A Very Vintage Christmas Sew Along

Welcome to my post for week two as part of A Very Vintage Christmas Sew-along!  with Fat Quarter Shop and Lori Holt.  You can read all the SAL info including the schedule here.  Before I get into details about my make (Gingerbread House block made into a Snowglobe cushion) I'd love to show you a little more from Lori's brilliant new book!

I don't know how Lori does it.  Her books are packed full of makes - quilts and small projects - and her designs have such wonderful retro references; she must never stop sewing to make all the things, and as with her other books, the photographs are beautifully styles.  This book one is obviously Christmas themed, but many of the blocks and projects could be used for other times of the year, and as with her other books, it's spiral bound for easy use and the blocks instructions are for both 6" and 12"finished squares.

I especially liked the Vintage Christmas projects.  These are quick useful makes and I can never resist making more Christmas things, even when I already have quite a few!

     

The two colour quilts caught my eye, book marked as a future project maybe!?

The Gingerbread House block was fast to sew up.  Lori uses her tried-and-trusted technique of drawing diagonals on the reverse of squares and rectangles to create the 45-degree angles that make up details like the window awning, chimney sides and roof.  I like to tick the cutting list as I prep the fabric, as well as using a design board to lay all the pieces out before I sew.  The Snow Globe cushion used the 6" block and it only takes a few pieces of background fabric to create the snow globe effect.  I cut my red background slightly wider to produce a cushion bigger than the 12" square size in the book.  Mine is approx 16" square.

For the chimney smoke, I drew the line on removeable marker, threaded my machine with Aurifil 12wt in the top thread/50wt in the bobbin and stitched slowly, tying the ends in on the back.   A larger needle size helps with this.  I used a 100/16 Superior Needle.

Fabrics Used

Chimney/House -Kona Wheat

Roof- Riley Blake?  It was given to me and I'm down to tiny scraps.

Window/Door Glass- Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey for Moda

Door and Window frame- unknown scraps

Window Awning- Red Hatch from Day Sail, Bonnie & Camille for Moda

Grass and Path, Eat Drink and Be Ugly, Sandy Gervais for Moda

House/Globe Background- Sevenberry Dots blue on white

Globe Base- Cosmo Cricket Early Bird for Moda (I really miss Cosmo Cricket fabrics!)

Red background - Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey for Moda

Binding- Ta Dot in Ceda by Michael Miller

The Vintage Christmas book is available at The Fat Quarter Shop (USA)

In the UK, it looks like stock is still arriving but these shops usually sell Lori's quilting books: Patchwork Dreamer, Sew Hot, Hulu Crafts.

I'll be back later in the Sew Along with a Vintage Pinwheel block!  

318 Patchwork Patterns Quilt-along: Dog and Bone

The release of 318 Patchwork Patterns in English has brought a flurry of block making from the book making and in addition to the blog hop that I was part of a few weeks ago, Al at A Thousand Needles is hosting a 318QAL.  For each week of the quilt-along, she's making 4 blocks which will be part of a 318 Patchwork Patterns mini quilt.  She's choosing most of the blocks and having special guests- so far  Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics and Penny from Sew take a hike and this week it's me! I love the animal blocks in this book, so I chose #136 dog and bone block.  I was so enamoured with the design that I didn't notice the million Y seams involved!  Apologies to Al who is making this block too!

I've marked the Y seams and some of the sections below.  I tried to plan this but I ended up being a very careful slow sewer and using the techniques covered here- precision is everything with so many Y seams! I did the ears, feet and tail actions first.  Then the head and bone.  Next the body and the final part was joining everything together.  The Y seams are marked in blue- there were so many and I had not think about how I was doing this too much and rely on instinct as it did get a bit confusing!  You could always add extra lines in to simplify the shape and construction as Penny did with her block.

I made the 6" block into a quilt as you go hot water bottle cover for our dog Lottie.  As the weather gets cooler, she loves a hottie to cuddle up with overnight.

It's a simple pattern adapted from Suzuko Koseki's Patchwork Style.  I lined it on the inside too with some cotton lawn to make it a thick cover that would insulate well and survive a lot of washes. 

Let's just say it was well received!

You can find the 318QAL schedule here, week one here, and week two here.  You can link up with Al by posting picks of at least 2 blocks you've made from the book and win a prize- see her posts for details.