Charm Pack Tree Skirt for FQS

I have teamed up with the Fat Quarter Shop again to present another one of their shortcut quilt patterns.  This festive project uses Charm Packs.

I present the Charm Pack Tree Skirt.  

You can find links to the pattern here.

I decided to use the Vintage Holiday fabric and white Kona cotton for my project.  For the pattern, you need 48 charm squares, so if you only have one pack, you might be able to add from your stash to stretch it for the skirt.

But using two packs allows you to toss out prints that might not work well.

Here is my finished tree skirt.  I was originally going to deviate from the pattern and make my center round.  But I decided against it and ended up still cutting it different than what the pattern calls for.

I guess I always have to be different!

I took my finished skirt outside to take photos of it around a tree.  But I really had no tree available!

And photographing a Christmas tree skirt in the springtime is challenging.

The prettiest photo has it draped next to my clematis.

Not exactly a winter scene!

The project was really fun to make.  

I plan on sending this to my niece who is just setting up her first home.

For the quilting, I did a simple ribbon quilting.  I thought it was appropriate for the project.

If you are interested in making one of your own, the Fat Quarter Shop has kits available in a similar fabric line. Or order some holiday charm packs and get started early on some holiday gifts.

Need help with the assembly?  There is also a YouTube video you can watch.

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Christmas in May?

Take a peek at the pretty fabrics I have put together for a quick project to make next month.

Yes, I am sewing with Christmas fabrics in May!

I am working with the Fat Quarter Shop again to make one of their wonderful patterns.  I ordered the two Bonnie & Camille Vintage Holiday charm packs and the white Kona solid but the asterisk fabric I will use on the back came from my stash.

I hope to share a finished project in a couple weeks so I had better get sewing.

Stay Tuned!

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A Tree Skirt Finish

A few Christmas's ago, I noticed one of my sisters wrapping a blanket around the base of her tree and decided she needed a quilty tree skirt.  My plan was to have one made by the following year, but - well, that just didn't happen!

I decided to go with just a simple patchwork and keep it in a square shape.  I used 4" pieces so the skirt measures 48" square.  I sewed and quilted a BIG square patchwork piece.  After it was trimmed, I cut into the center and used an 8" bowl to create the circle.  I didn't want to mess with cutting a bunch of biased binding, so I cut just enough for the center AND used straight grain binding for the rest.

I used a low loft poly batting and just quilted some easy echo quilting.  This created the look of little pillows for the gifts to rest on. My sis loves traditional and this piece really has a vintage vibe to it.  I think she is going to really like it.

I used up a bunch of fat quarters on the back.  I would have preferred one big piece but I didn't want to go buy any fabric.  Besides, who notices the back of a tree skirt!

My sister has a birthday in November so I plan on sending this off to her soon.  It is nice to finish something that has been on my list for a while!

I did use my AccuQuilt fabric cutter to cut all of these squares.  I see they have some great deals on both Cutters and Dies through the weekend.  It sure makes cutting so much faster!

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Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish it up Friday)

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Oh Scrap! : Patchwork

A couple weeks ago, while I had my AccuQuilt fabric cutter out, I chopped up a bunch of Christmas leftover fabric into some 4.5" squares.  Some of the smaller scraps, I turned into 2.5" squares.  

I love that my cutter turns out these standard cuts so quickly!

I can get to the sewing right away and the pieces are so precisely cut.

 The few 2.5" squares, I sewed up into 4 patches.

I always try to find ways to use up all of the bits and pieces.

This project is starting out as a large piece of patchwork.  I quickly laid out the larger squares on my design wall, and then scattered the 4 patches throughout the piece.

I wanted to sew this up quickly so I decided to chain piece more than one row at once.  This can get a quilter in trouble pretty quickly so I thought I would share a little trick I use.  

I pull all the pieces off the design wall by row - with the far left square on top.  I place one pin in the center of the top square for the first row and two pins in the square for the second row. (you can add pins if you want to work on even more rows...)

I then place the stacks in front of my machine with the first row to the left and the second row to the right.  I then start chain piecing.  I start with the stack on the left, sewing the first two squares.  Then I piece the first two squares on the right.  I then grab the pieced row one off the back of the machine and sew on a square from the left stack.  The pin always goes to the far left so you never have to worry about sewing to the wrong end of your strip.  And if you loose track of what stack you are supposed to trim from, you just have to look at the number of pins in the strip.  

Even if you are working on lots of projects at one time, you will always know where you are at.

It works great!

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Now it is time for you to share your scrap projects.  Here are the details for linking up:

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
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• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
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• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do!

<a href="http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54Z8EyMCoCg0j1sBoz_APBotiRQveh32vQoL2dCSO4nQFAi8du60IuUCQp3Hb18vGD8IrM0W6_vmuufImGcr4Pf2Ve2dNIWd5LbQJfyDTRjtcekT6coT7c2nSCOG_9dvjiKGVAnuTN70/s1600/Oh+Scrap+Button.jpg" alt="Quilting is more fun than Housework" width="125" height="125" /></a>

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making)
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts (Design Wall Monday)
Cooking Up Quilts (Main Crush Mondays)
Em's ScrapBag (Moving it Forward)