Blog hop - Advent cones

It’s that time of year for the blog hop – and as I prepare my contribution I start feeling excited about what our other bloggers will make – I can’t wait to see.

Here's our Blog Hop line-up:

Monday 18^th November: Jo Carter 

Tuesday 19^th November: Katy Jones

Wednesday 19^th November: Jessie Fincham

Thursday 20th November: Angela Southey

Friday 21st Trudi Wood 

Saturday 22^nd November: Mercedes Jiménez Campuzano

... And to celebrate this festive Blog Hop, we have a giveaway with a selection of fantastic dies and the Big Shot™ Machine up for grabs! Click here to enter 

So here’s my contribution – I’ve been thinking for a long time about making an Advent Calendar – but wanted to make something slightly different – this year I had this idea – hope you like it – I know my grandchildren will!

So here they are! 

Advent Cones

You will need about 75 cm of fabric for the circles and about 1.25m of fusible interfacing.

For the numbers you will need about 15cm of contrasting fabric.

You will need 10m of ribbon cut into 20cm lengths ( you will need 48, two for each cone).

I used the Big Shot Pro and die http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/656678/sizzix-bigz-pro-die-circle-6 to cut 24 circles in Christmas fabrics and 24 in fusible interfacing. I fused the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric circles.

I used Tim Holtz Word Play die to cut all the numbers 1 -24 http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/657837/sizzix-bigz-xl-alphabet-die-word-play , for the numbers I fused some fusible web to the wrong side of some Michael Miller Fairy Frost fabric and then cut out the following quantity of each number ( remember to lay the fabric RS down to cut out ),  -2 x 0, 13 x 1, 8 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x4, and 2 each of numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Fold,  the circles in half to create semi-circles, press the fold and then fuse the numbers in place - 

 (as these are only used for a short time I haven't stitched the numbers in place but you can if you want to)

Pin 2 lengths of ribbon to each semi- circle  - and zig-zag stitch around the edge, and across the ribbons.

Overlap the straight edge of the semi circle, by about 4cms/ 1 1/2", to create a cone, pin and straight stitch in place photo 4

Your advent cones are now ready to fill and enjoy, and they are large enough to put more than one chocolate in!!! I have made the ribbons to be tied for hanging so that you can hang them anywhere you like - so if you don't put your Christmas tree up until part way through Christmas you could hang the cones around the house - in a sort of treasure hunt. Have fun.

Angela

the 2 hour quilt top


I don't know about you, but I love a fast project. Sometimes I just want to turn a pile of fabric into a quilt without much effort, and to be done in a day.

This little quilt measures 36" x 48" which is the perfect size for a baby quilt, and would also work well laying across the bottom of a single bed as a decorative throw.

From the pile of fabric, to the finished quilt top this took me literally 2 hours. I did sew fast, but the whole quilt didn't take me more than one day, with the binding hand stitched to the back of the quilt as I watched TV that evening.

For the quilt top you will need;

8 Fat Quarters of fabric - 4 in dark colour values and 4 in light colour values (see directions for a little explanation on this) (I used in the forest by Steffie Brocoli for Cloud 9 organics)

Sizzix Bigz Pro Die - half square triangles, 6.5" finished square (compatible with Big Shot Pro only)

Cut 12 half square triangles from each fat quarter of fabric (concertina the fabric so there are 6 layers)

Sort into 2 piles - light and dark. My 'light' fabrics are all multi coloured with a white background, and the 'dark' fabrics are more of a solid print in primary colours. If you don't feel confident choosing fabric by value, use prints for the 'darks' and plain solid for the 'lights'. If you choose a plain solid you need 1 metre total.
Sew a light half square triangle to each dark half square triangle (right sides together). Be careful as you are dealing with bias cut edges, which are stretchy - so pin well!

The beauty of this die is there's no trimming after you've sewn the triangles together. Simply press (with the seam to the dark side) and you have a perfect 6.5" square!

Arrange into 8 rows of 6 squares, following the photo below as a guide

Sew the squares together into rows, and press the seams of even numbered rows to one side (eg 2,4,6,8 to the left) and odd numbered rows to the opposite direction.

Sew the rows together, and press well all over.

Et voila - you just made a really cute baby quilt top and hardly broke a sweat! Now you can take a break and think about the quilting and finishing later!

To finish you will need a crib size pack of wadding that you can trim down to at least 40" x 52". (I used pellon legacy 100% cotton which is a low loft (thin) wadding that shrinks just the right amount for a vintage crinkly look). You will also need a piece of backing fabric that measures slightly more than the wadding all the way around, 42" x 54" is just right. For binding, download and follow my how to here.