Making Christmas Trees

Inspired by a tutorial by Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company,

I put together a Christmas tree quilt from scrappy HSTs.

These finish at 2 inches. Hers are much bigger.

I run my small scraps through the die cutter and store the shapes in small tins.

Then whenever I need a little project, or some parts I've got them.

This is now pieced and quilted,

and I'll show you the finished product once I have the binding sewn on.

I saw another tutorial for easy cathedral windows.

You know the kind -- where you place a square folded diagonally on another square,

sew the seams, and then curve back the diagonal.

It seems like a good technique, but there are six layers in those middle seams.

I used over dyed white on white fabrics for the trees,

and linen for the background, and put in lots of quilting stitches.

It is quite stiff, which is perfect for a wall hanging.

I helped set up a craft and bake sale last weekend,

and nearly took these folks home with me.

The other volunteers debated with me on the price.

I said $100, but I think they settled on $60.

Too cheap when you consider the amount of work in this.

All the pieces were beautifully knit and finished, and the faces were great.

And it is very tactile.

I debated buying it myself, but the organizer didn't want to pre-sell it,

so I consoled myself with posting pix on social media.

I put together 10 trays of 36 assorted cookies for the same sale.

Two guys in my house donated some, and a bunch of others from my church did too,

so we had 30 dozen cookies to mix and match.

I know bake sales are old school, but these trays sold for $25 each.

And a close up of a progress shot of the tree quilt.

If you're on Instagram, check out my 

#12daysofchristmastreequilts on my account @brendasuderman.

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cute baby on quilt, part 1

The best part of making baby quilts is seeing the new owner enjoying them.

Here baby Nico is napping on his new quilt.

and posing with Dad and Mom.

His mother, daughter of missionary parents,

 lived in Africa and South America as a child,

so her life was the inspiration for the global village on the quilt.

Here you can see the variety of houses and skies and trees.

And another shot.

This was made entirely from stash, and used up every bit

of a yard of hand-dyed blue I purchased at an AQS show,

as well as some of my Dutch wax stash and lots of novelties as well.

Although it is quite densely quilted,

it drapes nicely and is very soft to the touch.

Welcome to the global village, Nico!

Stilll here!

I grew a forest of elm trees last weekend from some fun green fabrics

for the neighbourhood of houses I'm building

for a baby quilt.

I've made a similar quilt previously,

but I like building houses and growing trees.

Stay tuned.

The owner of this quilt made her appearance during the first week of January.

She's a sleepy one, but so cute!

The quilt looks huge here, but it is only 45 inches square.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network.

Late or early finishes?

I finished up this mini Amish-inspired bar quilt last year,

but forgot to show it here.

It measures about 8.5 by 9 inches

and the dense machine quilting shrunk it a bit.

I made a three pillowcases from two fabrics yesterday.

I have a stack of large scale prints I bought especially for pillowcases

for future gifts, and now I have started the process of cutting and sewing them.

Either I'm late or really early,

but I've finished two Christmas tree quilts 

made from one piece of patchwork that was kicking around my sewing space for too long.

So I cut a tree shape from it

and sewed the two triangle together with a centre stem

To make this tree.

Here's both of them. 

They measure 14 inches high and are heavily quilted 

in the background with feathers in one tree

and a variety of loops in the other.

I also knit two pussyhats, inspired by all the pink hats I saw on Instragram,

from one skein of acrylic yarn.

And I had a little friend test out this finished baby quilt.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers:

TGIFF

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

Friday finishes for the season past

O Christmas Tree!

12 by 16.5 inches

machine quilted with Aurifil 50 wt thread

Inspired by Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt.

I finished this last month, but only got the binding attached

on Jan. 1, so it is my first finish of the year.

Lori has the greatest fmq tutorials out there

and I adapted her tree to fit my skills.

It is an addition to my hall of trees, 

which I get out every year.

The back shows the texture.

I found the fabric in my Christmas linens box.

I hemmed a square of this red and gold print

many years ago,

but since I wasn't using it,

I decided to repurpose it into backing and binding.

Here is my Christmas tree wall hanging collection.

The blue one at the left was made by Margaret in a swap three years ago.

This is an oldie -- probably 10 years old,

when I first started quilting.

I used a paper piecing pattern from a Reader's Digest book

and hand quilted it.

This is my other addition from 2014.

Little yoyos held on by shank buttons

to make a stylized tree.

and this is from 2013.

These trees hang above my fireplace beginning in December

and stay up until the snow melts.

This is my first free-pieced quilt with letters and trees,

made in an online class with Tonya Ricucci in 2008.

And these beauties hang on my Advent calendar tree.

The crazy pieced one was just given to me by Em,

the middle one was made by my mother

and Em folded the other one.

Em also makes bookmarks with a fancy ruler

and she gave me one of those too,

all as a thank you gift for the yo yo tree quilt I gave her

like the one above.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers with Sarah and Amanda Jean.

Can't see the forest....

I've been planting a forest of trees to go with the houses and words for my Advice from Home quilt. We live in a neighbourhood with lots of American elms (yes, we've been keeping them healthy and mostly free of Dutch Elm disease and we love our trees) so I decided to make some of those reflecting the seasons, except for winter with no leaves.