Finished: a couple of quick kitchen gifts

Just wanted to stop in before I head out and visit friends with a couple of quick gifts I made that you can easily finish yourself before the holidays.

First up, a couple of potholders that I made with leftovers from a holiday table runner I started last week.

I used four (4 1/2-inch) squares, set off by 1 1/2-inch strips, finishing the potholder at nine inches. I added a layer of InsulBrite (but not until I’d already quilted the three layers — don’t ask me how much fun it was to rip all that out!

The back was a large scale holiday print I’ve had in my stash for years, as are the prints on the front.

Straight-line quilting, set one inch apart, made quick work of this. Here’s the other one:

And the back, where I tried my hand at a grid:

Earlier this month, I made a place mat for a friend’s 10-year-old daughter. She wanted to sew and loves animals, so I had her cut some farm print I’ve had for years:

I then cut these to random heights and sewed them into a slightly wonky patchwork. For the back, I used the leftover strips in a striped formation and stippled the layers:

Easy and quick! I just have a couple of gifts left to make, but thankfully, they’re not due until Jan. 6 when my friends will celebrate Serbian Christmas.

XOXO,
Sandra

 

Finished: flannel fleece blanket

I haven’t had too much time for sewing this month, but I managed to finish a flannel version of my reversible fleece blanket. Much as I love working with fleece and appreciate its warmth, it can be a little expensive. Flannel is a great alternative when you’re pinching the pennies.

If you need a last minute gift, you can make this in just a couple of hours. Seriously. I’m not fast at this stuff, and I can do it in that amount of time.

It all began with this too adorable fabric I spotted one day in Joanns. What I love is that it’s gender neutral, and since I’m adding this to my charity stash, I like to make things that will work for anyone who receives it.

Because there’s a difference in width between fleece and flannel, i.e., fleece tends to be 54 inches wide and flannel 44-45 inches wide, it’s not the same 1:1 ratio as on the reversible version.

When I make this using fleece on both sides, I buy two yards of each. For the flannel version, I buy 3 yards of the flannel and 1 1/2 yards of the fleece, since I’m making it for a young child. It should finish at approximately 54 inches square. Cost is about $20 or less, with all the sales still going on.

I find the easiest method is to be double the amount of flannel, seam it in the middle and then cut to size with my rotary cutter. I save the leftovers and coordinate them for a simple patchwork version. While piecing the flannel, I hide the selvage by lining up the edge of my presser foot on the white band and sew a one-inch seam.

Here’s the backing fleece. I put it right-side down on my bed, and once I’ve got my top piece sewn, pressed and cut to size, I’ll layer to the two pieces together and pin them.

Next it’s onto the serger to sew the pieces together and clean off the edges in one shot. (Note: if you have a label you want to put on the back, don’t be like me and forget every time until after the two pieces are serged together. You can still add it, but it’s easier to do it now.)

OK, I had to show a close-up. I’m not even a dog person, and I can’t stand how cute this is. Love it.

The last step is binding, which is a pretty basic quilt binding that I did with the solid red flannel. You can find the steps on the original tutorial. Since I forgot to add the label on the back, I clipped the edges of the label with pinking shears and sewed it after I attached the the binding to the front, making sure that the binding didn’t cover it when sewing it down on the back.

Here’s the finished product:

And the back:

Here’s hoping this blanket will keep some little boy or girl very warm soon.

Happy holidays, everyone. I hope your season is blessed, merry and bright!

XOXO,
Sandra

Finished: winter snowballs table mat

For those of you who survived the crowds of the start of this crazy holiday shopping weekend, you can be grateful that people like me know ourselves well enough to know that we don’t belong in public on days like this.

Seriously, it would not be good for anyone.

Instead, I am thrilled to show you a quick finish, a winter table mat that I made a few days ago for the secret Santa gift exchange my guild is having for this month’s meeting.

We each brought three fat quarters with a list of ideas of things we might like our Santa to make, as well as whatever we definitely wouldn’t want to have. My recipient didn’t want anything Christmas related, and her FQs were snowy and wintry.

She asked for either a table mat or two mug rugs, and I chose to make the table mat.

No surprise, I got my inspiration from a number of snowball quilts I’ve seen on blogs and on Pinterest. My Santa partner collects snowmen, and knowing my applique skills aren’t up to the task, a snowball quilt seemed to be the next best thing.

I went with the reverse snowball look and some straight-line quilting (my go-to these days) to make it look a little more modern.

Here’s a look at the back:

Don’t you just love the snowmen in the vintage truck? The top fabric has snowmen on it, too, I just couldn’t get a photo that would do it justice. Scrappy binding from leftover strips completed the look.

Want to make one of these for yourself? It’s easy, and you can customize it to any size mat you’d like. Here’s how:

For each snowball block, cut a 6 1/2-inch square of solid white (I used Kona solid white), then cut four squares of contrast fabric at 2 1/2 inches each. One at a time, line a small square on the corner of the white and stitch diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner on the short side. You can use the photo above for reference.

Repeat on the remaining three sides, then trim each corner 1/4-inch away from the stitching line on the outside edge of the block. Set your stitches and press the fabric away from the center.

The remaining blocks are just a basic nine-patch composed of 2 1/2-inch squares in random order. I stitched some strips together and then sub-cut to save time, but you can make it more random than that if you like.

Sew your blocks together into rows, alternating a snowball block with the background block. If you’re making a larger mat or lap quilt, you could stack three snowball blocks together to make snowmen.

After you’ve sewn the blocks into rows, sew your rows together, then baste, quilt and bind! It’s a great way to use leftover scraps and you can make one easily in a weekend.

XOXO,
Sandra