One Last Breath of Christmas

 

 

 

It's New Year's Day and while the aroma of Christmas is still in the air, I want to share my latest project. I finished this just 2 days before the Big Day. Whew!

I won a few pieces of a Quilty Box on a blog and the Drunkard's Path template was one of the items. Sewing curves scared me. Even the bejeebees were hiding in the back of the closet, not wanting to get involved. I was in the mood for a challenge, so I found a project with a great tutorial online.

 

I cut out my pieces according to the directions. I sewed those pieces together following the excellent instructions, each curved piece getting better and better. (I was getting a thumbs up from the bejeebees.) As I started putting the blocks together, they didn't look like the block designs on the tutorial.

 

 

That's when I realized that Drunkard's Path templates must come in different sizes and shapes! What a duh moment. But I  had all of these pieces cut and many of them were sewn together, so I was left to my own devices to create a new design pattern.

 

I took about 9 pictures with the blocks arranged in various ways. I studied them for a few days and decided on one that I liked the best.

 

I made enough for 3 large blocks and sewed them together. My bejeebees giggled with pleasure! I decided that the center of each of the 3 blocks needed a little somethin-somethin....but what? I went through by Christmas fabric stash and found a piece that had large poinsettias sprawled across it. I fussy-cut 3 of those flowers and then used my blanket stitch to sew them down.

 

 

 

Free-motion quilting sent my bejeebees back to the closet, so I set about using a straight stitch to "echo" stitch around the poinsettias. Is that a term...echo stitch? Beats me. I know what I'm talking about, so that's what matters, right? :)

 

 

 

Binding was easy. I'm getting better at this, as long as I keep doing it regularly. Finally, I sewed on some red glass beads to the center of each flower.

 

 

I love it!

So do my bejeebees.