Thursday, January 19, 2017

Nine Down, Three to Go!



We certainly are "over the hump" with this project, and hope you are, too!  We just finished the "Twelve Drummers." We're taking a trip around the world in this series, but for the drummers we are home again, watching the U.S. Drum and Bugle Corps march around the National Mall.


It's the office favorite so far, but that's the home team advantage. 
Wouldn't the whole band make a great Fourth of July set!

We are stitching our twelve days in the center of star blocks for a large Christmas quilt as shown... you don't have to, just stitch them together as shown at the top of the page for a beautiful wall hanging. We also have our charm size (have you been collecting yours for free?) which will finish up quickly into a miniature Baltimore Album quilt... so easy... but more on that in a later post.

Here's the latest on our super crazy Twelve days of Christmas Quilt... we're happy to note we still have 11 months to finish it, and who knows, maybe we will. This probably won't be for everyone, in fact, it may be for NO ONE, but if you still have coffee in your cup, read on.

Last we left it, we had two last blocks to stitch from our
"Among the Stars" quilt by Its Sew Emma.
Check, and check!
It's such a good feeling that something we started a couple of years ago is now finished... sort of. The blocks at least!

Our blocks are set on point, so we need some type of intermediate block, and we came up with this.

We noticed our favorite Christmas fabric collections from the past few years all had teal in them... we are in love with Christmas Teal,
but red and green still say Christmas best, hence the triangles. 

Now the minute we say "triangles" some of you might fall into a swoon, but here's our secret.


And before you think, "paper piecing" and pass out again, no, it isn't. Yes, it's paper, but you just count how many units you need, cut your two fabrics and face them right sides together, then just stitch them to the paper along the lines. Yes, the tedious part is tearing off the paper, but ours came out absolutely perfect. We needed a strip 9-1/2"  long, and that was perfect too, not to mention the perfect points at the 1/4" seam line, etc, etc. Sold!

We finished one block, and this will be the perfect mindless night time project to stitch through the winter months. We all need a project like that some times. Frequently, several of them.

And we need quite a few of those blocks!


This is brought to you by the magic of Photoshop-- there are still QUITE a few Triangles on a Roll to go. When you see this, your first reaction may be that the embroidery is totally lost... at least that is what the "judges in our heads" are saying, too. But believe me, when you see those big twelve inch blocks in person, they are absolutely stunning, and draw you in for every little detail.




So that's our creative vision, anyway, and we're running with it-- the only and best reason to do create something a certain way is because it's what YOU want--
you're the ultimate judge. When you're happy making it, that feeling shines through in the work and it will make everyone happy who looks at it, too.

We'd love to hear what you might make with your charm or large size blocks! Comment below and let us know how your progress is coming... and a special thanks to all who have sent us photos... the projects are all truly amazing-- you made us HAPPY!

XOX