July Recap: Part 2 - Christmas In July: Quilting and Cross Stitch

In my previous post I talked about having plans for doing a lot of quilt stitching.  However, also in July I followed along with the crowd and got this year's Christmas projects underway for holiday decorating.  Two are quilty ones and two are cross stitch projects.  I should note here that I had really planned to start these along with another really big cross stitch project at the start of the year but you know how that goes....

Quilting for Christmas

The primary project I worked on for "Christmas In July" is "Letters To Santa" from the MODA Fabrics quilt along from 2022.  

For the quilt along, MODA had designers make up the letters in their signature Bella Solids and used the lettering designs from Primitive Gatherings Mini Alphabet Quilt pattern.  I recognized the letters as half size versions of the same ones offered by MODA during their "Spell It With MODA" Bake Shop pattern series back in 2016.   

The good news is that I still had the patterns I downloaded from that earlier quilt along.  I also had experience in converting the letters -- which were designed to be made from Jelly Roll strips -- into half size letters using 1-1/2" strips.  In 2019, I had used the half-size letters to make Vanessa Goertzen's MODA Bake Shop "When Life Gives You Scraps" pattern as a wall hanging for my MIL for a Christmas gift.  I'll note here that my lap-size version of the same quilt using the full size letters and that I started that same year is still a UFO, sigh!  

Since I was already used to adjusting the letter patterns which would give me a result similar to the Primitive Gatherings letters,  I was "all in" when the new quilt along was announced!  I started corralling fabrics for it from my scraps and stash, pulling together any Christmas or Red or Green fabrics I thought might make suitable letters.  

However, my plans that year changed when I decided to instead make Red and White quilts for the holidays.  As I had shopped for fabrics for those,  I found a background print that I wanted to use for this one so stashed that as well.  I also pulled some of the leftover Reds from the R&W stash into this project.  As time went on, I picked up more things as I came across sales on holiday fabric.  I will note that different from the MODA quilts, all of my fabrics are prints and some offered opportunities for fussy cuts.

When I finally went to start this, I was caught up short:  I had not looked at my notes for this since I had first decided on doing the project back in 2022.  And clearly in those notes, I had planned to purchase fabric to expand the width of the patterned quilt to be wide enough for a bed quilt.  Unfortunately though, sometime between then and now, I had decided that I was making this as a wall hanging for the wall at the top of our entrance stairs.  On the downside, that meant using far fewer words.  Fortunately, MODA provided a planning sheet during the QAL which helped me map out what I wanted to "say" in the amount of space I had:

Using the layout map I made, this is how far I got with the words:

Please excuse the wonky layout!

With the words all finished, I still needed to make the pictorial filler blocks to go between the words.  I continued working on this into August and managed to finish up the center of the top.

At this point I still want to add a small border and already have my binding picked out.  I intend to do a pieced back using two colors  of the "post-marked envelopes" print from Riley Blake's "Nicholas - Letters to Santa" by J. Wecker Frisch line that I have.  I will also be adding a few more words into it.  

I'll probably go back to work on this in November with the goal of having the top ready for the start of December at the latest (she said, fingers crossed)!  The other good news is that given the now expanded color scheme of Red, Green, Gold and Black,  I don't need to make a coordinating tree skirt since the first one I made all the way back in 2010 already channels that!  

I did still need a "back of the couch" quilt and I've already got a handle on that too.  I've long wanted to do a 2-1/2" scrap squares quilt like Pat Sloan:

I could never decide on the color scheme I wanted to do for one so embarking on "Letters" this year is perfect to help with that!  As I made the words and filler blocks, I started cutting squares from the stash gathered for "Letters".  Sewing pairs of squares was a great "leader/ender" for the word sewing.  

Then I saw a great Christmas panel of larger squares that had the perfect colors for incorporating into the scrap squares layout.

MODA's "Cheer and Merriment" Panel

Once again Pat is my inspiration in doing this.  She incorporated a large applique block in the center of one of her quilts and a large unicorn panel in the center of another (yes, she has made a lot of these, LOL!).  

To date, I still have a ways to go in laying out the squares for mine:

I love when a project can accomplish multiple crafty desires!!  

Cross Stitching for Christmas

On the cross stitch front, the "Christmas In July" project plan also started with a "Letters To Santa" project that was also inspired by another stitch along!

This Fat Quarter Shop stitch along was also in 2022.  I had first seen it on Pat Sloan's daily videos (of course!) but waited to buy the pattern until I was ready to actually make it.  I even purchased the FQS DMC floss kit since I didn't have any of the floss colors for it already on hand.  What was harder was getting the Charcoal Aida cloth for it but I eventually found that on eBay.  

Back in June, I saw this pattern on the Annie's Catalog site:

Is this just too cute?!?  I love ornament designs so this was right up my alley!  What I loved even more was that Cinnamon sticks will be used for the "logs".  Luckily for me, when I was ready to set this up along with the FQS piece, a few of the floss colors for it were the same ones called for in the "Letters To Santa" piece.  I was able to gather all the rest of the supplies for it from my small (but growing) cross stitch stash!  This is where both are now:

So I am happy to say that Christmas is already well underway and I look forward to being ahead of the holiday game for once!!  Stay tuned, there's more Summer recap coming!