Christmas is on it's way!

Yes, I know it's July, not December! But July always brings about projects for Christmas, especially if the item is a gift - better to start now to make sure it's finished in time.

July also brings several Christmas in July blog hops, and one of my favorites is the 12 Days of Christmas in July, hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

The hop just started this week, July 14, and is still going strong with 2 featured bloggers and their Christmas projects each day. My turn is Monday, July 22, with the hop ending on July 25, just like December 25.

Here's all of the fantastic quilters/bloggers for the hop:

                                                           Sunday, July 14th

L’Fair Quilts

Vrooman’s Quilts

Monday, July 15th

Sea of Estrogen

Mel’s Quilting Blog

Tuesday, July 16th

Days Filled With Joy

The Colorful Fabriholic

Wednesday, July 17th

Pampered Pettit

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Thursday, July 18th

Kathy’s Kwilts and More

Selina Quilts

Friday, July 19th

The Quilted Snail

Cloth and Paper Studio

Saturday, July 20th

The Inquiring Quilter

Anja Quilts

Sunday, July 21st

Riceford Streams

Seams to Be Sew

Monday, July 22nd

Katie Mae Quilts

QuiltFabrication

Tuesday, July 23rd

Made by Marney

Selina Quilts

Wednesday, July 24th

From My Carolina Home

 Karrin’s Crazy World

Thursday, July 25th

Christina’s Handicrafts

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

There's also a giveaway of some very pretty Christmas fabric, Wintertide, from Figo Fabrics. Just visit each blog and fill out the entry form, one entry per blog.

And last but not least, here's a sneak peek of the back of my project:

can you guess it's has something to do with snowflakes? Tune in on Monday to see the big reveal!

Until then, Happy Quilting and Hopping!

Midweek Makers #184

Welcome to Midweek Makers! I'm busy prepping binding samples for our guild's Summer Camp next week, using a set of six new place mats. 

Each one has binding in various stages of completion, and I've even got two showing piped binding.

Hopefully, my tutorial will take the dread out of doing bindings for Summer Camp attendees.

With all that color going on in the place mats, I'm featuring a few items full of color from last week.

Here's Poco Loco from Sew Preeti Quilts,

                                      

a new July finish from Quilt Schmilt,

                                                

and a free Wonky Hexie's pattern from Sew Motion.

                                    

All so full of color!!

And what's in your work space this week? Come share!

• Please link directly to your specific post, not your main blog page.
• Visit and leave a comment to two links: the one before and the one after your own. Everyone loves visitors, comments, and encouragement!
• Bring a friend! Invite your fellow bloggers to the party by spreading the word! 
• Please link to www.QuiltFabrication.com in your post or on your sidebar with the Midweek Makers badge 

Have fun at the party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Summer Camp Prep

After all of last week's joy creating the new hen house around my chicken panel, it's time to come back to earth. I'm spending this week prepping to give a presentation next Monday at my guild's Summer Camp, titled "Basic Bindings and Beyond"

What's Summer Camp? It's a new activity at my guild, where 6 teachers share their expertise on a quilting subject. Each teacher presents 5 times, for approximately 15 minutes each time. Students pick 5 of the 6 presentations to go to, then rotate around the room. The event was held last year, and received lots of praise, so we're doing it again this year.

I plan to cover the following, and have lots of work left to do to get ready. Feel free to click on the pictures to go to each tutorial.

I won't be doing a sewing demo - instead I'm making up samples of each step or technique to pass around. I've got these cute place mats quilted up, with binding in various stages yet to be attached. That's this week's project!

I'll also provide a handout of the links to the tutorials above, so everyone can go back and follow along at their own pace. 

Wish me luck - I'm off to sew and perfect my 15 minute presentation!

My Chickens Have a House

I got a chance to play with my personal Round Robin, featuring the chicken panel, and had so much fun creating that I have to share - my chickens now have a house!

Did you guess this was coming from the sneak peek on Wednesday? How about walking with me through this burst of creativity to see how it's made?

First, the hen house image I was inspired by. Mine's got the elevation and the little ramp, but minus the doors for piecing's sake!

With a quick glance in my brown drawer, I found two fabrics that worked well to continue the landscape around the chickens - lucky!! Plus a red for the barn, and maybe a green for the roof.

A bit of curved piecing created some interest to the ground under the house itself,

and with the addition of posts and the ramp, the outdoor area started coming together.

Now, our first round of this Round Robin should contain the following: pinwheel or something from nature. Paying homage to barn quilts, I mounted a pinwheel at the top of my hen house.

Then added the roof, though tying the house to the outdoors and the sky was a bit of a puzzle. I got it figured out even though I had to trim the house down a bit.

Now for the really fun part - the details! What hen house wouldn't be complete without a nest?

Lots of 2" fabric strips are randomly plopped at the open door to form a nest. Straight line stitching winds its way through the straw, catching pieces here and there to hold it together. That way the straw stays free, keeping a 3D effect, since this quilt will be a wall hanging.

And of course there's got to be eggs!

Stitched onto a fusible, the back was slit to stuff in two pieces of batting - more 3D!

They were then stitched down, only along the bottom, in the nest area, so that it looks like their standing away a bit from the quilt. Couldn't resist the jealous hen eyeing those eggs!

One last thing to blend the chicken panel in with the rest: hand cut flowers from leftover fabric from the panel's border. Then they're stitched down, no fusing, and painted. Also painted the small portion of ramp behind the tail feathers, to make a continuous line.

These few small details really complete the illusion, hiding the piecing line between the panel and my pieced background. Check out the before picture below.

This has been a big hit with my family so far, and hubby is ready for it to be done. But there's a few more rounds to go, which will be more rows than rounds. Wonder what I'll dream up next month - it's quilters choice.

Happy Creating!