Christmas Quiltings ~ Summer 2020

Christmas in July has spilled into Christmas in August.

I is hot and humid outside again and I am staying cool inside

in my happy sewing place. 

The hurricane off the east coast may meander this way in a few days

but it is already feeling tropical here.

It has been a long, hot and sometimes stormy summer.

Here are the backs of my Christmas Cushion Covers.

I like to make seasonal covers for my favorite sofa toss cushions

so I only have to store the flat covers and use the pillows I have.

If you are interested in how to make this type of cushion closure,

click below for my complete tutorial:

Snap Back Cushion Cover How-To Here

This is the front of the new Christmas cover for my favorite lumbar support cushion

for my reading chair.

I added a bit of ric-rac to the top of this pillow for fun.

These covers were made with scrap bits and pieces

from my Christmas in July Projects.

With the smallest scraps I made a coaster and a book mark.

Machine binding made quick work with the coaster and
I added a ric-rac loop so I could even use it as an ornament.

I added bits of the ric-rac to the bookmark, too.
It looks like a Christmas Candle to me now ... :)

I never used to do so, but I am finding this is a great way to 

complete some of those seasonal projects that never seem to get done
 in the busy weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I am cleaning up my sewing are today
 and trying to decide if I am want to sew more
Christmas projects or move on to fall or sew summer ...
or move on to fall.
I will see what my Quilty Muse says as I neaten up and put away.

Do you like to make Christmas Quilts in summer?

Happy Christmas Quiltings! 

Slow Stitching Sunday

Sunday ended with some slow stitching for me and my quilty kitty helper.

We were sewing the binding to the back of my large Christmas Cushion Cover 

Started Here

Kitty and I added snaps to close the envelope backing to my cushion cover.

If you are interested in how to make this type of cushion closure,

click below for my complete tutorial:

Snap Back Cushion Cover How-To Here

Here is the back of my finished cushion cover.

I like to make covers for my sofa toss pillows 

to update them for the season

rather than store them in my limited closet space.

Here is the front on my large cushion cover.

It is made with a strip from the tree skirt panel and end of my swap fabric

and extra binding from the quilt. 

It is made from the scraps for my 

Christmas in July  Poinsetta Winter Quilt

 and Starburst Tree Skirt

I love using up scraps before I clean up my happy  sewing place 

to get ready for the next project. 

:-) 

Scrappy Happy Saturday

Today I am happily playing with the Christmas fabric scraps from my ...

Christmas in July Projects

I have pieced together these panels for the front and back of

a cushion cover.

I may have enough for another pillow, too. 

I have plenty of extra red binding from my tree skirt.

I love using up my scraps before I move on to the next big project.

Happy Saturday Sewing!

I 

My Starburst Christmas in July Tree Skirt

Here is my scrappy Christmas Tree Skirt

for more Christmas in July sewing fun!

I made this tree skirt with scrap strips from my new

Christmas in July Quilt

and I added some other scrap strips to the mix. 

This tree skirt is made using a quilt-as-you-go method.

I made this tree skirt following the

Free Starburst Tree Skirt Tutorial Here

@

 Ev Quilts & Co

I cut my strips in various sizes from 2" to 3" and even sewed some
short strips together to make them long enough for the panels.
This is a great scrap busting pattern.

This tutorial uses the wedge template pattern from ... 

Free Wedge Template @ Gotham Quilts

There is a simple tree shirt pattern with this template if you wanted to use one fabric.

I have had a thought that it would be easy to make a scrappy
"Crazy Quilt" type tree skirt by cutting the 20 wedges of batting
and sewing smaller scraps directly to the batting  wedges with a
sew, flip, quilt method and decorative machine stitches.
It is a plan for another day.

To make this tree skirt you sew two large QAYG panels.

The you cut 10 wedges from each large panel.

It is important to start each of your panels on opposite corners

to achieve the chevron effect. 

My quilty kitties were very helpful while making this tree skirt. 

You sew the QAYG wedges together to make the skirt.

I used my heavy duty walking walking foot on my Janome.

This makes a large tree skirt with a 48" diameter.

Nutmeg and  I made a large pieced width of fabric square for the backing. 

This is what I used to add the banking and binding to my tree skirt.

Maestre helped me quilt the top to the backing.

We used the walking foot and made straight lines radiating from the center.

I cut 2.5" strips and made binding tape.

I did not cut my strips on the bias and it worked for me.

I did an machine binding by sewing one edge of the binding to the front and folding

it to the back and machine stitched the binding to them back.

This method made a secure binding with a line of machine stitching

around the front 1/4" away from the binding.

The tie at the top was made when I added the binding

by leaving long strips on either edge.

I am very pleased with this happy, scrappy goodness.

I am sure my quilty kitties will love laying under the tree 

on their new quilted tree skirt. 

More inspiration may be found 

@

#starbursttreeskirt

Happy Christmas in July!