Selvage Christmas Stocking

Friday was our bimonthly meeting for Casey's Quilters, and making Christmas ornaments was on the agenda. I've had this little snowman kit from Keepsake Quilting for several years and decided it was time to make some up. I used the felt included in the kit, but wool felt or wool would work as well. The front and back pieces for the cap and body are buttonhole stitched together. The brim is a single piece that wraps around to the back, and the scarf is cut long enough to wrap around the neck. The red buttonhole stitching in the body frames an oval cutout through which you can insert a small photo of a child... or pet or whatever. The original kit contained enough materials for a garland of about 6 of these snowmen, but one or two snowmen was fine for me.

A couple of the ladies at the meeting were making these cute little strip-pieced Christmas stockings. My good friend Barbara conducted a little workshop for these at Capitol Quilters, and the ladies were making more of them at Kay's. The pattern is free online here, and it occurred to me to use some of the selvages I've been collecting--a perfect little project to try out both the pattern and the use of selvages. I had so much fun playing with this that I know I'll want to try another selvage project. (If you download this pattern, make sure to uncheck the "fit to page" or scaling block; otherwise the design prints out too small. Naturally I did it wrong the first time, so my stocking came out too small, and the cuff was too big.)

I'm disappointed that I couldn't seem to make the time to get the Theresa's Stars quilt loaded on the frame, and that will be my only goal this week, to get it loaded, quilted, and bound. The handstitched binding on the Twelve Stars quilt is coming along, but slowly.

Last night was the bimonthly meeting for our local chapter, Backroad Quilters, and Christmas ornaments were on the agenda there as well. I was not able to stay for the meeting, but I did go down long enough to pick up these scrap bags. One of our members from last year was changing residences and had to pare down her sewing things. She had lots of fabric for sale, including these scrap bags, so I brought them all home.

Like some other bloggers, I've been thinking about stashbusting goals for next year. It wouldn't surprise me to see the price of cotton continue to rise, and I already have so much fabric. So I think I'd like my focus for next year to be on finishing more of my UFOs and making mostly scrap quilts. Looking back at my finishes for 2008, several had some scrappy elements; but only the Scrappy Bargello was really all scrappy, and that is the sort of quilt I'd like to focus on. Bonnie Hunter certainly has enough scrappy quilt patterns to keep a quilter busy for a long time, and I have plenty of books on scrap quilts to entertain myself with.

Anyway, at the meeting last night, Nena also brought some of the projects that will be offered up as workshops next year, and now I'm excited about doing some of those projects. One was a pleated tote bag, one was a quilt called Monterey Medallion, and one was called Venetian Tiles and requires the use of an x block ruler. It took some time last night hunting on the internet for this specialized tool, but I finally found the designer's website. I remember seeing this block a long time ago, and apparently someone has designed a ruler to facilitate the block construction. You can see both the rulers and some of Patricia's quilts here.

I am off the next three days; and although we are not having company for Thanksgiving, today will be spent doing some much needed housecleaning...and some wash. Tomorrow we'll cook, Thursday we'll eat and relax, and I'll sprinkle in some sewing time where I can!

Oh, by the way, I picked up a yard and a half of fabric this past week. Nothing else in or out, so I didn't bother with a Sunday Stash Report.

Credit where credit is due:
Treasured Snowmen Garland design by Connie Broemmer
Strip Stocking by Eleanor Burns, Quilt In A Day