Mini Christmas Stockings

 

It hardly feels like Christmas if I haven't had a Christmas stocking to sew.  They are one of my very favourite things to make at Christmas!  I didn't think I would have the opportunity this year as we all have stockings and really don't need more.  However, when @trudi_wood (IG) put out a call last month for quilters to help her make 170 stockings to include in her Church's Christmas food parcel deliveries to families in need I was thrilled to pull the festive fabric and whip up these five little stockings.  

I got to scratch an itch and all for a good cause.  Trudi's IG feed is full of lots of stocking deliveries from our fabulous stitching community.  I really hope she makes the 170 she needs and that families will feel a little bit more blessing at this Christmas season.

Wedding Embroidery

 

In October I was busy stitching this little embroidery hoop to commemorate a special young lady's wedding day.  I used silver essex linen, white dmc embroidery floss and a 4" hoop.  Although the wedding was to be on 3rd November, Covid impacts meant it was necessary to change the date to 2nd.  That poor bride and groom had so many changes through the course of the months of planning their big day.  In spite of it all though, they are now happy newlyweds.  The bride decided to keep the date as it should have been on the hoop as part of the story she has to tell of her wedding that wasn't, but was.

Kindred Spirits QAL - Week 13

 This is week 13 and our block in the Kindred Spirits QAL is the Light of Life Lantern.  

I spent way too long finding the right amount of the right fabrics for this block, but it was worth it, I think.  I love the curvaceous outline of this block.  I think this block design looks a little exotic, don't you?

There aren't too many blocks left now, but there are a gazillion flying geese to come next week!!

Kindred Spirits QAL - Week 12

 

I didn't quite make it to the Crossed Paths blocks on time but I did play catch up this week.

I was so eager to get the top half of this Kindred Spirits QAL quilt together that I forgot to take a photo of the Crossed Paths blocks on their own, but you get the idea.  The colours aren't great in this night-time pic.

And, here's the top half of the Kindred Spirits quilt all stitched up.  Hasn't Judith designed a beauty?

I'm really rather chuffed with it so far!

Kindred Spirits QAL - Weeks 10 & 11

 

As you know, I love a little bit of EPP, so with the latest block for the Kindred Spirits QAL I have been in my element!  Slightly different from the regular hexagon which I love so much, Judith's Unity Tile block makes use of elongated hexagons, squares and pentagons. 

I love how it turned out!

As the quilt progresses, I'm trying to keep an eye on colour balance across the various blocks.  Harder than it sounds, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when I assemble it all I won't have over concentrated any one colour in any particular area.

Judith asked if I'd like to come up with another way to make use of the QAL templates to share as inspiration for the other Kindred Spirits.  Hard to resist an EPP challenge and a request from my lovely friend.  

After swishing templates around my dining table in and out of various configurations, I decided I liked this layout and that it would make a fabulous quilt label for the finish of my Kindred Spirits quilt.  

I used 8 of the Unity Tile template A plus a 2" square for the centre (not in the original templates).  The centre square is the perfect place to record your quilt details. You'll notice how optimistic I have been that next year will be the year this quilt gets completely finished!  Once I had stitched it all together with my little whip stitches, I gave it a good press to tuck in the corner folds of the shapes and lightly sprayed with starch before pressing again.  The starching will keep it nice and crisp and flat until the time comes to actually appliqué it to the back of my quilt.

Quilt label and tree decoration (front view)

As you can see, I couldn't resist also having a little play at making a Christmas decoration from the EPP templates.  I used 8 of the Unity Tile template A plus 2 of template B to create a front and a back piece for the decoration.  The centre square (template B) was crying out for a Christmas fussy cut so I used some Lori Holt snowmen to oblige.  Once the front and back were stitched, I layered them with a piece of wadding in-between cut just slightly smaller than the overall shape and stitched them wrong sides together with an invisible appliqué stitch, including a little ribbon hanging tag at the top.  I finished mine with some perle blanket stitching on the edge and a little running stitch to outline the centres, but you could get very creative with other festive additions if you wanted.

Quilt label and tree decoration (reverse view)

What I loved about both of these mini makes is that they are a great way to use up scrappy leftovers, and in the case of the quilt label to incorporate an element of the quilt design into your label too.  I always think that's a nice thing to do if you can.  

We've officially crossed the halfway line with the Kindred Spirits QAL - woohoo!  There are lots more lovely blocks to come - and a gazillion flying geese :-o

Kindred Spirits QAL - Week 9

 

More HSTs for this week's Kindred Spirits QAL!  A different formation results in completely different blocks - aren't HSTs so versatile?  There are two Kinship Mosaic blocks making up this week's addition to the quilt.

The colours are much softer in reality, November light isn't great at my house. 

Joined to last week's solidarity star block they make up another good chunk of the quilt.  It's nice to see it come together in sections like this. Makes me feel like progress is being made.

Really looking forward to next week's block - it's all about EPP!

Kindred Spirits QAL - Weeks 7 & 8

 

Kindred Spirits QAL is all about Foundation Paper Piecing last week and this.  It's a biggie at 18.5", but isn't it striking?  

FPP allows for amazing precision with points which makes it the perfect technique for complex stars.  There are many beautiful Solidarity Stars showing up in the QAL Facebook Group - so many gorgeous blocks and lots of interpretations resulting from varied colour placement. This is the part of sewing along together that I enjoy - seeing everyone's quilts come together and look so different and still all so fabulous!