"Scandi Village" Quilter's Playcation Wall Hanging

Last November I took a zoom class, officially known as a Playdate, given by Cheryl Arkison as part of hert Quilter’s Playcation series. In the class Cheryl taught us how to make these simple house and tree blocks.

It took me a long time to decide how big to make this project. These blocks are little, about 5 inches tall and varying widths. It would take a whole lot of them to make even a throw and I wasn’t sure I wanted to make dozens of them.

As the Christmas season ended, I realized I had a perfect place to hang it. I had a quilted Advent calendar hanging in my hallway. I used a small wooden dowel threaded through a small sleeve (cloth channel) to display it. The wooden dowel rested on 2 thumbtacks in the wall. Last year I just left the thumbtacks there. Sort of silly to have 2 green thumbtacks in the wall doing nothing for 11 months of the year!

Ah-ha! That was the answer—I decided to give those 2 thumbtacks something to do! They were just calling out for a Scandi-Village wall hanging!

This wall hanging is just the right sized village for me!

We got at least 12 inches of snow last week and a blast of arctic cold this week, so this is the perfect time of year to be enjoying this snowy scene!

Here it is, in situ, keeping those 2 green thumbtacks occupied!

Scandi Village, happy to be at home on the hall wall!

"Radiance" Flowers in Glass Bottles--More Table Runners/Wall Hangings/Table Toppers

I’ve now cut up all the floral arrangements from the panel in the “Radiance” fabric line by Clothworks.

Last week I shared a table runner with an outer border of one inch “postage stamp” blocks. This week I’ve made a several more pieces with simpler borders. I think the simpler borders also do a great job of complimenting the flowers.

In the piece above, I used 1 1/2 inch wide purple strips for the inner border and 2 “ wide strips for the outer leafy border.
I like the back of the piece as much as the front! Dual duty!

Reverse side of the yellow floral arrangements

In the piece below, I cut two sets of pink and purple strips at 1 1/4 inches.

Two sets of narrow pink and purple strips make the border of this part of the panel. 14 1/2 x 16 inches

This is the table topper that’s on my dining room table now. It’s a simpler version of the table runner in last week’s post.

A single border of 1 inch postage stamp blocks. 16 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches

It was so much fun think about lots of difference ways I could finish the blocks I cut out a single “Radiance” panel!

Showcase: Christmas Wall Hanging

I believe this is the only quilted item my mother ever made.

She had a bachelor's degree in interior design and had excellent tailoring/sewing skills. Sewing clothes was her gig. Quilting was mine!

In her interior design work, my mother's area of expertise was interior design for churches and Sunday School buildings. She was very interested in Christian symbols and had many books on this subject her library.

I don't know for sure, but I think it is likely that she designed this wall hanging.  However, it might have been based on a design in one of her books of Christian symbols.

Mom did her machine applique without any fusible web.  It probably didn't exist when she made this!! (Based on the red calico, I'm guessing this was made in the 1970s or 1980s).

I love that she chose to do hand quilting in concentric circles in the background! She'd be tickled to know that today's Modern Quilters would really enjoy her circular quilting!

Note that she braided the yarn cord to hang the pieced using yarn the three main colors in the quilt!

This wall hanging was tucked in one of my boxes of Christmas decorations. I took it out this year and had a good look at it. I really appreciate her work, especially her attention to detail.  In this season of Advent, I to have this little quilted wall hanging on my wall. It makes me happy in so many ways!

Fox and the Four Seasons Wall Hanging

This "Fox and the Four Seasons" wall hanging was made from my "Fox and the Four Seasons" quilt panel available for purchase as a fat quarter on Spoonflower.com. 

The bonus apple print strips on the outer sides of the panel were cut to make the central sashings.

To make this wall hanging, fussy cut the fox blocks 8 x 8 inches, (finishing 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches) and the apple print sashing1 1/2 inches wide.  Cut one of the apple strips to match your fussy cut fox block. Use the second strip as a single piece.  With careful planning, the borders, backing and binding can be cut from 1 yard of coordinating fabric.

This could make a great pillow cover too!  Purchase more backing fabric if the pillow is to have an envelop closure.

Want to make 4 small fox pillows, one for each season?  The "Tossed Apples and Dots" fabric fat quarters and yardage.

I'll post a quilt made from the "Fox and the Four Seasons" quilt panel soon!

Wall Hanging--Girls Jumping Rope Completed

Here's my completed wall hanging "Jumpers" designed/pattern by Jeffie Johnson.  See my post August 20, 2014 with information about sources for the African wax fabrics and the pattern for "Jumpers".

Here's a detail of the girls' faces, jump rope quilted using a utilitarian stitch (#8 on my Bernina 440) on my sewing machine.  There are stars in the free motion quilting at the top but not in the lower part of the quilting.  The earrings and decorations on their shoes are buttons and the jump rope handle is a bead. 

Detail of quilting

I really enjoyed working on this project.  The designs and colors of the African wax fabrics are amazing.  And of course I love this delightful appliqué pattern!

Wall Hanging--Girls Jumping Rope WIP

The dogs are all at Day School today so the cat and I have the house to ourselves.  My tasks for the day were to sandwich and pin paste 2 quilts tops. 

I got distracted. 

The African Village quilt was such a big hit with my dog trainers that I got a commission to make another.  I usually only want to make one copy of a quilt.  But I wanted to make the African Village Quilt with the diamond variation.  So this time I was happy to make another.  The 2 other trainers who aren't getting a quilt looked crestfallen.  I want to do something about for all of them because they have all been so great!

I decided to predominantly use real African batiks in my Diamond African Village.  It turns out that while the fabrics are all designed in Africa, a lot of the production occurs in Holland.  I went online and looked around.  I finally decided to purchase my fabrics from the Tambo Collection on Etsy.com.  I found a great selection of fabrics and also the appliqué pattern shown above.

The pattern for the girls jumping rope is called  "Jumpers", copyright 2007 by Jeffie Johnson. It is distributed by Sew Fabulous. I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it. 

One of the 4 dog trainers I work with has 4 daughters.  I figured there has been a lot of jumping rope at his home over the years!  So I decided to make it for him.  

I cut it out yesterday and used Heat-n-Bond  lite to fuse the pieces to the background fabric.  

I struggle with reversing designs.  I thought that since I was attaching the bonding material to the back of the fabric I was all set.  Not so.  My appliqué design is a mirror image of the pattern I purchased!   Oops.   

But I decided that it doesn't matter.  The picture is just as cute and I didn't want to waste any of these special fabrics re-doing it. 

Here's what I've done so far.  It's still a WIP. The jump rope is quilting, using the #8 utilitarian stitch on my Bernina, with the width narrowed to 3.  With the Sulky 12 wt variegated thread, it makes a fine jump rope!

I still need to come up with something for the fourth trainer who's particularly fond of my dog Taffy.