Using Up Christmas Fabric...

I opened one of my wirebasket drawers and found quite a bit of Christmas fabric.  I have wanted to try the Disappearing Nine-Patch technique for a while, and decided this would be a good project.  Basically, you make a 9-patch square - any size (I used 6 inch patches) and then cut it right down the middle, both ways.  And then you simply turn 2 of the blocks inward and the chain effect happens. 

 

 

Christmas Disappearing Nine-Patch. Note that I also did random patches - I tried to keep the reds and greens mixed up.

 

 Not quilted yet as I've not found a satisfactory backing fabric.

 

Stashbusting:

 

2 yards of various fabrics.

Half a spool of thread

A Little Project...

Since the foyer wall cabinet was built and installed two years ago, I've needed to create a small cover for the bench seat between the bookcases.  Temporarily, I was simply folding a blanket and putting it on the seat, but it tended to slip and slide. 

 

So, I finally decided last night, when I threw the blanket in the wash, that I really needed to make something. I didn't want a cushion, just something I can toss in the wash when it got dirty.  I also wanted it to be fairly neutral colors.

 

I found these hand-dyed fabrics I bought some 20 years ago for a project I never did...and so, my bench seat cover was born. 

 

 

 

I cut a foundation piece, fliped and stitched the strips, added batting and a back, sewed all around, turned it right side out, and stitched all the way around the edges. I also stitched down the center seam.  I may quilt it later...we'll see. :)

 

 

This is the back - a piece of batik fabric I bought at a yardsale - 2 1/2 yards for $2.00!

 

 

 

Here's a photo of the complete unit, with bench seat in the middle.

 

Stashbusting:

 

Half a yard of various fabrics

Half a yard of scrap batting

Half a yard backing

TableRunners, Coasters and a Quilt

I've been working on the stash, still doing some Christmas fabric things, but also playing with some other fabrics I found, too.  So, I made a couple more tablerunners and some matching coasters. 

 

 

The left one is an old Hoffman Japanese fabric, chrysanthamums lined with a faint gold line.  The right one is grapes and grape leaves, also lined with a thin gold line. Stashbusting stats at the bottom of the post. 

 

I then decided to do something with some scrap fabric I found in the drawer. It is leftover fabric from the quilt I made my grand-niece, and because some was already cut in 3 inch strips, I decided to do a jelly roll race quilt. Here's a link to the You Tube video on how to do one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEJLnaZQOU

 

I also had trouble doing the mitered corners, I got about half backwards, so I finally gave up and just sewed the strips together in straight lines! Then, I set the quilt aside to go get a drink and came back to this:

 

 

Emmy the cat cops a nap on the unfinished quilt. So I waited a while and finally, she left.  I went to the kitchen to get  a drink before I started quilting and I came back to this:

 

 

Dinah cops a nap on the unfinished quilt.  She stayed on it all evening, so I decided I'd work on the quilt the next morning. I ate breakfast, got a drink, came into the room to work on the quilt and there he was...

 

 

Christian, settling in for a nap on the quilt!!! Eventually, he moved on, so I was able to finish it. The finished quilt is 46 X 67 inches, a good size for a toddler.

 

The polyester batting I used slipped and I didn't discover it until AFTER I'd stitched-in-the-ditch quilted it! I ironed the offending part towards the very edge, and then put a binding over the wrinkles. It looks a tiny bit wonky on that edge, but a baby won't notice.

 

Stashbusting:

 

Tablerunners & Coasters: 1 yard or so of various fabrics

 

Quilt: 1 1/2 yards of various fabrics

1 1/2 yards of polyester batting

1 1/2 yards flannel backing

1/2 spool of thread

Random Scrappy Christmas Tree Skirt

To get back into quilting, I started setting a timer for 1 hour at various times during the day and working at my sewing machine.  It's been a good thing. The other thing I decided was that I had to open one of the drawers and work on whatever was in there until everything in the drawer was finished.  The first drawer I opened had Christmas fabric and scraps from other projects in it.  So today, I made a scrappy tree skirt. This is the pattern I used, with some changes.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Thimbleberries-Star-Dance-Tree-Skirt/dp/B00DVW9WXK

 

 

 

If you notice in the booklet, the skirt had appliqued stars and binding. I didn't do either of these things. 

 

This is a foundation-pieced pattern. Cut the wedges from muslin or other junk fabric, and then piece the strips onto the foundation wedges. I "birthed" the skirt. After I got the strips on the foundation pieces, I sewed them together, leaving one opening the length of the wedges to be able to wrap it around a tree. I cut another piece of backing fabric the same size, pinned right sides together and raw edges even, started sewing halfway up the open edge wedge, around the center circle, and then all the way around the bottom of the skirt, clipped the corners and curves, turned right side out, ironed the seams and then finished the open edge.  I then quilted stitch-in-the-ditch on each wedge edge. Technically, the skirt can be reversible, because the back is one solid piece of red fabric with gold stars on it.  

 

 

 

Stashbusting:

 

3 1/2 yards of various fabrics

3 partially filled bobbins of various colors

1 half spool of white thread.

Two more tablerunners and sets of coasters.  I ran out of the blue binding fabric and will have to find some more, there are only 2 coasters in that set (I generally make 8 coasters per set). 

 

 

Stashbusting:

 

2 yards of fabric

 

I made this tablerunner and coaster set for my cousin. 

 

 

Stashbusting:

 

1 yard of fabric

I've been gone for a while...

We've been especially busy since the last time I posted in November.  We went to Germany for 2 weeks, came home and had Christmas with the family, and then we left home to spend a few months helping one of the kids pack up and move to a new place.  We helped declutter, packed, moved, and unpacked everything!  It was fun to be there, but now I'm back home and have my own hobbies and and a whole list of things to do!

 

Today I decided to spend an hour sewing each day to get rid of this stash!  So...I looked at what fabric I had, and then found Renae Allen's 10 minute tablerunner tutorial:  http://www.rgadesignquilts.blogspot.com/p/patterns-projects.html. There are two tutorials - one is a pdf you can download, the other is a video tutorial. 

 

I also made Penny Pennington's coasters out of the leftover fabrics.  http://www.equilters.com/library/projectshare/coasterspatt.html

 

 

You want to know how old some of this fabric is?  I bought the Christmas green background fabric and the middle tablerunner's poinsettia fabric when I worked at a fabric store...in 1997. Seventeen years ago!!! YIKES! I'm pretty sure I bought the pansy fabric in the same timeframe.

 

I think I will buy some white kitchen towels and will sew the leftover fabrics on them to match.  I'm hoping to sell these tablerunner sets at the next Swap & Shop down the road.

 

 

Stashbusting:

 

3 2/3 yards of fabric

Miscellaneous pieces of batting