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. 

A Couple of Projects from a "New" Book

 

I never know what treasures I might find in thrift stores. This book came from my local thrift store and it does have some unique and interesting gift ideas. In addition to patterns/instructions for the gifts, it also has patterns and templates for a number of 10" blocks. Unfortunately, the templates do not have seam allowance included, which I found rather frustrating. But I made a note in the block section of the book to remind me of this. 
My grandson was with me when I bought the book, and as I was perusing it once we got home, we discussed making the quilted shawl for my daughter. She had complained about the office at work being too cold and she was planning on knitting or crocheting a shawl to keep her warm when she's there. Knowing that she was trying to get her career on track and that she likely wouldn't get one done that quickly, I figured I could make this one for her and give it to her for her birthday. 

From the block "library" in the book, I selected the budding rose quilt block, as it looks good on point, something necessary for this project. So, I called the project the Budding Roses Shawl.

The block was a little bit challenging as it involved some "interesting" seams.

I'm not sure what you would call this: a double Y-seam? Or just 2 Y-seams quite close together. 

I edited this photo to show how I did it, lining up the orange seam first, followed by the fuschia and the lime green seams. 
With Damian's help, I chose the colours. Sophia's favourite colour is orange, so I decided on the peach colour for the background. She also likes colours in the teal/aqua family, so that is what I chose for the flowers. And I decided to do the flowers in solid fabrics as it would make choosing gradients of the same colour easier. 
I don't generally like the blocks in my projects to come right to the edges, as the binding often overlaps too much of the block and partially obscures it. So, I opted to add a 1" border with the background fabric. 

I've probably mentioned before that I am trying to use the many quilting pantographs I own that I haven't used before. So for most of my latest projects, that is what I have been doing. However, I couldn't find an unused pantograph that I felt suited this shawl, and opted for Tea Rose, a relatively simple but still very pretty design. Because the shawl has a minky backing, I didn't want to use a denser pantograph like Abstract Rose, which is probably my favourite floral pantograph. 
I'm not entirely thrilled with my block choice in this shawl, but overall, I still think it looks good.
I entered the shawl in the quilted clothing class in my local fair, where it won a first place ribbon. (I'm sure it helped that it didn't have any competition). And my daughter loves her shawl. 
As I was flipping through the pages of the book, I came across a pattern/idea for this Yuletide Stocking. As I knew that there was a Christmas stocking class in the bench show at the local fair, I decided to make one. 

The one in the book wasn't actually quilted, but I opted to do quilt as you go with my stocking. It was a good project to use some of the lace I have in my stash, most of which came from my mother's stash. And I have plenty of Christmas fabric in my stash as well. 

As the back of the stocking was not pieced, I just did diagonal lines for the quilting. Both the front and back were quilted on my domestic machine. 
Again, I was not entirely thrilled with the finished project. Because I added quilt batting, and a muslin faux backing for the quilting, which gave more bulk in the seams, it ended up narrower than I would have liked for a Christmas stocking. And the front didn't end up as pretty as I would have liked. It did, however, win a second place ribbon in the local fair (where it did have competition).