to have a curtain, so I had to press on.

Recently while shopping for something else, I noticed the decorator fabrics were on sale--as good a time as any to look around. What I settled on was quite different from my previous choice:

Both Mom and my sister mentioned blue would be a good choice since it was a dominant colour in the tiles, so that was part of what put me in this direction. I also like the geometric feel of all those circles.

It doesn't really set off the tile design by the stove, but I don't think it competes with it like the lollipop tree fabric did.

And with this heavy fabric, I skipped the valance. (Plus it blocked Troy's view out the window.) When the blind is up, you just see a couple inches of the fabric hanging down:

As a final observation, I will say that I couldn't have done this roller blind without the kit, but that doesn't mean I liked it!

1. The lining fabric was applied to the decorator fabric with an iron-on adhesive. Of course, it wouldn't stick to my fabric! I was ironing for more than 30 minutes and I'm still not sure I got it all secured.

2. There's a flat stick encased in the bottom hem of the blind. The kit gives you some 1/2" fusible tape to secure the hem. It was completely useless and I sewed the hem instead.

3. It was also one of those kits that told you to trim the sides to the right width without sewing a hem on the side. "If" your fabric raveled (as if it wouldn't), they suggested applying fray stop. I didn't even try that method, but turned over a 1/2" hem on each side and sewed it down before applying the lining fabric.

I guess "no sew," "so easy" or whatever you want to call it just doesn't suit my style. It doesn't make it easy when the adhesives don't work. It's lying to people to tell them they don't need to sew. They certainly won't get a good result!

Anyway, my blind is done, it works, and I am pretty happy with the result. (I think I may have to come up with a better "reward" for finishing the tile, however!!)