Christmas Corner -- October

 Welcome to Christmas Corner.  A monthly post on the 25th, to share quilted holiday gifts and tutorials.

This Month's Projects are:

A pot holder to match this decorative dish towel.

This cute little potholder has a free tutorial here at the Moda Bakeshop.

This little topper, called the Little ZZ (a pattern by Evelyn Young) You can find the free instructions here

I taught a class to make this potholder and made a tutorial for the students to follow

You can find the instructions here

Last year, this Winter Wonderland table topper was fun and easy to make, The link to the original post is here.

Visit Sarah Rose Quilts for the tutorial here

I hope you're finding some time to make Christmas items!  Thanks for stopping by Christmas Corner!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Mini Quilt

I've seen some other blogging quilters showing their mini quilts and wanted to make some too.  

This mini quilt is 14" square, made with half square triangles and bordered in white and dark blue print.  

I embroidered a little vine with some pink flowers on each side.

 I wanted to hand quilt it and started the process but it wasn't going too well.  I watched some hand quilting videos and determined that I need a special thimble by the thimble lady and probably special thread and needles too.  Being too impatient to wait, I went ahead and machine quilted it.

I'm planning for my next mini quilt to have a red border.

   Thanks for stopping by!
I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Simplest Potholder

Here are some instructions to make the easiest and quickest potholder and you can even use up scraps for this project.

Cut pieces as shown in the diagram.  (Cut front and back squares 9 inches.  Cut batting and two inside squares 8 3/4".  Cut 2" x 4" piece for the loop.)  

Make 2 quilt sandwiches by assembling 3 layers (one with a front and one with a back square) with batting in the center

Stitch approximately 2" from the edge through all three layers of each quilt sandwich.  (note:  you can sort of see that the metal plate of the sewing machine is 2 inches from the needle, so I used that as my guide and didn't measure)

Measure out 4 inches x 4 of your trim.

Lay the 4 strips inside the box you've sewn.

You could mark this 4 inch box with a pen or just carefully lift up each piece and using the edge of the glue stick, apply a thin layer to the place where you want to stick the trim.

Repeat the previous step for each side and then stitch your trim down using a straight stitch, being careful to catch in the corners and you might want to back stitch at each corner to secure the trim a little better.  (Note: you could sew on a label now.)

Making a Loop

Fold the 2" x 4" piece in half lengthwise and press.

Open and fold in the raw edges to the center and press.

Press closed and stitch as shown

Fold the raw edges of the loop together and overlap and pin to the center of the top of the potholder.  (note in this photo you can see that I zigzagged that bottom trim piece.  The straight stitch seems to work better)

Place the two quilt sandwiches, right sides together, matching sides together (don't worry about the batting and inside layers, the important part to match is the front and back.)  Stitch 1/2" from the edge, LEAVING a 3 inch opening for turning.

Trim the corner fabric and also the inside layers and batting close to the seam and then turn right sides out.

Press the open edges in and stitch closed, either by machine or hand (hand looks nicer).

If you have a label you can add it to the bottom (note: you could stitch the label on before you sew it all together)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Making Mini Quilts

One of my current goals is to make a bunch of mini quilts.  I finished up this little autumn quilt and started a non holiday mini.
Little Pumpkins and a Crow table topper

The morning indirect lighting is lovely don't you think?

This could be a table topper or...

A wall hanging.

I found a picture of a crow like this and figured out how to make it.

Here are the dimensions and a few instructions if you want to make one.  (Let me know if you need further directions.)

1.  Sew the 3 7/8" triangles together and trim to make a 3 1/2" block.

2.  Sew the 2" triangles together and trim to make 1 3/4" blocks

3.  Draw a diagonal line on the tan 2 inch square and pin to the lower right 3 1/2" black square and sew on the diagonal line.

Sew the pieces together as shown, forming a right and left half and then sew the two halves together.

UPDATE:  GG asked for some cutting instructions for the rest of the crow topper so am providing some here based on measuring the topper but beware since it's shrunk a bit and I'm hoping the dimensions are still accurate.  No pictures but if you refer to the topper, it should be fairly easy to follow.

Pumpkin Block

Pumpkin orange square:  5" square

Snowball corners with background squares:  1 1/2"

Side background borders:  1 1/2 x 5" (cut two)

Top background border (each side of the stem) 1 1/2 x 3 1/4" (cut two)

Top AND Bottom border: 3/4" x 6 1/2" (cut two)

Green stem:  1 1/2" square

Crow Block (see blog post)

Setting Triangles (orange):   10" square cut diagonally twice

Corner Square Triangles (black) 5" square cut diagonally once (or you can cut a 7" square and cut diagonally twice)

Send me a message if any questions.

Here is a little half square triangle mini I'm working on.

I think I'll border it with some white and this blue.

 Here is a new quick method for making 2 inch HSTs.

Cut a 3 1/2" strip and cut 3 1/2" squares.  Pin the squares onto the strip and sew down one side, around the bottom and as you go up the other side, detour sideways and sew across the bottoms and tops horizontally.

You'll end up with a strip that looks like this

Then slice the squares apart and cut diagonally.

You'll end up with lots of little HSTs, ready to press open and trim.

Arrange in a pleasing layout and take a picture and sew them all together quickly.  Refer to your picture until they're all sewn together in the original formation. 

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Big Red and White Finish

Red and White quilt 

I was motivated to complete this quilt to enter Sew Cal Gal's Year of Red and White Quilt Challenges.  Inspired by a quilt in a book by Lynette Anderson.

I went with the swirling circles free motion quilting because it's quick (still took 4-5 hours) and looks nice.

Since it's autumn I thought I'd repost a couple projects from last year.

Crow in the Pumpkin Patch.  Link here to see original post.

This was from my quilts in the Pumpkin Patch blog hop last year.  Link here (includes a tutorial)

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

and linking up with Insights from SewCalGal

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Table Topper

I love to finish at least one project for Finish it up Friday (even when it's Saturday).

You'll see my project is very similar to the mini quilt by Linda at the Quilted Pineapple  which was my inspiration.

I just love her colors and design.

I'd already been making lots of flying geese for a Christmas project to be shown on the 25th for Christmas Corner (you get a sneak peak) and so when I saw Linda's mini quilt is made from lots of flying geese I was mentally all set to begin.

I cut eight colorful 5 1/4" parent squares and (32) 2 7/8" black background squares to complete the 16 flying geese using the no waste method.

Finished size is about 21".

Here is an update on the home sewn dish towels from a previous post.  I used them and they were very dirty so washed them in with some other towels and I even added a little bleach and they washed up well.  The cotton twill one shrunk a little more than the Kona cotton (which of course could be avoided by prewashing the fabric.

Thanks for visiting!
Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts