Happy Christmas!

 Happy Christmas!

These were the final Christmas presents that I made this year.  Fun fabric buckets using scrap strips.

They are useful for so many things!

If you celebrate, hope that you have a joyful Christmas with your family and friends.

Willow Wonders

 They may not look like much, but they are the result of my taking part in a willow weaving workshop last month, organised by the lovely Benta!

Big thanks to her and to Mary, who did all the prep to make this workshop so successful - and who taught us all how to create stars and Christmas trees.

I really enjoyed my time - and learnt two key things: 1) remember to take your secateurs, and 2) yes, it can be quite hard on your hands!

I'm really pleased to have these as part of my Christmas decorations!

Those scraps......

Each of the 12 hearts blocks (from the quilt I showed you last week) had a snowball block  at it's centre, which left a set of four half square triangles each time.

Clearly I wasn't going to waste them!  This is the cushion cover that I made with most of them.

Obviously the start point was pressing and trimming the blocks to the smallest one - turned out that 4" square was the measurement.

Then it was laying them out in a pleasing pattern, and chain piecing them, which is what is going on here.

Add a 'frankenwadding' (a piece of wadding made from left over scraps - in my case, usually the edges left after trimming a quilt before binding it), a backing and some quilting, and the cushion front is complete!

I added an envelope /  overlap back to it, and then it was complete, just needing the cushion inner to complete it.

Compare this photo to the one at the top - you can see why its a good idea to add narrow borders to anything that you make as a cushion front, as you rarely get to see the bits at the edges!

Finally, the remaining half square triangles were turned into pinwheels, and a mini runner came into being.  Perfect for topping a cupboard and standing pot plants on?

Just a bit of fun!

I've put the remaining few scraps into my scrap drawers now.  I can't understand how the drawers are, once again, full to bursting!  I clearly need to get scrap quilting again with what I have there.
 

Quilt Finished! Hearts Aligned.

Not brilliant photos - but at 72" square, it's quite a heavy quilt for DH to hold up!

It's a variation on the Hearts Crossed pattern by Dandelion Quilt Studio - a pattern that I used earlier in the year.

This time, the ninc blocks all have the hearts with the points closest to the centre, as a variation on the original.

Some of the hearts pop more than others!

And this is the back - with three more heart blocks.  I almost like this more than the front, with the restful areas of green!

I went for a simple stipple / meander all over, nothing fancy at all.

This was partly because it's about the largest quilt that I want to quilt on my domestic machine, and partly because I was concerned that the additional piecing on the back would make the quilt catch when I was moving it around.  In fact that didn't really happen, which was great!

 Binding in a lovely green print, and then the label was printed and added.  The quilt has now been gifted, which is why I can show it here without worrying that I'm giving the surprise away!