Merry Christmas!!

Wishing all of you Love, Peace and Joy!! Have a Blessed Christmas!!!

..... 3 more dormice to dress!! LOL

It's a Holly Jolly Xmas!!!!

LOL

Made the hats, added some fur for the coat and some buttons!! Now it's looking a lot like santas!!! LOL

This is how the santa look like with just the coat on!

This is santa's coat. Taking a quarter inch seam, sew the shoulder and side seams.

Slowly but surely the santas are begining to take shape.

I enlisted my niece, Andie, and my other two sisters to stuff the arms and bodies. I use fibrefill.

We put a pipe cleaner in the arm before filling it. This is to make the arm bend.

For the body, we add some pebbles. This is to give it some weight and also to make it stand better.

The next step is to sew all the cut out patterns. This was done by my sister, Adeline. Six arms and six bodies!!

We decided to make six santas. So we traced the pattern onto the calico fabric. It took less than 30 minutes to trace and cut them out. The instructions are very easy to follow.

Holly Jolly Xmas

I found this pattern in a magazine (Fabrications Quilting for you- issue 56) while holidaying in London! When I came back, I had it photocopied and enlarged to the size stated in the magazine. I showed my sister the pattern and she suggested we make them!!LOL

Managed to do two blocks for this post! LOL Been rather busy. Christmas season is always like that! Lots of things going on!! But I am trying to finish this project before the year is out!! Wish me luck!!!! LOL

Honey Bee Block

I thought of making the honey bees using the turning in applique method but I have so much to do with my tulips N anemones that I decided to use fusible web instead.

Another unique design!

Nice!

Check out the wings!! Unique design!

Birds!

Look at how interesting the birds turn out!

I like this one too!

Love this one!!

I wish I could post all the kaleidoscope blocks but I can't! So like the Christmas kaleidoscope quilt, I 'll just post some of my favorites!

Look at how sweet this one turn out!!

These triangles are 3 3/4 in and are cut at a 60 degree angle. The size of the triangles also depend on the repeat and motive of the fabric.

Bird Kaleidoscope Quilt

Yes!! I am making another kaleidoscope quilt!! It's not mine though! Doing it for my sister! LOL As of now, my only target is to cut and piece them into hexagons first!!

This fabric is by Kona Bay fabrics. Love the shades of blue and the colors of the birds really stand out.

This is one of the most interesting quilt that I have done! I used the same border fabric for the kaleidoscopes. I think most of the kaleidoscope quilts are like that or else you can't see the kaleidoscope effect! This quilt size is 92 x 100. Ermmm....How am I going to find time to quilt this??? LOL

The quilt top is almost done! Both the left and right edges are trimmed off to get a straight edge. I have to add a frame then maybe two more borders just to make the quilt bigger. I will post the measurements once I finished the whole quilt!!

After ironing all the strips, I tacked and sewed them together. There are 17 strips including the edges. When tacking the strips, got to make sure that the triangles are pieced correctly on the opposite sides too! That is quite time consuming to do!! LOL

I ironed all the strips today. Took some time because had to trim off the corner bits too. (Notice the bits on the left edge)

Sewed all the pieces into strips. Got to iron them before the final piecing can be done. After that, both the left and right sides need to be trimmed off.

Next, I sewed all the kaleidoscopes into strips.

These are the kaleidoscopes all laid out! Took me quite a while to sort out all the blocks. At first, I was thinking of sorting them out in shades but then it didn't seem to look as interesting as when they are all mixed up!!

Tried putting a few of the pieces together to see how the quilt look. No time to actually lay all the pieces on the floor to see the big picture. If I do that, I might as well sew them!! So I am still finding time to do both at the same time!! I think I have to put Lynda's quilt away. Didn't do much quilting on it!! Christmas is coming and I need to do a bit of 'spring cleaning' in my sewing room!! LOL

Christmas table runner

This is a simple table runner with a green border. The ponsettia and holly are my own design. Fusible webbed then blanket stitched. I had some help with the blanket stitching!! Thanks Halina!!!

Tis' the season to be jolly.....

Yes! My Christmas valance is up!! Made this last year. It was supposed to be blocks for my bed quilt but I decided otherwise! I wanted to join four blocks together to make Christmas wrealths. However, there were enough blocks to make 3 valances (one I gave to Noria) and a table runner!

I've made all the pieces for this quilt. The next thing to do is to lay them out before the final piecing can be done. This is because almost all the kaleidoscope blocks have slightly different color tones. Some have more red in them, some more pinks, some more greens! Just for info, there are 1632 triangles in this quilt!!! LOL

I managed to cut and sew 14 of these hexagon blocks for the Christmas stack n whack quilt. Had to cut 194 triangles for the blocks and the pieces to join all the blocks together.

Just for those of you who visit this blog, I will be away for a week. Happy Quilting!!

This is my friend's Honey Bee block. We are using the same pattern but with different fabrics. She is using plain fabric as her background. This Honey Bee block really stands out!

Yesterday, I finished sewing all the Honey Bee blocks. I made 17 blocks but have yet to applique the bees.

This morning, I had to cut 448 triangles. I joined two triangles on the block opposite each other. I finished 83 blocks so another 90 blocks to go! LOL

This one is also very pretty! I would like to show off all the blocks but there are 173 of them! LOL If you have not tried making a kaleidoscope quilt, I hope this project of mine will inspire you!! I have to finish piecing all the Honey Bee blocks before I can carry on with this project. Last Monday, I managed to find the remaining fabrics to complete this project. Can't wait to finish this quilt!!!

Look at the kaleidoscope effect on this block.

This is nice pattern.

This is pretty!!

Look how this turn out!!

This is another block. Love the green leaves with the red effect in between.

This is one of the blocks I've done. It is interesting how a single fabric can have so many different patterns once you stack, cut and sew them together!! For this quilt, I made 173 blocks already and each one look different. Although there are so many blocks to sew, I finished sewing the blocks in just a few days because I can't wait to see how each of the individual block turn out!!

Stack N Whack Kaleidoscope

If you read my first posting in my blog, I mentioned I have a Stack N Whack project just waiting to be finished! This is my first project using this pattern. I went with my sister to a workshop in May. I picked this Christmas fabric. The cut is at a 60 degree angle and the triangles are 3 inches. Before cutting the fabric, you have to find the repeat of the pattern before deciding the degree angle and the triangle size. Then you have to stack the material on top of each other. For my pattern, I have to stack 6 layers.

Finished a Honey Bee block! I was busy with other things so I just find whatever time I have to at least make a sample block! I think it turn out quite nice! LOL I havent decide on the size of the quilt though! I didn't do a good job on the applique! I was doing this while waiting for my husband at the doctor's and I forgot to bring extra needles! The one I was using was quite blunt! (...ahemmm just an excuse for the bad applique)!! LOL

Honey Bee Quilt

I saw Quayquilter's Honey Bee quilt and was very taken with it!!! It's very beautiful. So I thought of adding this quilt pattern into my collection. I contacted Quayquilter and she told me that I might find the Honey Bee pattern online which I did through this website(www.mccallsquilting.com). As for the other applique blocks, I will just look through some books and magazines and hopefully come up with something!! These are the fabrics I bought for the project.

Haminah's quilt

This is Haminah's quilt. She completed it today. I like the way it turned out! Soooo sweet! The Cross Country blocks bring out the color of the quilt. It is interesting to see quilts of the same pattern but made with different color combination. Does anyone out there have the same quilt pattern?? Would really love to see your masterpiece!!! LOL

Made the dresses for the country dormouse. Simple dresses which can be taken out for wash once in a while. I've also made the arms detachable. I used big safety pins to attach them onto the dresses. The arms are stuff with cotton so I don't think washing them is advisable. Maybe if it's fibrefil then it's ok. I haven't got round to stuffing the other 4 dormouse! But I've already made the bags of pebbles and the bottom plates. Must find some time to do it! LOL

I've added eyes, nose and whiskers for the dormouse. The original pattern has a tail but I didnt want to make it because it will be covered by the dress eventually. I dont see the need to make it!! I've seen the tail and I can tell you it's a big job to stuff it!! LOL.. I think all of us do that sometimes..change a bit of the original pattern!!

After cutting out the patterns and sewing them together, the hard part is stuffing it!!! I like to use cotton rather than synthetic stuffing. To make the dormouse as a doorstop, sew a small bag and fill it with marbles or pebbles. Put it in the dormouse and sew the bottom up. It should be heavy as it is a doorstop!