A Winter Quilt

Beautiful machine embroidered snowmen + Scrappy pieced blocks = a unique quilt!

Irish Chain scrappy blocks

There are so many beautiful machine embroidery designs available and it's been such a fun time browsing and looking to see which ones I could use in a quilt. One of the sites I spent a lot of time browsing over the Christmas holidays was Bird Brain Designs. Their designs have just the right amount of primitive and I've always loved redwork.

Embroidered Snowmen

While busy making Christmas items, I cut all my scraps into 2" squares and started sewing them into scrappy blocks for a double Irish chain quilt. When I put them up on the design wall, I had a light bulb moment and decided I could use some embroidered blocks for the centers of the alternating blocks.

Partially laid out

I did run out of embroidery thread just one snowman short of being finished, so I'm not quite finished, but I'm pretty happy with how this is looking. I'll need a great Christmas fabric for a border and this will be a great quilt for Christmas 2018. I'm pretty sure I'll have it done for then!

--Ann

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Many of the ornaments on my tree have been handmade by me over the years. In 2015, I added two more to my collection. The first is made from layered strips with a piece of cardstock sandwiched between two contrasting pieces of fabrics. I chose a red print for the one side and a gold print for the other. I may make these again, but maybe with some of the great decorative paper available on either side rather than the fabric.

Snowflake Ornament from Fabric & cardstock

 The second handmade ornament was this wreath from tiny (3/4") hexagons. I had originally thought to leave it just plain, but I just needed to add some embellishment.

Wreath ornament from little hexagons

 So I looked through my button box and found some little red buttons. It looked better, but was still missing something!

Hexagon Wreath with buttons added

And I dug into my embroidery floss bin for some red floss and outlined each hexagon with a running stitch.

Hexagon Wreath with buttons & embroidery floss detail

I love the way it turned out & it looked great on our tree!

What about you? Do you make your own Christmas decorations?

--Ann

Mini Stockings

Every year our guild gathers donations of toiletries for our local Wheatland Crisis Shelter. This year we did something a little different and packaged those toiletries in little stockings made from the method shown on Diary of a Quilter's blog here http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010/12/easy-stocking-tutorial-today.html

Stockings filled with toiletries

These were such fun to make, took only a little fabric and are super easy. The pattern was a bit small for what we needed (it's perfect for gifting gift cards), so we added about 1/2" all around the printed pattern.

Donations for Wheatland Crisis Shelter

Do you make anything in your sewing room for charitable causes? I'd love to hear about it!

--Ann

Christmas Mug Rug

Now that Christmas is over, I still have a few projects to share with you. One of the quilt guilds I belong to had a mug rug exchange at their Christmas potluck. I found a great mug at Home Sense that had a beautiful poinsettia on it. And I had a great Robert Kaufman poinsettia fabric at home that was a pretty close match.

Poinsettia Mug Rug

I added a checkerboard border from some ivory & green Christmas fabrics. A little quilting with an all over meandering pattern & a green border and this mug & mug rug were ready to go!

Finished Poinsettia Mug Rug

Love the result! Might have to make one of these for myself if I can find another mug!

--Ann

More Red & Gray Quilts

And here's a couple more quilts made for a customer that loves reds and grays and blacks.

Red & Gray square in a square - SOLD!

The square in a square block is a pretty basic block and I chose to do it with a common center of red fabrics, but it's also very effective when made with alternating blocks of a dark outer square with a light inner square and a light outer square with a dark inner square.

Christmas Present Runner - SOLD!

And the Christmas present runner is one that I've seen many times online - I didn't look for a pattern, but just drew this one out on graph paper & put it together - I may make this one again will some more traditional red & green Christmas fabrics!

--Ann

Christmas in July

One of the things I enjoy about sewing for an online audience and doing custom work is the opportunity to work with fabrics and colour combinations that are not part of my normal. I've made a few red, gray and black quilts for one of my customers and she found this line of fabric from Henry Glass Fabrics called Holiday Magic by Jan Shade Beach. You can find it here at the Fat Quarter Shop.

Red & Gray Christmas fun! - SOLD

The printed panel had 15 pictures on it and I had some fun coming up with some block layouts that highlighted the adorable pictures.

Christmas in red & gray - FOR SALE

I've seen a number of quilts that alternated a pictorial block with a chain block, so that's what I did for 2 of the quilts made from the panel. The other quilt I arranged differently and set the pictorial blocks off with star blocks.

Christmas in red & gray - FOR SALE

The last two of these both have a hanging sleeve on the back so it can be hung on the wall or they can be used as a table topper - would look great in a black & white kitchen or dining room!

I still have quite a lot of the fat quarter pack left, so there will be some more red & gray Christmas projects coming!
 

Christmas Stocking and a Christmas Quilt

A few years ago I made some stockings for a client in Edmonton (blogged here), and I had so much fun making them! When she received them, she had them custom embroidered with names on the cuff.

Stocking Front

Stocking Back

And then she returned the following year to ask that I make some Christmas quilts for her children's beds and supplied me with fabric panels and adorable gold and red reindeer fabric to make both the quilts and the matching pillowcases (blogged here).

Pillowcase

Christmas Quilt

This year, they added another little person to their family and I am so pleased that they asked me to make a stocking and bed quilt for this new person!

Piecing the Christmas Stocking

 I dug through my messy closet and found the cardboard template that I used for the original stockings and was so happy to see that I actually made some notes on what I did and how I put everything together. It made making a matching Christmas stocking much easier and when I went into my stash of Christmas fabrics, I found I still had squares cut to size in the same fabric line that I used originally. So this new stocking is going to look right at home hanging next to the original ones!

Tada! Finished Christmas Stocking

I love the fabric panels that were chosen for the bed quilt & matching pillowcase. And although the original red & gold reindeer border fabric wasn't available, the new fabric chosen (and supplied by the client) with the Christmas hobby horses was a great pick and worked well with the panels.

Christmas Quilt

I am so happy to have finished these in plenty of time for holiday decorating season and would LOVE to see pictures of this client's Christmas house!

--Ann

Travel Blankets

We had a little workshop a few weeks ago at our guild and we made some cute little bags to hold lap size travel blankets for in the car or on an airplane. With airlines charging for every little extra, these little travel blankets are the perfect addition to your carry-on luggage. Just slip the strap over the handle on your suitcase and you'll have your own blanket to keep you warm during your flight.

These are also great for in the car - just hang behind your seat from your head rest. Then when the driver turns up the A/C and you just want to turn up the heat, you can unroll this blanket and everyone is happy. The blanket is just a light weight polar fleece blanket about 42" x 60". Fleece doesn't fray at the edges, so just cut to size or finish with a simple 1/2" folded over hem. I rounded the corners on mine. The carry case is made from 2 fat quarters of fabric and a strip of Velcro to keep it in.

I made these for my grand-daughters for this Christmas! I know, it's way too early to think about Christmas, but I know from experience that I need to think about it earlier rather than later if I want to include handmade.

(Sorry, no link to a pattern. When I find a link, I'll share!)
--Ann

Quilted Ornaments for the tree

Santa with yoyo's

Cross stitch windsock.

Folded Star Christmas ball

Christmas quilts

I am finally decorating the house for Christmas - and along with my regular ornaments, Santas and snowmen, I pulled out my Christmas quilts. I have more than I thought, so I'll take a couple posts to share them with you. 

Here's my tree skirt. When we lived in Beaumont, Alberta (not Texas!) I was part of a wonderful group of women who quilted together. The blocks in the tree skirt were 6" blocks exchanged by that group. I don't have a pattern for this - its just made up as I went, but I think of my friends every time it comes out for the holidays! 

I love that there are so many good happy memories with this little quilt!

-Ann

Getting ready for Christmas Craft Sale season

My sewing room is a mess! I dumped out 2 Rubbermaid bins of scraps and unsorted fabrics to make room for hauling finished products to my first Christmas craft sale of 2013. I'm a list maker, so I've made an inventory list of what I'll be bringing and checking it against what I can actually find in my closet. Chaos rules, but piece by piece, this mess will disappear and I will be ready for the sale!

Piles of fabric scraps

 I don't remember how I packed it all up last year - the large quilts are NOT fitting nicely into the tub! And this is the first year I've packed a pillow - definitely bulkier than the quilts! I definitely have more table runners than other years and I'm looking at a way to hang them so they are easier to look through - maybe a clothing rack!

packing quilts

 And I hope to pack the small items right inside their display cases (aka whatever baskets and containers I can find here at home!) I've only got a few more days to figure it all out!

More chaos in the sewing room

 But I'd rather be sewing and finishing some more of these - a Christmas table runner and a red/taupe quilted runner that can be used for the holidays and all year round.

Currently on the design wall

How do you organize yourself for a special event?

--Ann

Prepping for Christmas Craft Sales

Last year I made a list in the quiet times of the craft sales I participated in. This list was for things that people asked for when they looked at my table. Some wanted more country colours, some asked if I made coaster sets, and some looked, walked away, came back and left again without purchasing anything.

Country Greens Table Runner

 I've expanded my table runner selection to include a number of country coloured quilts, made some coaster sets and still have a couple weeks to make a few more surprise items that will be new to Magpie Quilts.

This year I am going to be set up to accept Visa and Mastercard credit cards. I'm hoping that this will help purchasers who might otherwise not carry the amounts of cash for some of my larger quilts.

Christmas Poinsettia Table Runner

 And I've been trying to increase my number of actual Christmas themed items - after all, these craft sales are meant for the Christmas market!

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - August 6 - Christmas Inspiration!

Working on the Christmas quilts for my customer inspired me to pull out my Christmas fabrics to see what I could quickly put together. I recently received these great fabrics from The Buggy Barn for Henry Glass fabrics and pulled together a few table runners:

A little gold accent strip

Starry Christmas Table Runner - FOR SALE

Pieced Star Christmas Table Runner - FOR SALE

 I love working on Christmas items and will have a few more to show over the next few weeks.

--Ann

Christmas Time!

I know that while summer is in full swing, most of us don't want to think about Christmas, but crafters and retailers have to think about these things early!

One of my customers recently sent me some Christmas panels to make some quilts for her children. I love the panels she chose and here's the final layout:

Christmas panel quilt

 And here's some pillowcases to match:

Christmas pillowcases

These are off being quilted and this customer will have one thing checked off her Christmas to-do list and it's not even September yet!

Are you a last minute Christmas person? Or do you plan months in advance, like my awesome customer?

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - October 17

Just thought I'd pop in and let you see what I've been working on the past couple days - it sure feels like Santa's workshop with all these lovely Christmas fabrics!

--Ann

Linking up with:
Quiltsy WIP Wednesday #32
Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday #61
Freshly Pieced

This week at Magpie Quilts

This was an awesome week for actually finishing some projects that were stacked up on the sewing desk. The Christmas items that I cut out a while back are done.

 Pot holders - SOLD!

 Bell pull

 Table Topper

 Penguin table-topper

And I have all my 3x6 bee blocks on the wall trying to figure out how they are going to go together. I am thinking that I will make a couple more so I have 25 and then just sew them together without sashing to make a square quilt. Or I can split the group in half and make 2 smaller quilts. What do you think?

Next week I'll be whipping up some Christmas presents, so maybe I'll show you some hints, but no finished projects! Are you making any Christmas gifts? Please tell me about them!

--Ann