It's beginning to look...

a little like Christmas.

All I seem to show on here at the moment are Christmas projects, which probably gives you the impression that I am ready and raring for Christmas and loving the festive period.  Nothing could be further from the truth - I haven't bought a single present, I've not written even one card, and yet despite being so behind in my preparations I have found time to make a couple more Christmas projects.

First up is this table runner.  I worked on this at the weekend with some friends.  This star had originally been a cushion made from orange colours and I think it was called "Tropical Star".  (I forget from which magazine).  It was a lovely cushion but we decided to jazz it up and to turn it into a festive table runner.  I am so pleased with it.  It's definitely all about the fabric and I love the richness of the purple and red here.  I quilted some of the key shapes in gold thread to make it even more glitzy.  I already had a nice Christmas table runner which I made last year, but it has already had to be replaced with this one.  Maybe they will appear alternate Christmases.

I'm really beginning to enjoy foundation piecing and I want to have a go at designing a pattern of my own next year.  You get such lovely points and you can't really go wrong because the numbers tell you what to do.

The second project my sister-in-law has requested I make for her mother-in-law (still with me?)  In typical fashion I am helping other people with their Christmas gifts instead of my own.  She wanted an elephant iPad case and I had some lovely scraps from Christopher's baby quilt.  It was nice for me to use up these bits of fabric and create a pretty gift in the process.  I think it will make a nice gift.  If not, I'll just have to keep it for myself.

I hope your Christmas preparation is going well.

A busy blogger

I have a lot to share on this post.  First of all I am proud to show you a tutorial I wrote featured on The Daily Stitch blog.  I made the table runner, table mats and coasters last month and really enjoyed the challenge and experience.  Annie from The Village Haberdashery took lovely photos and I'm really pleased with how my project looks.  I got a real buzz from seeing my handiwork on a different website from this one.  I'm making a baby quilt and tutorial for her blog again soon and I'm excited about that as well.





As I try to save money for the long arm quilter, this week I have worked on a project made entirely from scraps.  The only thing I had to buy this week was the wadding because the front is pieced from scraps and the backing I had in stash.  I know that it is ridiculous but when I work with scraps I feel that I am getting something for free.  All the fabrics on the front have been used in other projects, some of them in projects on here, so it feels great to have a by-product quilt.

A friend lent me a book this week, Sunday Morning Quilts, which has been a revelation.  There is a great section on making a slab of fabric and this is the technique I've used here in this baby boy play mat.  I'm really pleased that I joined colours together and also used scraps to make the binding as well.  The binding I did on the machine and is my best so far - I feel I am getting better at this.  It wasn't planned, but this would also work well as an "i spy" quilt and there are lots of possibilities for playing pairs.  This quilt is now on sale on Etsy here.

"Scrapisfaction" is how I am feeling about this.  I've decided to set myself a challenge each month of making a "scrapisfaction" project.  I think that using scraps makes you think harder about what you are doing but also makes you more creative as a result.  I, like every quilter on the planet, have a few scraps and I would rather make them useful than leave them languishing in bags and boxes, waiting to see the light of day.  What scrapisfaction project do you recommend I try next?

Thanks for popping by!