selina quilts: July 2019

Welcome back to my second post for the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop. Because I am an over achiever, Sarah offered to let me split up my Christmas goodies over 2 days. It took no time at all for me to say yes and for me to divide my projects between 2 days.

This hop stop is full of Christmas Joy. Specifically, Joy of Days Filled With Joy. You may be familiar with her work as she is part of this hop and posted on July 16. She does beautiful hand embroidery. Some sweet and simple some a bit more complex. All beautiful.

This month she is offering 3 of her sweet simple Christmas designs for free. You can find them at the link above in her Christmas in July Stitchalong.

I will admit that I have done some hand embroidery, mostly redwork, but since I got the embroidery machine I am having as much fun converting patterns to machine stitching as I ever remember having doing it by hand. With Joy's permission I have taken her 3 designs from her stitchalong and played with several ideas I had using the machine.

I am not a creative person when it comes to drawing but I have a vivid imagination when it comes to applying others drawings to things.

First idea was taking one of the designs and doing a card. I embroidered her first design of the month directly onto card stock then set it with some background card stock. I must disclose from the get go that each design is supposed to have dots in the ric rack element. I could't get that to come over into my machine. The dots did add a lot to the block. You will notice that in a couple of my ideas I tossed in words to make up for them.

Second pattern was released so I went with another card. This one I embroidered onto a piece of canvas and proceeded to fray the edges. Attached that to the base card with double sided tape.

When this hop was first mentioned I responded to Sarah's request of what we might be doing with "Christmas Ornaments". I found that Joys designs lent themselves beautifully to stuffed ornaments. I substituted actual cord for the design element cord and they were ready for hanging.

When I was thinking of making my first card using canvas I used a rather large chunk. When I took it out of the hoop I realized it was big enough to make a small draw string Christmas gift bag. By the way, the canvas I have used for several of these items is a drop cloth from Harbor Freight. I originally purchased it to use as a table cloth. After washing it I realized it was a great (cheap) item for quilty things.

Last summer I did a throw quilt of blocks that I constructed using raw edge applique. I really like the outcome of blocks done that way and thought I would give that a try here without using the embroidery machine function. I did find that I'm a bit rusty. Like everything else it's a skill that needs regular practice which I haven't been doing.

I'm not sure what I want to do with this piece. I used a large enough piece of fabric to make another bag but I'm not exactly sure yet.

Last but certainly not least I wanted to do something using all three designs. Last winter I attended a quilt show and found this wonderful mini display piece. After much searching I found it buried in a drawer and as I hoped it was perfect for displaying all 3 of Joy's designs.

So my thanks to Joy for her patterns and inspiration. I've had a great couple of weeks playing with them and exercising my brain.

Thanks also to Sarah for this outlet for my play.

Below is a list of all of the other players in this hop. Please stop and see what each and every one of them are up to. You will be so glad you did.

Also below is the form for a chance to win the lovely FIGO fabric fat quarter bundle.

Sunday, July 14th

L’Fair Quilts

Vrooman’s Quilts

Monday, July 15th

Sea of Estrogen

Mel’s Quilting Blog

Tuesday, July 16th

Days Filled With Joy

The Colorful Fabriholic

Wednesday, July 17th

Pampered Pettit

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Thursday, July 18th

Kathy’s Kwilts and More

Selina Quilts

Friday, July 19th

The Quilted Snail

Cloth and Paper Studio

Saturday, July 20th

The Inquiring Quilter

Anja Quilts

Sunday, July 21st

Riceford Streams

Sharon @ Vrooman's Quilts

Monday, July 22nd

Katie Mae Quilts

QuiltFabrication

Tuesday, July 23rd

Made by Marney

Selina Quilts

Wednesday, July 24th

From My Carolina Home

Karrin’s Crazy World

Thursday, July 25th

Christina’s Handicrafts

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

And remember, too, there's a giveaway! FIGO Fabrics has donated a fat quarter bundle of their new Christmas line, Wintertide...

...and one lucky reader will get to take it home! All you have to do is fill in the form below with your full name and email address (don't worry, I won't use it for anything beyond notifying you if you win!). Entries will close on Tuesday, July 30th, and I'll announce the winner here on Wednesday, July 31st - New Year's Eve in July!

Be sure to click "Submit"!!

Welcome, welcome, welcome. It is so nice that you are able to join us for the annual event coordinated by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Again this year, if you stop by her blog you will find a beautiful Christmas quilt pattern to work on NOW. Thank you Sarah for everything.

When the word went out that we would be Christmasing in July again this year I knew what I wanted to work on. I had just downloaded Simply Snowmen Redwork from Designs by JuJu for my embroidery machine. My brain went into overdrive for several days and these are the resulting projects.

The first thing I worked on was a sweet little Christmas card.

Next up, when a quilter and in doubt, make a pin cushion.

Looking at it before stuffing it I thought it was so cute that I decided that the snowmen would make a great set of coasters. OK are there any Dr Who fans out there? Is it just me or does the little fella on the bottom right have a major resemblance to a Darlek ? OK maybe it is a bit much a Darlek with a heart, but....

Got them finished and decided that they needed a little pizzazz so I figured out how to add circles and designs to the original pattern and viola.

So originally I was done creating for this hop at this point. But then I came across a posting by Mister Dometic on Fabric Weaving. Looked like fun so

I had always enjoyed making woven potholders as a kid so I had a great time. I was gifted the actual pot holder in the picture but I did make tons of them as a kid, honestly.

I dug out some Christmas scraps and tried my hand at a couple of potholder/hotpads. Granted I had no problem weaving but I need a bunch of work on their finishing. I do improv pretty well. Also known as faking it so they are gift worthy.

Well then I thought I could make something a little bit bigger so I started to make a set of placemats. The first one was great. A good size placemat at 12 x 16

A few days later I made the second one. It went together great but just didn't look right. I was having so much fun I accidentally made it 2 inches wider. 12 x 18 is just a bit too large for me for a placemat. So maybe instead of 1 gift set of placemats I now have 2 gifts of small table toppers. Sounds like a plan to me.

Well that's it for today but I'll be back. I hope I gave you some incentive to start with your Christmas creating. Remember it doesn't have to be big. It doesn't even have to be red and green. Just from your heart,

Thanks again Sarah and every one else who is contributing to the success of this annual event.

Here is a list of all of the other participating quilters who are creating for your pleasure this year. Don't miss any of them. They are all terrific crafters with wonderful imaginations.

Also below is the form for a chance to win the lovely FIGO fabric fat quarter bundle.