Taking It Easy but Still Working Away

Yup, my cold is still hanging around, though at least I can now taste food. I do wish my eyes would improve - they weep and sting. Ugh. But that hasn't held me back from getting some things done.

First up was quilting another one of Helen's Halloween quilts, though this one is a panel and has fleece for a backing.

I tried to keep the quilting more open with light custom work in the panel, and the same spider webs I used in Fright Night in the borders. Though a bit past the season, this quilt is now ready to snuggle under!

When that was done, I started playing with the white cut out pieces from the Christmas Trees wall hanging. Ah, but I had cut them out of the tree outline with no fusible on the back. No worries - an easy fix! I just traced the pieces onto the fusible, making them a wee bit bigger. The help of my Teflon pressing sheet (affiliate link)

took care of any fusible residue. The pieces just needed a clean up trimming around the fabric as a final touch. Did I think to take a picture of this? Nope - sorry.

And then I made some more pieces, the proper way, because the project I'm dreaming up needs more than the three I had. The pieces are now placed and ready for the final fuse, as shown below.

Now I'm off to do some serious edge stitching - hope I can see what I'm doing. More to show next week!

Have a great weekend quilting!

Midweek Makers #201

Welcome to the Midweek Makers linky party! In my Houston wrap up last week, I forgot to mention if I brought home any new fabrics or other goodies. Well, absolutely nothing found it's way into my suitcase, not that I wasn't tempted. At the end of my last day on the vendor floor, I was so saturated from quilt stuff that I just decided to keep my dollars in my pocket. 

But I did come home with a grand souvenir - a bad head cold now into my eyes, something I haven't had in years. Doc says, ah, all viral, not much to do but rest. Thanks, Doc. Hard to get much done when I can't see well, which is the reason why I have nothing new to share today.

So, let's look at last week. 
From Den Syende Himmel, these adorable owl key chains.

                                       

This beautiful quilt at Grace and Peace,

                                   

eye-catching colors at Not Afraid of Color,

                                 

and scrappy stars at Karen's Quilting.

                      

Last, but not least, was an email I received from Jacquita, who sent me a picture of a customer favorite, the Patriotic Wave runner she just finished - great job Jacquita!

Now on to this week's sharing!

• Please link directly to your specific post.
• Visit the other guests, and leave a comments.
• Use the Midweek Makers badge or link to www.QuiltFabrication.com in your post.

Have fun at the party!

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Christmas Trees Wall Hanging

Just in time for the holidays, and as a gift to a special friend, my newest creation, a Christmas Tree wall hanging.

Snow capped trees made of Christmas prints - what a wonderful way to set the mood for the holiday season! 

Created just in time for Christmas and the Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop hosted by Carla at Creatin' In the Sticks, my friend is getting an early present. I'm so pleased with how this turned out, I'll have to stitch up one for myself.

Made with both easy fusible applique and piecing, a beginning quilter would have no problem putting this together. The hard part is choosing from all the fabulous Christmas prints available!

Wondering how I got all those tree pieces to be identical? Check out the Creating Identical Fussy Cut Fusible Pieces tutorial for an easy way to do that.

And can you tell I had fun quilting this? 

Full of falling snowflakes and snowballs on a string, it's a modified ruler design from my current Book of the Month feature, Ruler Work Quilting (affiliate link) - see page 111 of the book for circle quilting ideas. This is just one fill idea for the tree background, as there's so many to choose from!

Desiring trees and snowflakes yet? For the rest of the week, the Christmas Tree wall hanging pattern is available at Etsy at an introductory special price. Or maybe you'd like to take a chance to win one of two copies I'm giving away - after all, this is a 'gift it' hop! Just enter via Rafflecopter below, leave a comment and become a follower of QuiltFabrication.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners will be announced next Wednesday, Nov 20, on Midweek Makers #202, and sent a PDF pattern by email.

Before I forget, make sure to visit the other quilt blogs on today's blog hop list for other Stitch It and Gift It ideas. 

Just Let Me Quilt

Selina Quilts

Homespun Hannah's Blog

QuiltFabrication
Domestic Felicity
VroomansQuilts
Karrin's Crazy World
Storied Quilts

Good luck and enjoy the hop!

Creating Identical Fussy Cut Fusible Pieces

I'm working on a really charming Christmas project using fusible feather pieces, 

and because I'm making several blocks, I want the pieces to be identical across the blocks, especially that big plaid feather.

While arranging the feather on the plaid for the most attractive orientation before fusing it down, I devised a way to have all the other #3 pieces look the same. I just needed to make some aligning marks on the yet-to-be-fused pieces.

In the above picture, the first piece is fused down - there's just a little bit of the paper showing at the feather point. On top of that is another piece of fusible, with paper backing up and aligned with the fused pieced. Little tic marks near the T's correspond with the lines of the fabric. 

Now all I need to do is find where that pattern repeats in the fabric, line up the marks, and fuse.

I got lucky with this fabric that the pattern repeat was such that I don't have a big piece of swiss cheese leftover. Can't say that for the green with white snowflakes piece - the repeat was widely spaced. But it's the consistency I want for the pattern pieces, so I'm willing to put up with holes in a fat quarter!

Now that the tic marks on the pieces are aligned with the fabric and fused, all that's left is to cut them out, 

and finish my project, which is coming on Monday for the Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop hosted by Carla of Creatin' In the Sticks. Ultimately, I'll be gifting this project to a dear friend - hope she likes it!

Happy Quilting!