Christmas in July Blog Hop!

I have made a lot of Christmasy items over the years.  These are some of my favorites.  They've been hanging on the wall for almost two years now without taking them down.  No one in my family seems to mind, so I keep them up!  I made the stockings for a Christmas in July Blog Hop a few years ago.  The Christmas wreath was one of Helen Godden's December sew alongs.

These are my Christmas finishes for this month.

I made this first project for Accuquilt using their circle dies.  It was such fun to make and I've never done a tree skirt before.

This second project was for Island Batik and I got to give it to my friend Karen!  Such fun.  I tend to do more Christmas sewing in July than any other time of year.  Lol.

Be sure to check out all the other fun projects on the Blog Hop!

If you're interested in being updated on all my posts be sure to find my Facebook group:  Machine Applique Adventures.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

July 27

Creatin' in the Sticks

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Quilt In A Not-Shell

Ms P Designs USA

 Scrapdash

Selina Quilts

Days Filled With Joy

  

July 28

Life in the Scrapatch

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Karrin’s Crazy World

Vroomans Quilts

Quilted Delights

Songbird Designs

Websterquilt

 Karen's Korner

  

July 29

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Day Brook Designs

Seams To Be Sew

Little Penguin Quilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

Samelia's Mum

Canyon Rim Quilting

  

July 30

Quiltscapes

Mary Mack Made Mine

DesertSky Quilting

For The Love Of Geese

Quilt Schmilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Quilting Gail

  

July 31

Just Let Me Quilt

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Den Syende Himmel

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Many Yarns

Just Sew Quilter

Shirley C.

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Island Batik Holiday Runner

Ever had one of those days where you missed a word and it was totally important?  I so did this month on my Island Batik Ambassador challenge.  It said a holiday runner.  No problem.  I had fun designing this one that looks like interlocking wreathes.  I made it, quilted it, bound it, and THEN realized that the project was to include applique.  Oops.  

So here is a beautiful runner made with a gorgeous red batiks, a dotty background, and a bunch of different Christmas greens.  All the pieces were cut using my Accuquilt GO! Big Electric cutter and my 8" Qube set.  It also has my favorite Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Poly blend inside.

I started my quilting process by picking out some gorgeous Aurifil threads to go along with the runner.  I chose a 50 weight red and cream and a 28 weight green so my stitching would really show up on all the different green fabrics.

I started by quilting the red squares with a long diagonal squiggle.

When I got to a double wide square I did half the pattern in one direction and half the pattern in the other direction so that I could easily continue the pattern.

For the green I decided to make some loops coming up from each red square.  Then on the isde I did a squiggle to really compact the green.

In some places the green squiggle got taller to help fill the space as shown below.  I am so glad I picked the thicker thread because you can really see it.

For the cream I decided to do some large scale feathers.  I wanted to play around with incorporating a variety of styles so I did some curls at the end and some micro feathers around the edges.

In the center I made a dot and then quilted feathers coming out of it towards the top and bottom.  It looks kind of like a Christmas swag, doesn't it?

I made similar motifs in the corners as well.  To fill the space all the way to the edge I did a 3/16" outline around the feathers all the way to the edge.

Done!  I can see this with three pretty candles on it (not lit of course....no wax on my runner!) or a pretty poinsettia plant.

And of course it needed to be photographed in a pine tree!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassador's Whimsical and Wonky Challenge

This month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge was entitled Whimsical and Wonky.  You could do one or the other (or both I suppose!).  I decided on wonky.  Specifically, wonky Christmas trees using my favorite Island Batik fabrics.  I happened to have these three greens and a burgundy and red out for another project I was working on and I decided they would make fun Christmas trees.  I wanted the red in them to pop out.  

Where did my idea come from?  Our school's first graders!  Check out this awesome art project that was up in the hall.  They used tissue paper to make these fun trees.  I knew I had to try it.  I later showed them my quilt in person and they were so excited they made me a thank you card.  I love kids!

To make my trees I fused lots of small pieces in a big chunk and then cut them out like threes some of which are wonky at the bottom.   I then started laying them out trying to decide how to put them down.  Two rows of off set tress seemed the most pleasing to my eye.  Next the piece was layered with Hobbs polyester batting.  I wanted this piece to be fluffy!

To quilt the tress I used swirls.  I love the texture it adds.  I used my favorite Aurifil thread of course!

Then I had a really fun idea.  What about using white yarn for snow under the trees?  Fun!  I had a Bernina ruler foot with a couching disk insert...this is what happened.  What did I learn?  You have to have enough loose yarn and remember to pull more out of the skein even when you're having a really fun time quilting or it won't turn out how you want it too.  I was a bit excited.  I also learned you can't stay in one spot too long or there are issues.

Here's what the foot looks like.  I had white Aurifil thread in the top and the bottom.

I decided to use the same kind of swirl pattern between the trees too, but in just regular thread.

Then I added one more piece of fun.  The kid had used silver glitter glue on their artwork.  So I decided to pull out some fancy silver thread and try couching it.  It worked great and added a little sparkle.

 Such fun!  I love how it turned out.

And the final quilt.  It's going to be a gift for my Secret Santa on Friday!  I hope she likes it.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

My Final Quilt from the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Group

I started this quilt in August because I absolutely fell in love with some batik Christmas fabric and because I fell in love with the first block.  After the first few blocks I realized that I'd turned them all into applique blocks.  So I stuck with that theme.  I had completed the center block you see as an extra block before making this realization.

I had the twelve blocks done.  I'd purposely done four with red, four with cream, and four with green backgrounds.  I fell in love with a new fabric coming out in April from Island Batiks.  It's green and you can see it below.  It's from their Alpine Jingle collection.  It's the first batik I recall seeing that is a stripe.  It reminds me of Norwegian sweaters which just scream Christmas to me.  The lovely Katie at Island Batiks was nice enough to send me some sampling yardage (THANK YOU KATIE!) and it just makes this quilt!  I love the trees going around the blocks.

Now....what to do in the center.  I originally had planned another block but after much frustration, realized it was much darker than anything else in the quilt and just stuck out like a sore thumb.  So...I tried our this other orphaned block.  I ended up cutting off the triangles originally in the corners because I didn't like them.  I love the way it looks now.  It's like a gem in the middle of the quilt!

My mom was with me when I finished the top.  I told her I didn't want to quilt it.  She was excited to do it on her long arm.  I'll show you more of the quilting tomorrow.  She had such fun!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy