Finished Christmas Hexagons Quilt!

I'm really pleased to have FINISHED my Christmas Quilt!

It's a nice throw-size quilt for the living room. It measures about 58" x 58".  I was surprised when I was laying out the background that a square was what I needed. The hexagon design looked so much taller than it was wide. Not so. It needed an exact square. ( I know, the picture looks long, but it's square!)

A certain little person keeps showing up in the living room and saying "My toes are cold ...", which is a hint for "I need to test the new quilt again!" 

In the past couple of days, I've been doing a lot of this:

And the backing is an awesome beige floral. The backing was surprisingly cooperative with the quilting process. Even so, this is the only view of the back that you get to see, because, actually, a lot of the rest of the back is really quite un-perfect. But I'm totally OK with that, and soooo pleased to have this fun quilt useable. :-)

A little before and after:

This quilt is very densely quilted! And here I thought I was going big on the free-motion "doodles"! Actually, I used up more than an ENTIRE bobbin of NYLON thread. My nylon thread is so fine that a TON of thread fits on a bobbin ... and I've NEVER used up a whole bobbin in a day! But then, this is the biggest quilt I've ever quilted this way. (It's about 58" x 58".)

It's been fun to take this quilt from these pictures below (taken in June, while I was figuring this out) to the finished product that's folded and sitting in my rocking chair. Merry Christmas!

   

In other finishing-things-up news, I blogged earlier this week about a couple of neat quilt tops I finished: 

 

The Mini-Kaleidoscopes Quilt Top was lots of fun, and I really love the big Color Splash Quilt Top. Busy week!

I'm linking this post to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, and Sew and Tell Friday at AmyLouWho ... Both of these are great places to see what others have been working on! Lots of projects being finished up!

Flannel Squares ... and Leaders and Enders ...

Lately, I've been sewing flannel squares ... Making a cozy flannel rag quilt ...

A few weeks ago, I came across a neat concept at a blog called Jo's Country Junction ~ Her post about Leaders and Enders caught my eye ... and she linked her post to her inspiration at Quiltville ... fascinating stuff.

Both of the links above have great, lengthy explanations ... but the short version is, if you sew together a couple of tiny squares, in between each seam of what you're really working on, the tiny squares keep you from having all those long threads at each end of what you're really working on. You sew straight from one piece onto another, then afterward, you snip the tiny thread between ... So, what you're really working on gets sewn, and the little squares you're sewing together for something else also get done.

I have to remind myself often how much little bits do add up. Little bits really do add up! A while back, I mentioned the first denim quilt I made. I decided that since there was "no time" to make something that big, my only option was to worked on the denim quilt every Sunday afternoon, even if it was only for 15 minutes. Sometimes I only worked 15 minutes on it. But it got done!

So, I decided to try the Leaders and Enders idea ...
I cut some little squares ...

And started sewing them before ...

... and after ...

... and between ...

... the pieces of the project that I was really working on ...

So, afterward, I just snip that little thread between the pieces, and I don't have to give everything a "haircut" afterward from all those long threads ...

AND, I end up with not only my stack of these sewed ...

... but ALSO my stack of these:

So far, it sounds like a win-win!

While working on my "Made Fabric" circles the other day, I also stitched some of the Leaders and Enders ... Here's how the whole stack of blue-and-white is looking after being pressed ...

As for what the Leaders and Enders turn into, I'm not sure yet ... I'm thinking about trying for something like a {small} version of the blue-and-neutral quilt shown at Quiltville ... The power of suggestion is strong, and that quilt looks awesome ... so stay tuned for more on the Leaders and Enders project.

The flannel, though, is looking promising ... here's the layout I'm looking at for the rag quilt. It's probably going on eBay when it's done. We'll see.

Color Splash!

I'm pleased to have finished the "Color Splash" Quilt Top that I mentioned in this post, and this post, and this post.

I had a lot of fun with the crazy-quilty "made fabric", and I like the way the blocks all seem to "float" on the light background.

   

 

A lot of my inspiration came from these awesome quilt pictures at psiquilt.com, and the tutorials on posts like this at 15minutesplay.com

It was a lot of fun to go from my first few blocks, and my first few tries at layout ...

  

...to a lot of finished blocks, and a lot of blocks in a layout ...

... to a finished quilt top! (This thing is huge! 74" x 96"!)

I'm listing it on eBay as a quilt top, so that somebody can buy it and have fun quilting it! Take a look at it at this eBay listing, or check out my whole list of auctions.

The crazy-quilty-look isn't usually my favorite style, but I LOVE the way these crazy-quilt blocks turned out with the color-coordinated scraps turned into a block. I'm definitely planning to do more with this style ... Stay tuned ...

Random Yo-Yos ...

A couple of years ago, a friend mentioned that she'd love to learn how to make old-fashioned yo-yo quilts ... neither she nor I had ever made a yo-yo, but we both thought it would be fun. As it turns out, each of us went home and searched Google for the how-to details!

I recently rediscovered my stack of little yo-yos, and I'm once again delighted with the fun randomness of these. Even though I usually like an "organized" feel to my quilting, I'm loving the non-organized look here.

Lots of these fabrics make me smile, because they remind me of what else I made with that fabric, or where that fabric came from ... I love the colors and the circles and the spaces between ...

Since the Christmas Hexagons are just about done, I needed some hand-work to put in my favorite bag-to-grab-when-I'm-going-somewhere ... Recently, I pulled out the fun, random yo-yos and worked a little while.

One of the fun things about sewing when other people are around (which is all the time unless everybody's asleep) is that sometimes, somebody wants to learn "how you do that". That's neat, because usually they discover that it's not hard, and it's pretty fun! My middle daughter sat with me and made a couple of yo-yos ...

Right now, I'm sewing the random yo-yos in groups of 16, so that they're partially assembled, with some flexibility in how I eventually work the layout.

I also have some blue yo-yos happening in another project-bag ....
Maybe I'll blog about those another day ...

Take Your Time Tuesday at So Happy is a fun spot to mention hand-stitching work like this ... So I'm planning to link this post to this week's Take Your Time Tuesday ...

Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory is another fun place to see fabric projects of all kinds, and I'm linking this post to this week's Fabric Tuesday, as well. (Click the button below for the most recent Fabric Tuesday).

Mini Kaleidoscopes ...

This weekend, I finished up a cute Mini Quilt Top ...

There are a lot of things I like about this kind of Kaleidoscope. This is the "stacked posies" kind, made from just 4 identical squares. Easy to cut. Quick to sew. Here's my little stack of pieces ready to sew.

I love the symmetry, and the beautiful simplicity ... Here are a few of my favorite blocks ... and they're all made from the same floral fabric!

Layouts are fun ...

Setting them diamond-style meant that in addition to setting squares, I needed triangles for the sides ... Here are the blocks sewn to the setting squares, ready for the triangles ...

Stitched up, with borders in the same floral print and the same white-on-cream as the background ...

And, now the Kaleidoscope Mini Quilt Top is listed on eBay, so that someone can have fun quilting it! See this eBay listing, or if that link doesn't work, try this list of all my eBay items.

I love seeing mini-quilt projects come together. Elizabeth at Pieceful Life has a weekly spot for bloggers to report on their latest Mini-Quilt projects. If you have a minute, stop by and visit this week's Little Quilt Monday ... I'm linking this post there ... Have a great Monday!

Advent Calendar Time ...

Last week, I mentioned some of what's been on our kitchen markerboard ...

Since we try to keep something spiritually encouraging, or at least inspirational, on our kitchen markerboard, I might write a few Saturday posts related to what's been on our kitchen markerboard lately.

Right now, our markerboard still carries a Thanksgiving theme, since an attitude of gratitude should always be in season ...

But for this month, next to the markerboard is our Advent Calendar ...

This Advent Calendar was given to us a couple years ago by a friend (Thanks, Heather!) and the kids LOVE it! 

In each pocket, I put a little piece of paper, with a couple of Christmas-related Bible verses, and the title of a Christmas carol to sing. Each day we open the one for the day (and sometimes the one for yesterday, if we forgot!) and one of the kids read the verses, and we sing the first verse of the song.

Even though it's a simple thing, it's been a great way for us to get some more Bible into our day, to keep some more Bible in our Christmas celebration, and to open some more Christ-centered discussions in our conversations.

"Made Fabric" circles, Christmas Quilt progress

Lately ... I'm working on more crazy-quilty "made fabric". Fun! The other blocks I made were giant 12" blocks, so these small ones (less than 6") were really fast and fun. 

Here they are before trimming ...

And after trimming ... aren't they cute?

I'll probably make a few more in different sizes, and then applique them on a neutral background. I don't have a lot of experience with applique, so I'm thinking about the merits of a couple of simple applique methods I've found ...  The cookie crumbs one at 15minutesplay's blog ... and the one that I saw SOMEwhere a long time ago, something like this dryer sheet idea ...

In other news ...

The Christmas hexagon quilt is getting there ...

Here's the background, all ready ...

Aaaaand, this is the hexagon portion just laid on top ... need to baste/pin, add batting, backing ... I'm excited that it's almost done!