'Christmas Spice' quilt tutorial part one ~ Sew blocks and quilt

I have called this quilt tabletopper 'Christmas Spice'. Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge for more detail which may help you as you work.


I came up with name after creating the first 3D star block and thinking it reminded me of star anise.



For this 15 inch quilt, you will need the following:
Cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter
9 fabrics for the 3D star blocks
3 fabrics for the borders
Quilt thread and large beads


Cut one six inch square from each of the nine fabrics choosen for the 3d star blocks.


Fold the block in half and iron only the ends of the fabric.

The block will look like above photo once all four ends are ironed. Be careful not to iron all the way across so as not to have a crease in the star at a later stage.


Measure from the ironed fold 1-1/4 inches from to the right and place a pin.


Fold the fabric where the pin is placed back in harmonica style as shown lining up the fabric edge and bringing the ironed fold forward. This will give you a edge by the corner of the square of approximately 3/8 to 1/2-inch (see right corner of photo)



Pin these folds in place. Be sure to leave the center of the fabric loose.


Once all four folds are in place, sit the block down on an ironing pad with the four corners straight and the center mound of fabric upwards.


Here is the fun and magical bit! Just tap the fabric mound and it will flatten on its on to form a diagonal square on the folded square. This square in the center will measure approximately 1-3/8 inch.

Iron this down flat.

The back of your block will look like this.

The front like this. I will refer to this portion I am holding up as the fabric square later when we create the 3D effect. This block now measures 3-1/2 inch.

Cut 6 strips - 3-1/2 inch x 1 inch from your first border fabric (I choose green).

Sew these strips to the blocks forming 3 rows of 3 blocks.

Cut 4 strips of fabric - 10-1/2 inches x 1 inch from this same border fabric.

Sew these strips between the three rows being careful to match the cross seams as shown in the previous photo. Once you remove the pins from the folded blocks, you will have give to pin the row of blocks easily to fit the strip.



Cut 2 strips - 11-1/2 inch x 1 inch from the same border fabric. These strips will be sewn along the top and bottom completing the square.

Cut 2 strips - 11-1/2 inch x 1 inch from the second border fabric. I choose a dark red. Sew these strips along the two sides.

Cut 2 strips - 12-1/2 inch x 1 inch from the same border fabric. Sew these strips along the top and bottom edge.

Cut 2 strips - 12-1/2 inch x 1-3/4 inch from the third border fabric. I used a red and gold fabric. Sew these strips along the two sides.

Cut 2 strips - 15-1/2 inch x 1-3/4 inch from the third border fabric. Sew these strips along the top and bottom.

Quilt as desired by hand or machine.

Sew a binding on the quilt to finish it off.

On to part two which is creating the 3D star effect.

'Christmas Spice' quilt tutorial part two ~ Create the star

In the second part of the tutorial, we are going to create the 3D effect. This brings the blocks to life with a star in each square.


You can feel the center of the block through the patchwork. You will be able to feel where the four folds have come together.


Knot a piece of quilt thread and feed this into the back of the quilt so that the thread tail disappears in the backing.


This drawing can be referred to for the placement of the thread to create dimension.


Bring the needle and thread up through the center of the quilt block.


Go from the center to the middle of the left side of the diagonal square. Pass the needle through from top to bottom of the fabric square only (not through the entire quilt).


Continue this step three times as shown. See drawing.



This creates a stitch on each of the four sides of the fabric square which can now be gathered by pulling the quilt thread.


Pull tightly and place a stitch in each of the four points of the star to hold the form together.


Continue back to the first form taking on extra stitch and create a loop to tie off the thread but do not cut. The knot is to secure the star form before adding the bead.


Add a large bead with the same thread. I fed the thread through the bead three times to secure it before tieing off and working the thread tail once again into the quilt.


The Christmas Spice quilt measures 14 3/4 inch square. It makes a sweet tabletopper for the upcoming holidays.


Quilting is optional. Here is the back of my quilt which I have kept simple and used large quilt stitches to be sure the gold metallic quilt thread shows.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact me as I will try to help in any way I can. I hope you will enjoy making this very simple quilt. Even if you have never tried quilting, this might be a fun project to try out. Remember ~ measure twice, cut once!

Merry Christmas in July!

A short break...

"With my needle
I planted these flowers
To capture the peace
Of the stitching hours"

~ Just Nan stitching verse ~

I had promised you the Christmas in July tutorial tomorrow. I hope you will forgive me for postponing it until Monday. I am off for a long weekend at Cranberry Cottage. My bags are pack and also a few patchwork blocks are ready to be sewn. It is nice weather and I hope to sit out in the garden working on them.

The project has turned out really nice. So nice, in fact, that I am going to make a second one with an autumn theme now. I really hope you will join my on Monday. In the meantime, have a wonderfully creative weekend!

Introducing the color purple...

In my previous patchwork blocks for the Centennial Sampler, I have used the colors blue, green and brown. Time to add another color to this sampler in the form of purple. I am continuing to try and give these blocks an unorganized and old look to them. I was unsure it was going to work but when I placed my blocks up on my design wall in the quilt studio, I found it works very well so far. I will share a photo of the design wall next week when I update you once again.

I picked two blocks and decided to trace the templates and cut them out before I left for Cranberry Cottage. This freed me up to do just the sewing while I was there as I find preparing the block at the cottage takes up much of my time. I was able to finish two blocks this weekend with this extra preparation finished.


First, I choose The Bars which is a simple block as it is all straight seams. I wanted something simple to work on after the block last week with its 32 triangles and my second choice for this weekend...


...which was the New England Star. This block contains 24 triangles which is much easier than the previous block Jack in the Box. Now I have to go through the book once again this week to pick two more blocks for the next weekend.


Finally, I was given the KreativBlogger award by Tanya over at At the Honeysuckle Tree.

I must pass it on with the following rules:
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave messages to the nominees.

I am passing this award on to members of my stitching group who also blog. They are an amazingly talented group of ladies that are also wonderful friends. Our group is very small and we have become very good friends. Here are some of these members who also blog:
1. Barbara
2. Britt
3. Christine
4. Clare
5. Margaret
6. Nancy
7. Nancy
8. Roberta
I know I awarded this to more than 5 bloggers as in the rules but really wanted to share this with these very creative ladies! You and the entire group are just the greatest. I wish the entire list had blogs as I would have awarded it to each and every one of you. You all inspire and encourage each other every day. That is something very special and I am so grateful to lead this group!

Busy weekend ahead...

On one of my stitching lists, we are doing a summer challenge. We pick a project that we want to focus on trying to finish by the end of the summer. I choose Silent Sampler and this is my progress after our first week of the challenge. I was able to complete the basket. I am already setting my goals for this week...


Another personal challenge this year was to try and finish as many of my quilt UFOs as possible. I pulled two more off my hangers and got one of them started. This is a tablerunner I worked up as a sampler for a high tea workshop but never gave as I decided to stop giving lessons. I am hand quilting this one too and keeping it rather simple to accent the simple lines of the quilt.

The second UFO is waiting on my ironing board to be sandwiched and will be machine quilted as it is unusual fabrics that would be too difficult to hand quilt. More about that one hopefully next week...


And finally a question for all your out there in blogland. I received these old fashioned wash pegs from a friend who knew I was looking for them to put in a jar in my redecorated laundry room when it is done. They are new and very light wood. Does anyone know a method to make them look old? I would love any tips and suggestions.


Have a great weekend everyone! My hobby backpack is ready to go to Cranberry Cottage. I hope to sew two more patchwork blocks while I am there as well as do some stitching on Silent Sampler.

Centennial Sampler ~ Monday updates

As I shared with you last week, I will give an update of the blocks I sew over the weekends each Monday. I had hoped to get a further two finished but one is all I was able to achieve as this one has 32 tiny triangles which I had to draw, cut and sew together. I ended up taking longer to do this block than I had anticipated. I am going to try to start tracing the templates before I go to Cranberry Cottage whenever possible so I have more time to sew them there.


This block is called 'Jack in the box'. I used green fabric for this block mixed with a shirting type background fabric. I am planning on using a variety of colors for this sampler adding at least three more colors to the green, blue and brown I have used for the first four blocks.

You can see the first three blocks here.

Don't forget to join me on July 25th for a fun little Christmas in July tutorial project!

To button or not to button, that was the question...

Remember back in May when I showed you my stack of yo-yo's? I finally finished sewing them together and here is the little tablerunner...


Now I must admit through my frustration about some things shown and not shown on online instructions about yo-yo's, I have now seen a better way to put these together. I think this could have looked nicer had I realized it ahead of time but my next attempt will be better as a result. I also must say that square yo-yo's are not as square as I thought they would be when I started.


I debated with myself last night to use vintage buttons on them or not. Jos came downstairs and looked and immediately said not to use them. Well as I had laid them in rows after taking them off the tablerunner to look at it without once again, I thought I will keep the buttons out to make buttons icicles for my winter tree.


I received a sweet gift this week from a friend. It is a piece of July 4th fabric and my friend's latest little design. How is she? Tanya ~ The Sampler Girl. If you don't know her designs, they are well worth a look and she takes direct orders now from her website. I have a couple of plans for this fabric but cannot share it yet as one will be a little gift in return for her. Thanks so much Tanya!


I have decided to put my Beatrix Potter Quaker sampler aside again and pick up Silent Sampler once again. Why? This one is smaller and can be finished faster than the other. I really would like to have one of these two WIPs finished this summer. It just seemed more likely that I could finish this one in the amount of time. I am just about at the half way point now. This is not a great photo. It is a sampler that is not easy to photograph.


Off to pack my Centennial Sampler fabrics and patterns to take to Cranberry Cottage. Have a great and creative weekend everyone!

Busy at the North Pole...

Why have I been so quiet this week? Well, I, Miss Pickles the Elf, am very busy at the North Pole. July is no time to sit around enjoying a candy cane. It is our busy season here...


It has been some time since I shared a tutorial so I decided to work on one today that will be a Christmas in July celebration. I hope you will join me for this fun and easy project. Just to tempt you to keep tuned, here is a sneak peak...


I will have a finish to show you tomorrow I hope. See you then...

A long~term UFO project

Let me start with saying I am about to make what might be considered a plug for someone. It is not intended to be anything other than an entry about someone I very much admire in the quilt world who I do feel at times is a little underrated in this particular project. Perhaps it will be the first time you are seeing this book and I can highly recommend it. So yes, I suppose I am making a plug but I want to share my latest UFO and also hopefully share a book you may not have known about...

I am a fan of Judie Rothermel. She used to own The Schoolhouse Quilt Shoppe in Canton, Ohio which is my hometown. I have unfortunately not met her but her husband Bob helped me with choosing the fabrics for my parents bed quilt I made many moons ago. It was one of my early quilts. Since then, Judie has gone on to designing reproduction quilt fabric lines and writing some wonderful books. Here you can see two of her books, The Centennial Sampler and Reproduction Quilt from the Civil War Period 1850-1865 (shown is back cover). The back cover shows the quilt that she made back in the 1980s and here is an excerpt from her book to explain this beautiful quilt:

"My husband Bob, encouraged me to show my best piece of work on the back cover of this book. There is no pattern for the quilt. It is called A Miniature Treasure. It was a nine year labor of love. I start the Quilt in 1981 and completed it in 1990. Many people refer to it as the Dear Jane Quilt. It is not a Dear Jane Quilt. It was started and finished well before this craze. All the patterns I used were from my own drawings. I had never seen the Jane Stickle quilt until I was almost finished with my quilt in the late eighties. If you are interested in the patterns only, not the layout, you will find them in another book I have written entitled Judie's Centennial Sampler."

I love that Judie gives you the chance to reproduce an old quilt and yet make it your own. She has given a choice of 150 patterns to use for this 56 block quilt sampler. It allows you the chance to give the quilt a more unique look as you can change the block choices here and there. This may end up being the biggest challenge as I really love too many of the pattern included. How do you decide?

If you want to see some of Judie's fabrics, just click here.


I have been working on stitching WIPs and quilt UFOs this year. I am trying not to start new projects but finish old ones. This project finds itself a bit between those two states of old and new. I had bought The Centennial Sampler a number of years ago. I just did not make the time to start and last year I did start a block. This quilt is hand pieced which I am not a huge fan of. I just enjoy doing my piecing by machine. It goes together so perfectly for me and I have more time to concentrate on the hand quilting which I love. I wanted this quilt to look historically correct so I am hand piecing these little five inch blocks. I am also trying not to 'over match' all the fabrics. Our ancestors used what they had and made do.

I had started a single block and enjoyed it but knew I needed to come back to it later as I was too busy with designing the theme projects for my quilt group. That really does take up much of my time. This weekend, I packed up a couple of pieces of my reproduction fabrics and everything I needed to make a couple of blocks from the book as well as put the last seam in the block I had made previously. It had been sitting in two halves. Here are the results of a weekends work. I am going to start taking this with me to Cranberry Cottage on the weekends. It is nice to hand piece there as it is easier not to have to carry my sewing machine along. And it feels 'right' to do this project at my little country retreat in the woods.


I will be starting on two more blocks this coming weekend. I will be making this quilt entirely from my fabric stash. I hope to be able to share new blocks with you each Monday throughout the rest of this year.

If you happen to be working on this quilt, I would love to see yours so far. This is what I mean about this being underrated as I have, as of yet, never heard anyone I know say they are working on it or have even seen the book.

Lace in summer's heat...

It is hot and very humid here today. I have the quilt group coming tonight and it will be a small group as many are not going to make it. One is because it is too hot and she doesn't feel well. I just cannot enjoy the summer heat so I have been indoors keeping my mind occupied with another little finish.


Yesterday one of my lacemaking friend's came over in the afternoon so we could do some hobbies and chatting over tea. I worked yesterday and today to get a new piece of bobbin lace finished for...


...my lace pinkeep. I don't know if you remember me mentioning it? It has been a while since I have added to this project which you can see the last post about it here. This has sat too long now that I look at the date. I would like to finish it this summer.


I now will have to decide on the next piece of lace to make. I can either make a wide piece needing only one or two smaller pieces. Time to search through my books and patterns once again...