Christmas Table Toppers and Runners

 

After sharing this picture with my sisters, one of them said how much she liked my table topper and jokingly suggested that my next project for them should be Christmas table toppers. Well, this particular sister, Nancy, never really asks for anything. She's sweet, loving and generous. So, since she was the one doing the asking, I decided to go ahead and do it. But one of the problems was getting hers to her. She lives in the USA, and US Customs now wants any duty paid prior to shipping. I had tried to ship a quilt to one of my ex-husband's nieces in the USA, as she's expecting a baby. But when I tried setting up an account to pay any duty, I couldn't get it to work with my Canada Post account. Even if I didn't have to pay any duty, I would still require this account to say so. The alternative was to download an app, and I really didn't want another app on my phone (it's already giving me grief because so much memory is taken up by apps that I don't need, but can't uninstall). So, it's become nearly impossible to mail anything to the States. But another sister, Cindy, would be visiting Nancy in March. So I had to finish the table toppers in time to ship Nancy's to Cindy so that Cindy could take it with her. And that is why I have been making Christmas table toppers in January.  
Initially, I thought of making them all identical or nearly identical, using the Triangle Frenzy pattern. But that would require me buying a few metres of fabric to make 4 runners. Then I rummaged in my Christmas fabric and my patterns, and figured I could probably come up with enough to make the table runners/toppers, making each one unique instead. 

First I found a wide striped fabric that I was able to use with the Triangle Frenzy pattern. I didn't want to call it Triangle Frenzy or Christmas Frenzy or even Christmas Triangles. Since it has boughs and holly, I decided to call it Deck the Halls. It finished at about 41½" x 18". 

I had admired the Christmas Star topper pattern in the same magazine in which I found the pattern for Democracy Defended. It can also be found as an individual pattern here. This finished about 29" square (supposed to be 30", but that's not how mine turned out). The parallelograms in the red fabric are made using the stitch and flip method. a method I prefer to avoid, as it wastes too much fabric. But I was in a hurry to get these done and didn't want to take the time to calculate the measurements I needed. So I ended up with 16 large triangle leftovers in each of the red and green fabrics. After I was finished all of the toppers/runners, I stitched the triangles together into a large (about 13" square) mat, quilted with a layer of Insul-Bright so that I can use it under hot dishes for Christmas dinner. 

Next, I made the Ribbon Wreath pattern found in this book from my quilt library. 

It's meant to be a wallhanging, but I figured it would work as a table topper as well. 

It works out to 25" square. 
Finally, I had the Christmas Bells table runner pattern (slightly modified pattern called Holiday Bells currently available). 

This is the largest of the 4, measuring 52½" x 19½". I had one gold fabric that I could have used for the applique blocks in my stash of 1-metre fabrics, but I felt it was too light and didn't contrast well enough with the solid cream fabric. So, I raided the fabric that I have in my Coronation UFO that I planned on making to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III. I felt that I could "steal" these 2 squares of gold fabric and still have sufficient to finish that quilt. At the rate I'm going, I might not finish until William's coronation, however. 

I had 4 individually cut metres of this large Christmas floral print that I stitched together and used for the backing, and stitched all 4, plus my table mat, on the same backing. I used the Christmas Holly pantograph and some Aurilux thread in a Christmas variegation (white, red and green). 
Meanwhile, I had also decided to include my sister-in-law in receiving a table runner/topper, and added Christmas Birds, which I completed last August, to the collection. 

Pinning it to the design wall with the rest, which had yet to be quilted and bound, I shared this photo with my sister, Nancy, and told her she got first choice since it was her idea. She chose the Christmas Bells runner. 
I would find it a tough choice as I think they are all very pretty. Hopefully, the remaining sisters will be able to come to an amicable agreement on who gets which one.