Slow Sunday Stitching: The End of "Christmas In July"

With July drawing to a close,  I managed to finish the "Christmas in July" cross stitching for this month just in time.  So I am joining in over at Kathy's Quilts for a little "Slow Sunday Stitching" show and tell!

First off a stitching finish:  the Fat Quarter Shop's "Letters To Santa" pattern is done!

Stitching on Aida and then being able to go back to "mongamous stitching" this past week helped get this done.  At this point, I don't know how I want to "fully finish" it.  I might take cues from how FQS did theirs:

I'm particularly eyeing the bow on it since I just did a project for a blog hop and made a Patchwork Bow using Liza Taylor's tutorial:

Although it is patterned using 2-1/2" cut squares, she says you could use any size squares.  So I could see using one or half inch finished squares to make another bow to use for finishing the cross stitch piece.  Once I decide where and how I want to display it for the holidays,  I can make more decisions about the "fully finishing" of it.

And speaking of "fully finishes":  My little "Christmas Log Carrier" ornament is now done!

I was supposed to stitch this as part of "CIJ" last year but didn't get to start it until the end of August.  During a few spaced out stitching sessions (probably between other projects), I finished it in October.

The pattern finishing just called for putting some seam sealant on the edges and turning under the handle loops and glueing them in place.  However I wanted to finish it just a little more so first cut some fusible interfacing to secure the back of the stitching:

Next I cut some coordinating holiday fabric so I could line it.  I really liked this fabric but it was directional so I seamed two pieces together so that I could make a lining piece where the print would run vertically on both sides.  

I stitched them together along what had been the cutting lines, leaving the handle ends open and an opening on one side so I could turn all the edges in and so no sealant was needed!  I edge stitched the opening closed and all around the edge and stitched the "handles" down to form loops.  

Last step was to find some wooden dowels for the handles.  I didn't have a dowel the size I needed on hand but did have something that worked perfectly in its place:

It pays to hold on to some of these chopsticks after all!  I cut a chopstick down into two pieces the size I needed.  Then it was finding some ribbon in my stash and Cinnamon sticks from the pantry and this little ornament is now done!

I look forward to seeing what everyone has for this last "Slow Sunday Stitching" for July over at Kathy's Quilts!   

Christmas In July Blog Hop!

Welcome to the "Christmas in July Blog Hop" hosted by Melva of Melva Loves Scraps!

I am excited to join in to share some ideas about holiday crafting!  I always enjoy this kind of event that prompts quilters (and cross stitchers!) to focus on a specific category of projects to encourage getting some work done on them.  

Like many quilters, I often have trouble getting all of my holiday projects done in time -- usually because I don't start thinking about working on them until November or December, LOL!  I did "Christmas in July" for the first time last year and worked on two projects with mixed results.  

The words I chose for my MODA "Letters To Santa" quilt top.

My color scheme for last year was Red, Green, White/Light, Black and Gold.  I say the results were mixed because while I did get this top started,  I didn't complete it until December.  This year, it is still waiting to be quilted which is what I thought I'd be working on this time around.  However, a July 4th weekend camping trip and my husband being on vacation these last two weeks has definitely gotten in the way of that plan!

The other project I started for "CIJ" last year was this one:

That WIP is a "Scrap Squares" quilt using 2-1/2" squares that I cut from the "LTS" leftovers and from my Christmas stash as I auditioned fabrics for that top.  The plan was to use the squares to surround some holiday-themed panel blocks to make a lap quilt.  The project was influenced by the "Scrap Squares" quilts that I've seen quilt designer Pat Sloan make so many times.

Pat calls it "making a bonus quilt while making other things".

At this point, I still need to work on the layout of it and piece it together.  However, while working on that project I happened to come across this:

It is a tutorial for making a "Patchwork Bow" by pattern and fabric designer Liza Taylor of  Liza Taylor Handmade for her "Summer Sewing Series".  As long as I've been a quilter, I've always looked out for ways I can use my scraps rather than just collect them.  When I saw this, I figured that it would be another great holiday project for the squares I was already cutting.

So this Hop is a good excuse to try making that project now!  Liza's instructions call for sewing rows of three squares together and then sewing the rows together to create a "pieced fabric" strip that will serve as the "ribbon" for making the bow.  Fortunately, I had already started piecing together pairs of squares last year in preparation for adding them to the layout of the other quilt so I had a head start on doing this now. 

Liza had used "pieced fabric" on both sides of her "ribbon".  However after I had decided to make this design, I saw a great holiday print on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop and decided to purchase it and would use it as the backing for the "pieced fabric" front.

If you like it,  I see it's still available now.

The benefit of doing that meant I only needed half of the amount of squares that Liza calls for!

After I got all of my squares pieced together,  I cut two 6-1/2" wide x WOF backing strips, seamed them together and trimmed the backing to the length of the "pieced fabric".  I then completed the "ribbon" following Liza's simple instructions that include how to mark it to create the pointed ends.  

Of course, now I also needed to make sure that I remembered how to tie a nice decorative bow.  I found this video tutorial helpful for doing that:

It was pretty simple to do and here is the finished project!!

These bows would be great to display with a matching quilt or at the base (or even top) of a Christmas tree.  It could also be hung on a front door or in a window but you'd have to be careful to check if the fabric might fade from exposure to sunlight. 

  

Now if I can get this top quilted, I'd be gravy!

If this is your first time doing "Christmas in July" or want even more tips for how to approach doing it, check out Kris O’Neill's "Christmas in July 2025" video series on her YouTube channel "Sew the Distance".  

Kris is making a video daily for the month of July with tips on how to choose, thrift and organize your holiday stash and projects.  She also has offered a few projects to make with your stash.  But don't wait too long to watch it:  Kris says this series is a "Summer Special" and she'll remove the playlist from her channel at the end of August.

And of course there is even more to see from the other participants in this Hop!  Be sure to check out all of their posts too!

"Christmas In July Blog Hop" Schedule:

July 24

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps -- Our hostess!!

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts

Carol Andrews at Quilt Schmilt

 July 25

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps -- Our hostess shares another day of inspiration!!

Vivian at Bronx Quilter  --- You're Here Now!

Gail at Quilting Gail

Linda at Texas Quilt Gal

There is still a few more days before July ends so I hope you have been inspired to pull out a project and get your holiday season started early!

7 Days of New Year's - Day 5: Finally Back To the Quilting!

After days of focusing on cross stitch, it feels good to finally get back to quilting!  In yesterday's post, I mentioned that at one point my cross stitch work got held up by work on three late Christmas quilting projects.  Two of those weren't finished, one of which was the "Letters To Santa" quilt that despite an early "Christmas in July" start, only got as far as having the borders finally added...

....and the backing made up.

I should also note here that the companion "Letters To Santa" cross stitch while further along than it was in the Summer....

Stitching done from the Summer until now....

...was bumped to work on the piece for my MIL that I talked about finishing in the last post.  I should note that my MIL's gift will be on its way to her the day after New Year's because I now need to bake up a fresh batch of the peanut butter cookies I usually send her.  My husband works for UPS and said if I mailed the ones I had baked last week today, they might wind up sitting and not get delivered until after New Year's anyway.  So I'll make a fresh batch on New Year's Day and in the meantime we don't mind munching on the ones from the batch on hand!

The second project was a new one that I actually made up surprisingly quick after realizing I needed another display quilt in what was supposed to have been this year's Red/Green/Black/Gold color scheme.  That happened because I saw this tutorial in with my Christmas stash.  I found it as I re-organized that stash into a new storage container when I set up to resume work on the "Letters To Santa" top:

Another great storage bin, this one is from Michael's.

It was easily strip pieced using a bunch of busy fabrics pulled from the stash:

The good news is that the backing for this is also already made and the binding cut.  So now it and the "Letters To Santa" quilt sit awaiting quilting in 2025.

So the one thing I did mange to finish in the lead up to Christmas was my Red & Green version of the Temecula Quilt Company's "12 Days of Christmas" mini quilt.  

This design was offered as a quilt along all the way back in 2011 and I had made up tops in three different colorways back in 2020:

In 2022,  I finished the Red & White version (on the right) for holiday decorating that year.  This year since the Red & Green version (on the left) fit my intended color scheme, I layered and quilted it and it went up on display (along with two other older quilts) in time for Christmas as you see in the first picture above.  

To get it done meant I had to quickly decide on a quilting scheme for it.  I had forgotten how simply I had quilted the Red & White one:  for that I had just outlined the blocks, cross-hatched the side borders and stitched straight lines across the top and bottom borders.  

Reviewing that made it easy to decide to quilt this one even simpler:  For it, I outlined the blocks and just straight line stitched around all the borders, following the path of the side border stripes and the lines of words in the top and bottom borders.  

When that got done in far less time than I expected,  I decided to also finish up the last Blue & White one during one of the "7 Days" sessions which was the task for today.  So like for the Red & Green, I spray basted the layering and then planned the quilting.  

For the quilting I again outlined the blocks.  Quilting the sashing was easier than for the Red & Green since like the Red & White version, this one employs sashing squares so it was easy to stitch straight up and down the sides of the sashing columns and then across the sashing rows.  For the borders I went even easier than the prior two:  I just free-motioned all the borders with loops and swirls.  

Done!  The binding had been picked out when the top was made back in 2020.  As I did for the Red & Green, I used Edyta Sitar's "Faux Double Fold" binding method that uses 1-3/4" cut strips.  The binding strips were attached to the front with the corners mitered in the traditional manner, folded to the back (see Edyta's method in her video for that) and then machine stitched in the ditch from the front to secure the folded edge on the back. 

So that's another project completed for the "7 Days" sessions!  When I checked my email today I had received a notice that Kari Shell was running one of her free EQ8 workshops for a Winter mini wall hanging.  I signed up for the evening session for today although there is another session scheduled for tomorrow if you are interested.  So with this quilt done,  I checked that out as the last thing (before posting this) for today!  

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.  Clearly, in those notes it said I had planned to purchase fabric to expand the width of the patterned quilt to be wide enough for a bed quilt.  However, 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!

February Recap: Part 2 - A Little Valentine's Day Prep

 More on the February doings:  After enjoying Pat Sloan's Red and White quilt display at the beginning of the month, I realized that my own display that was up at the time needed some enhancement: 

So at the last minute I decided to make a little Valentine's Day wall filler using Pat's "Hello Luv" design.  Although it later appeared in her "Holiday Celebrations" book, I had originally picked up the pattern when she made it for the Fat Quarter Shop's Button Club back in 2019.

Pat's Button Club version

My addition to my Red and White display!

For the block units that make up the larger four patch "Hugs" and "Kisses" blocks, I had gone the die cutting route and used my Accuquilt 4-1/2" Finished Signature die and the 3" finished HST triangles on my Churn Dash die to cut out the pieces.  That made my blocks and wall hanging a little larger than what's patterned.  

Updated 3/6/24:  Now a smaller version of this same design is one of the blocks in Pat's "Block Wednesday:  What's In Your  Your Closet" mystery quilt along! 

Where Pat had used the buttons from the club to decorate  the X's and O's,  I am only now noticing the buttons in the center of the X's so didn't do that.  I did put something in the centers of the O's though.  Continuing with the "make it fast, cut it fast" scheme, I picked a heart applique to put in the center of my O's.  Originally, I thought I'd use the 2" Heart from their basic "Heart" applique die but instead chose to go with the Heart from the “Heather Feather #2” die by Sarah Vedeler.  

To further hasten the finish, I once again decided to save some time on cutting and assembling binding and pulled out my usually trusty "Quick Easy Mitered Binding Tool"....

....to turn the simple backing (with label area added) to the front! 

I say "usually trusty" because when I tried this technique back in January for my "Old Tobacco Road" quilt, it was the first time it did not work for me.   

I had started this one a few days before Valentine's Day and finished it up right on the holiday!   However, the holiday was only three days before we were scheduled to leave so it was now time to focus on packing!

There still a lot more to February, so watch for more posts this week!

Finished Or Not Friday: Better Late Than Never!

It's been a while since I've had something to check in over at Quilty Girl Alycia's with another:

That's because I've FINALLY finished the last of the quilts I had set out to make for Christmas decorating in 2022, "Christmas Ribbons":

Every quilt has a story and this one started out as my interpretation of Sally Schneider's design using her "Painless Borders" technique from the cover of her 1992 book (published by the already dearly missed Martingale Publishing).

Her design technique is to piece blocks that when set into the edge of the quilt layout (usually on point), create the look of a "border" around the outer edge.  

I modified the piecing instructions for the four blocks needed to complete the design so I could cut most of them with my Accuquilt dies.  In particular, I changed her original tree blocks so I could use my Log Cabin die to cut the strips for the "branches".  I made the "tree trunks" using a Signature block die and trimmed it down to 4-1/2" to create an 8" finished block.  

First time using MODA "Grunge"!

Ironically, I had worked up my layout in EQ8 but didn't notice until after I finished piecing the top, that I had completely overlooked the fact that in Sally's design the tree blocks "float" because they have background strips pieced around them.  Oops!  However, since it hadn't bothered me when I drafted and colored in the layout, I decided to leave my blocks "snuggled together", LOL!!   

I also decided that a line of ribbon needed to be finished with a bow and fortunately I also (to quote Accuquilt’s Cutting Expert Pam Heller) "have a die for that"! 

The back is made with one of my favorite kinds of fabric:  flannels!!  

I did the backing the same way I had done my "Indigo Weave" quilt finished back in 2021.  A couple of extra star blocks were used to create a label area.  

One thing I had managed to finish in time for Christmas was to sew pieces of the two flannel fabrics together to make a tree skirt wrap for the Christmas tree I had put up.

I had a very helpful push for getting this done now:  my community garden is doing an Art Show exhibit of things made by our members who are artists/crafters.  I'm going to do a Red and White quilts display so need all the ones made for last Christmas as they are the only R&W quilts I have.  I do have one more quilt (that's not a Christmas quilt) to also finish for the display which I hope (no, have to!) to get done in the next week or so since the show is at the end of the month.  

Now that I'm done here, I can go over to Quilty Girl Alycia's to link up and get to see what everyone else finished up this week!  Meet you there!