2017 Christmas quilt

Growing up, Christmas Eve night was characterised by the sound of sticky tape being rapidly pulled off the roll, as my Mum wrapped presents for us six kids late into the night. For the second Christmas Eve in a row, our house is filled with the sounds of me frantically finishing a Christmas quilt.

For this quilt I used a layer cake of Kate Spain's Jingle collection to make a bunch of Jacob's Ladder blocks. I'm not usually a fan of the traditional red and green colour palette but I quite like this collection.  

I had originally intended to place the Jacob's Ladder blocks in the usual lattice layout and make it slightly wider with a scrappy border, but my husband suggested inserting a few extra rows in the middle to make a new design. I love how it turned out.

I ended up finishing the quilt on Christmas Day. It made a great couch quilt for our traditional Boxing Day movie marathon (this year we re-watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy).

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts December One Monthly Goal and the 2017 quarter 4 finish-along as finishing this quilt was my goal for this month and one of my proposed quarter 4 finishes (#33 on my list). Hopefully next year I'll be a bit more timely with the completion of a Christmas quilt.

Merry Christmas.

Kat

A stack of quilted stockings

I'm linking up with the 2017 Elm Street Quilts Bag It sew along for the last time and sharing some quilted stockings I made for a friend and her family.

For these I some Cotton and Steel Christmas prints combined with some plain quilting calico. I love the rustic look that the calico gives.

I also used some felt, heat-n-bond lite and a Sizzix die to make some DIY iron-on felt letters.

I think this weekend's project will be to make some stockings for my own family. Luckily there is still over a week to go!

Kat

December birthday bags

I love to make bags for birthday gifts. Bags can be practical and pretty, which is my favourite combination for handmade items. Bags are also fast to make, which is great for last-minute crafters like myself, who tend to leave birthday crafting until a few days before the deadline. Even more so when the birthdays fall in December, the busiest time of the year.  I thought I'd link up with Elm Street Quilts 2017 Bag It sew along and share some bags that I've made for December birthdays.

First up is my Mum, who celebrates her birthday in a few days. I made my mum a Zip Up Tray Pouch (pattern by Aneela Hoey), after she admired the one I made for myself. I used a single print for this one; a pretty floral pattern that I think she'll like.

Next up is my friend Maree, who celebrates her birthday a few days after Christmas. I made Maree a pretty zipper pouch (pattern by Sotak Handmade) using various scraps, including some turquoise linen leftover from making a bento bag for another friend also named Maree.

I also made a bag for myself, since my birthday falls on the second last day of the year. I used the scraps from making my December bee blocks to make a colour block pouch (a tutorial by Sotak Handmade).

I'm hoping that next year I'll up my bag-making game and have a go at using hardware other than zippers. I've got a lot of bag and wallet patterns ready to go - I just need to find the courage to give it a go.

Kat

December Beehive blocks

Just a quick post to share the blocks I made for our December Queen for the Beehive Quilts bee. Bec requested the Fizzy block in low volumes, black, dark grey, dusty pink and mustard. The dusty pink was a little hard to find, but a rainbow F8 bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics saved the day.

I'm a little bit in love with this colour palette and think I might replicate it in a quilt for myself.

Kat

2017 Saturday night craft along swap

One of my favourite times of the week is Saturday night. Mr. Gray often takes the Graylets to Granny's house for a couple of hours so I can have some deciated crafting time. I also love Saturday nights because of #saturdaynightcraftalong - a weekly instagram party where crafters around the world share what they are working on. I love being part of this community, so when the oppourtunity came up to participate in the Saturday night craft along swap, I couldn't resist.

My partner, Karen, posted this mosaic, highligting her love for pink and aqua, polka dots and geometircs, florals and scraps. After some stash diving I can up with a fabric pull that fit the bill - some FQs from the Brush Strokes collection by Holly Degroot for Cloud 9 Fabrics.

For the main item I chose to make a zip up tray pouch (pattern by Aneela Hoey). I love the one that I made myself a couple of months ago (it's so handy) and thought that my partner would appreciate one too.

I used the triangle print for the outer, the light geometric print for the lining and the aqua print for the binding. I love how it turned out.

I also make a pair of scrappy fabric covered baubles using some scraps from last year's Christmas quilt and Mod Podge.

 

The finished baubles were added to the pouch, along with the floral FQs and some candy canes before being sent off to my partner.

I really enjoyed this swap, probably because my partner and I have very similar tastes - I also love pink and aqua, geometrics and polka dots. For proof, check out the little zipper pouches I made myself a couple of months ago (using this tutorial by Sotak Handmade). I only realized after the swap that I could have used these prints instead.

I'm linking these three pouches up with Elm Street Quilts 2017 Bag It sew along, as they were all completed during the event.

Kat

December One Monthly Goal

It's a bit hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the year. December is my favourite time of the year. December means more time with family, and lots of cause to celebrate (it's my birthday month). It's also usually the month that I start my Christmas sewing.

As a result of leaving it this late, I often don't finish my Christmas sewing and have a few unfinished projects that carry over to the next year. This year I'm going to try to not start any new projects and instead complete some of the projects I started last year. I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts December One Monthly Goal and setting myself a goal of completing a quilt I started last Christmas but didn't finish. Mostly because of big cutting boo boo, but also because I wasn't in love with my test block.

However, I adore this line (Jingle by Kate Spain) and want to try a Jacobs Ladder quilt, so I'm going to persevere. Hopefully some more careful fabric placement (rather than my usual random grab-n-sew approach) and replacing the white on white print will give a better result.

Kat