Vintage Christmas Wallhanging

Here is my finished top for my Vintage Christmas wallhanging.  All the embroidery is done on the blocks that called for it, too.  I think it turned out nice, even though the 6-inch blocks were a real pain to make and keep to size.

As you can see from the picture above, I opted not to make the Twinkle Light border.  It would have required me to make 44 individual 3-inch light bulb units and I just wasn't convinced that I wanted to do that, or that I would even like the result when I was finished.  I think this will work just fine, and was way quicker and easier to finish.  And the border fabric has little starbursts on it, so that's sorta like twinkle lights, right?

No more Lori Holt blocks for me anytime soon, except maybe making the giant train block baby quilt I mentioned earlier.  Her blocks are cute and all, but they just have way too many pieces!

Vintage Christmas block for September

After cutting things so close last month, I decided to go ahead and knock out my blocks early this time.  The two blocks that I made from this month's assignment were, from left to right, Vintage Ornament and Under the Tree.  We were also assigned the Twinkle Lights block, which I was going to use as a border, but I decided to wait until I got the top finished to the point of needing the border before I decided or made any of them. 

August Vintage Christmas blocks

This month in our Vintage Christmas block of the month class (aka Moda class) we were assigned 5 blocks, as usual, but I actually needed 3 of them this time.  From left to right, the blocks are: Taffy, Stocking, and Toy Train. 

The first two I did in the featured colors (though not the featured fabric), but with the train, I decided to switch things up a bit.  The original had the train in dark and light blues, but I decided to go with gray and black.  I had dark and light blue (the light blue is in the Taffy block and the dark blue is in the Stocking block), but I thought the gray and black would look better than the specific blue fabrics that I had.  I was afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast between the blues.

I really like the train block, in general, so I'm thinking that I might use the design to make a large block baby quilt.  I've already figured up the cutting directions to enlarge it to a 36 inch block.  I'm not sure when I'll get around to making it, though.

I was really cutting it close getting the blocks done this month. For me it was more important that I get the wedding quilt top finished (featured in the previous post) so I could leave it to be quilted, than to get the blocks done, so I worked on the wedding quilt first.  Once it was finished, then I shifted over to the blocks.  I finished them the night before the meeting.  It all worked out in the end, since I got them all finished in time.

Sparkle block

Today I made my 6-inch Sparkle block for this month's Block of the Month assignment.  It was the only block I needed from the 5 blocks that were assigned this month.  It's going to catch up with me soon, though.  I think I will need to do 3 blocks next month.

I tried to be very careful with my cutting and sewing today.  I measured each unit as I went, and trimmed down anything that wasn't exactly the size given in the measurements.  For some reason, when I'm making the units, my units are always just a little bit bigger than what the directions call for.  I know it's because I use a scant seam allowance when I sew, that's not surprising.  What is surprising is that once I sew the unit together my completed block is usually just a little smaller than it should be.  So why are the units bigger, but the finished block is smaller?  I use the same seam allowance guide on all of them.  It's not a MAJOR difference, usually 1/8 of an inch or less, but still, it's odd.

So I'm still not enjoying making the small blocks.  In fact, I haven't been that enthusiastic about sewing in general lately, and this project doesn't help matters any.  My original plan was to use the twinkle light blocks as a border, but I'd have to make 44 individual light bulb units, and I'm not sure I'm up to that.  We'll see how I'm feeling when I get to that point, but it doesn't look promising.

Little Deer block

The only block that I needed for the June meeting of my Moda group was the Little Deer block.  I actually finished it the day before the meeting.  As it turned out, I didn't actually get to go to the meeting, because my husband and I had to make an unexpected trip to the urologist's office.  (The ups and downs of prostate surgery recovery.  Thankfully nothing too serious, but it's always better to be safe with these sorts of things.)  But at least it was finished on time and I can show it at the next meeting.  I even did the embroidery!  Go me!

Vintage Christmas - January Blocks

This year our group that meets at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe is doing Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas blocks.  Some people are doing the Vintage Christmas quilt that is pictured on the cover of the book, which involves making 6-inch squares for all 42 blocks in the book.  Some are doing the Christmas Eve quilt, which uses 25 of the blocks done in the 12-inch size.  Probably some people will do some of the other quilts featured in the book.  I probably won't be alone in doing something completely different with the blocks.  At least one other person mentioned that they were going to do something different.

What I really need, when it comes to Christmas quilts, is a Christmas wall hanging.  Everything featured in the book was either too big, or too small, for what I was wanting.  I decided to use blocks from the book and make up my own wall hanging size quilt.  It will feature a 12-inch block in the center, surrounded by sashing, 6-inch blocks, more sashing, 3-inch blocks (made from an element of one of the 6-inch blocks in the book), and an outer border.

For the class, we were assigned 5 blocks for this month, if we were doing the cover quilt.  Of those blocks, I only wanted to use 2 of them in my quilt, so that's all I made.  On the left is the Christmas Candles blocks and on the right is the Glisten block, both in the 6-inch size.  Lots of tiny pieces here.  That's not my favorite thing to do, but I'm willing to do it for a quilt that I want to have.  Maybe I won't go crazy before the year is over and the project is finished!