Welcome home!

My son came home from his mission on November 7.  It was awesome to see him again.

Then Thanksgiving happened and we spent it with cousins.  They breed golden retrievers, golden doodles, and standardbred poodles so I couldn't resist this fabric to make a couch pillow:

I made a snowman wall hanging.  It was designed to be a table runner, but I doubled it over to make a 2-sided window decoration.  I got the directions from the holiday 2016 Block magazine from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  The tutorial is here:  http://quiltingtutorials.com/product-and-tool-demonstrations-and-reviews/scrap-buster-snowman-wall-hanging/

Next up is a Christmas tree skirt.  I've pieced it, added the binding, and pieced the backing fabric so now I get to sandwich and quilt the skirt.  Hopefully I'll be able to post the finished product this week so we can put up our Christmas tree on Sunday.

Learning foundation piecing

I've been a slow comer to the world of modern quilting, but Amy Gibson's Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month (BOM) quilt has roped me into the fun of it!  The class is labeled as a beginning class, and that's because Amy carefully explains how to do each step.  She shines at encouraging the viewer!  I made my first Christmas quilt from a tutorial on her blog because she made it seem so simple.  Otherwise, she teaches fairly complex skills.  I just completed the foundation piecing lesson and am getting ready to learn to make paper-piecing blocks.

The first foundation-pieced block made a square:

I love the looks of this block.  I followed her directions on this one for experience even though I had watched the next block where she showed a different technique of cutting away the foundation piece.  This block has the strings (strips) sewn directly to the foundation piece, making it a little thick.

First, I had to cut strings between 1 1/4" to 2 1/2" thick:

Yes, I had to cut some.  I think I'll try to cut strings from everything I make for now on.

This block is actually made from 4 blocks, each making one corner of the final block.  I'm sticking with the green background for now although I will also use the orange from my second block on some.  Looking ahead, I'll probably introduce one block with a blue background.  It will need to be placed at the center point on the quilt.  But that's not yet.

You can see 4 blocks laid out here for sewing: 

The next foundation-pieced string block was the Broken Spider Web.  Sounds freaky, huh?!

I think it looks like a jewel sparkling in the light!

When I sewed all 4 corners together on this one, I made sure to pin each star intersection and then eased the rest of it to fit.  The pieces are sewn on the bias so stretching is easy to do when needed (and when not!)