3 Christmas Quilts - Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Along Finishes and 2 Matching Gift Bags

 I didn't plan to be away from the blog for this long, but all of the sewing I was occupied with was for Christmas and mostly presents for people who look at the blog and I didn't want anyone peeking!

First off here is a finish to the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Along I was working on as the clues were being given out.  This is a picture taken today on our deck with just a recent skiff of snow.  I kept this quilt for ourselves and it was on a chair in the living room, but we had a green Christmas this year and it was quite warm so no one needed to snuggle under it, maybe next year.

I quilted it with snowflakes, of course, and it has a nice soft plaid flannel backing.

I then made two more totally in flannel on the pieced fronts and the solid backing and binding.  The pink quilt has polar bears in hats and scarves and was made for a four year old and the red quilt has penguins in hats and vests and was made for a six year old.  Both girls are my s-i-l's nieces.

To gift these two quilts, I made two flannel gift bags lined with cotton fabric to make their insides a little more slippery and a little sturdier.  I based the gift bags on this bag tutorial from Jeni Baker of In Color Order.  Sorry, I didn't realize this photo was blurry until after the quilts were mailed so could not retake the photo.

I plan to make two more of these flannel snowflake quilts before the winter is over for gifting to my d-i-l's niece and nephew.

Sewcialites and Gingham Picnic

The tenth weekly block for Sewcialites came out on Friday and I made it up that same day.  Here is my block 10, Sincere.

 And here are my ten blocks so far.

I also made two Gingham Picnic blocks using the same fabric for the centre stars.

As well as four more Gingham Picnic blocks using fabric from two previous weeks for their centre stars.

That brings me up to date working on both of these projects.  I really love this fabric.  Too bad I didn't buy more before Bluprint ceased to exist.

Dear Jane Quilt, Two More Blocks

The last couple of Thursdays, which is the day I usually work on my Dear Jane quilt, I worked on some Christmas projects instead.  However, the last Thursday of the month is the day that our little group of "Dear Janer's" get together for a zoom chat so I sewed up a couple of blocks.

First up is block F1 which I paper pieced.  A few of you will likely notice that my block is spinning in the opposite direction to Jane's, oh well....

F1 closeup.

I took one look at F13 and decided I really didn't care for it and not just because of the appliqueing it would involve.....😱 so I simplified it and made it with squares and some snowballed corners to create diagonal lines.  I thought my diagonal lines would be a little narrower, but they will do.  If you squint I think my block and Jane's are similar enough.

F13 closeup.

With these two blocks, I have now completed rows A to F.  I now have 144 of 169 blocks made, only 25 to go.  Still loving making this quilt!

Sewcialites

On Sunday, I sewed up the Sewcialites block from Friday called Gracious.

And here are my 9 blocks so far.

Still loving each of these blocks and fabrics!

Sewcialites and Gingham Picnic

Yesterday I made the next Sewcialite Block Soulful:

And here are my eight blocks so far.

I also made two more Gingham Picnic blocks.

Working on two quilts at a time is great fun!

Sewcialites Quilt Along, Block 7

I did get block 7 made yesterday, so I am keeping up with this weekly quilt along.  Here is my Block 7 called Kindred.

And here are my 7 blocks so far.

I am really liking these blocks and the fabrics.

Appliqued Candy Dish Runner Finished

I actually finished this Candy Dish table runner by Edyta Sitar in late August, early September.  I quilted the basket part of it with black thread since the base and handles were black to help differentiate the basket from the background since the colours were similar.  I then did an allover dense quilting pattern in the background.  Here's a close up of one basket.

Here's what the whole runner looks like on my bureau.

Just for fun, here's a picture of the runner held up to the light of the deck door for a stained glass affect.

I didn't have a lot of fabric to bind this quilt and actually used two different but similar pieces.  I did a new to me technique using a strip of fabric which was 1.75" wide instead of my usual 2.5" but still gave double fold binding using this tutorial.  It lays really flat so works well for a table runner or something small or, like me, if you are running short on fabric.  I would use this method again in a similar situation but like using 2.5" strips of fabric for a large quilt.