Topic: Quilting
I wanted to ‘build a snowman’ and I did it!
I started in March with a paper piecing pattern that I had won as a door prize several years ago and had not stitched up. It included three snowmen and a pair of mittens. They were arranged in the pattern to be a horizontal banner.
So I stitched up these 5 blocks and laid them out as instructed –
Then I yawned because, not only is this boring but I don’t have a place to display a horizontal banner.
I tried some other arrangements:
Then I brainstormed with the hubby and finally decided to make MORE motifs and create a row-by-row Christmas tree wall hanging.
The angel was from an outline of a pattern found on Pinterest. I added a halo of sequins.
Then came the pair of mittens from the original design. I added fluffy yarn to the cuffs.
I drew my own paper piecing pattern for the wreaths. They have a fabric bow and red seed beads as decoration.
I also drew my own paper piecing pattern for the candle. It is decorated with a single gold tube bead in the flame.
I used the outline of a paper pieced pattern found on Pinterest for the poinsettias. They have yellow seed beads stitched into a cluster for the center.
The snowflake is the one motif I am most disappointed with. The pattern I found online was very small. I had to enlarge it a LOT to get the size I wanted. Unfortunately, any inconsistencies in the seam matching on those small pattern pieces were magnified in my version so there are some snaggly edges toward the center. I used scrappy whites throughout this block and I chose not to use any embellishments.
The snowmen were part of the original pattern. I left off pom-poms on their hats but added fabric scarves and small tube beads for eyes and buttons.
I drew my own paper piecing pattern for the trees. They got star buttons (that I had on hand!) sewn on for decorations.
I set in green half-rectangles for the overall tree shape. I obviously had some problems with the math on these!
After stitching in the ditch around all the blue background blocks I did free-motion ‘snow’ and ‘icicles’ around the tree branches.
I also did a stitch in the ditch across the rows where they connect and used a 1 ½ inch vertical line to quilt the background.
Finally, I added a hanging sleeve the same fabric as the binding.
So – 9 months to birth this baby! I can’t wait for it to be time to put up the Christmas decorations. This will be front and center at my house.
Ddd
