The Last Christmas Tree

The title sounds like a Nicholas Sparks book where a lonely widower who doesn't have the energy or the will to decorate for Christmas meets a single mom with a young son who has just lost her job the week before Christmas. Melancholy ensues but at the end all are uplifted as they gather around the last Christmas tree left at the Merry Time Christmas Tree Lot. Something like that.

Here is it Christmas Tree #9:
Here are the nine laid out and looking pretty (though the one in the front middle looks like the yellow doesn't fit):

If you look back at the December 2nd post you can see the picture of the finished quilt. It was the border between the trees that completely freaked me out and caused me to put the project away. I'm going to take it back out and give it the old college try. My fear is that I won't cut the fabric correctly thus ruining it. By complete coincidence I have the exact fabric used in the original project. I bought it because I loved it and the fear of my ruining it may cause me to choke like the golfer Dustin Johnson at yesterday's U.S. Open. I'll keep you updated.

Christmas Tree #8

I'm not blind to the fact that this particular tree looks like a big pile of crapt but I will blame it on the lighting (as honestly I can't recall if I considered it hideous at the time I made it). Because I cut that beautiful piece of fabric so badly, I was left with only enough yellow fabrics to complete the remaining blocks. I suppose I could have waited and gone to a store to buy a different piece of yellow fabric but I was impatient, as well as determined to succeed at my goal of one tree a day. Lucretia Mulberry said on page 121 "impatience is the nectar of the crapter, if the crapter did not know impatience then crapt would not be formed". Certainly the case with this particular tree Lucretia.

Here is a badly lit picture of the Gang of Eight:

Christmas Tree #7

Christmas Tree #7. It's been so long since I actually pieced this tree together and I have a real crapty memory but as far as I can recall I did not, I repeat, I did not, have a crapting moment during its construction. It's not the most exciting tree but it's functional and definitely not Charlie Brown-esque.

Here is the group of seven:


It looks wonderful if I do say so myself. I just hope I can actually put it all together. Have faith! Anyone out there also a beginner at quilting? Perhaps we can work through our fears together. Give me a hoot!

Time Goes By

I can not believe it has been six months since I last blogged. I am shocked. I could have sworn I wrote a few posts in April but apparently I had deceived myself. Where did the time go? What have I achieved?

Lucretia Mullberry opined on page 72 of her work, "time is what you make of it ... so make sure to make lots of crapts." Have I been doing this? Yes and no. I have begun many projects, worked on some that have been gestating for years and completed a few small stitching pieces. I can also reveal I've had many brainstorms, though the majority I have not followed through on (yet) while others I just don't have the drawing capabilites to achieve (must learn to draw!).

Back in December I posted about my Christmas Tree a day project. Well, I actually did finish all my trees for my Christmas Tree Quilt but I just never posted about them. From what I remember, (my memory like my time management skills are not top notch) I read the directions for the next steps in completing the quilt, felt hopelessly lost and I took all of the finished blocks and shoved them in a bag, shoved the bag in a plastic container and shoved the plastic container under my bed where it still sits. Christmas is still six months away. Plenty of time! Yeah, right.

For now, I'm going to get back in the blogging rhythm by posting about my other completed blocks. So here is Christmas Tree #6:

Drawing from my rather smalll memory bank, I recall not being too delighted in the background yellow fabric. It seems too orangey. I did however, love what I did in making the ornaments.

The little peppermints were the perfect size to cut out and stick on the tree. I couldn't have been more pleased with them. It's one of those satisfying arty moments that real craptors so seldom experience. So I'm taking a few moments to relive the pleasure. Ahhh. So nice.

Here are the six completed trees together:

Not bad, looks okay, right? But, of course, no Royal Society members work would be complete with out a crapting moment. Here is mine.

A gorgeous piece of fabric that I cut completely wrong (the top is a good 1/2 inch shorter than the bottom) and could not use for the quilt. This is why I ended up using that rather orange fabric above that I'm not too fond of - oh well, life goes on.

Days 4 and 5 - Christmas Trees 5 and 6

No, I didn't fall down on my goal. I just fell down on my posting. I was able to make a tree on Saturday and one on Sunday. Today is Monday, how will I do? Time will tell. Here is Saturday's tree:
I really like the green fabric I used for the tree. I wasn't sure at first if it would work but I think it does.

Here is the resplendent festival:
Crapting moment: None that I can remember. Hooray again!

Sunday's Tree started out with this fabric selection:

Note the peppermint rounds fabric. I thought this was perfect for ornaments and the big ones fit the circles perfectly. I thought I'd end up with crapt as I'm not always adept at matching things up nicely, or for that matter, cutting things out properly but they actually came out pretty nice:
And here is the finished tree:
I adore the peppermint ornaments. So cute! And the expanding festival:
It looks great. Three more to go (before the real work begins that I have no clue how to do). I better get cracking!

Day Three - Christmas Tree #4

I've done it again. I'm on a roll. Here are the pieces, fused and needing to be cut:

Everything ironed down and the finished product:
Again, surprisingly I'm quite pleased with it. Cute!

Crapting Moments: Happy to report not a single one! At least in regards to this tree, however, I did make the mistake of reading the instructions and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put it together without major assistance. Also, the instructions said that you need to sew around all the appliques with quilting thread that matches the fabric! I don't have enough spools of thread to match all the different colors I'm using (actual fact - I own no quilting thread whatsoever). What's a girl to do? I'm wondering how tacky it would be to maybe use some kind of Christmasy metallic thread (does that even exist?). Pretty tacky, now that I think about it. I'm going to finish the rest of the trees before I sew and then honestly, I don't know how I'm going to manage the borders, binding and quilting. I've never done anything remotely like this! Positive thinking, girl, positive thinking

The four trees:
It is getting to be quite a festival!

Day Two Christmas Tree #3

I've kept to schedule and have finished Christmas Tree #3. Here is the fusible webbing with the pieces traced on: Here is the rough layout minus the ornaments and star:
Then here all put together:
Pretty cool. Here are the three finished trees:
Sweet. But, with six more to do, I'm realizing this thing is going to be huge.

Crapting Moment: None! Hip hip hooray!

A Christmas Treee A Day

Over a year ago I started to make a Christmas tree quilt. I found the pattern in the December 2007 (!) issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. The designer is Linda Lum Debono. Here's what the finished project looks like:

Very cute! The project was marked Beginner, which was right up my alley as I've never done quilting, applique or worked with fusible webbing!

I began the project in January of 2009, with one Christmas tree panel. I did okay. Had a fun time. Put everything away until yesterday when it occurred to me - "Hey, it's getting near Christmas, where am I again with that Festival of Trees quilt?

Oh, that's right. Nowhere! So I have decided to do a tree a day! I already had one so only eight more to go!

Perhaps I can get this sucker done before Christmas (or at least in time to fold it away with all the Christmas stuff until next year)!

Here is the first panel I did from almost a year ago:
Why, this picture came out so tiny, I'm not sure. But you get the idea.

Let's cut to yesterday, December 1 and my return to the project and Christmas tree number 2.

Here is the beginning of Tree #2 with all the fusible put down on my fabric. In true crapter fashion, where my brain left my body, I also got webbing on my new 90buck Rowenta iron. Lucretia would be proud!

Here is the finished product:
Overall, I'm very happy with it, but I did have another crapting moment that isn't quite evident from the photo. The bottom corner of the tree did not have webbing on it for some reason and so it's kind of sticking out. Very annoying and I'm not sure how to fix it. Anyone have any suggestions? Glue?

Here is Tree #2 next to Tree #3:

So far so good! Let's move on to Tree #3 tomorrow!