Mystery Quilt-Along

The 12 Days of Christmas Tiny Mystery

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For a very long time I’ve wanted to make a quilt during the 12 days of Christmas.

Do you remember that the 12 Days of Christmas are actually the 12 days AFTER Christmas (not leading up to) that mark the time between Jesus being born & the Three Wise Men finding him?

A few days ago (amidst all my Christmas prepping…) I designed a cute little quilt & now that Jesus’ birthday has been celebrated with Christmas Eve Mass, family, gifts, food & lots & lots of fun, (not to mention, cooking, cleaning, shopping, wrapping…) I’m ready to sew!!!

Care to join me???

I’m making a 12″ quilt… or pillow… or maybe even both!

There will be VERY

LITTLE

steps

& I will reveal them to you here,

1 day at a time.

The 12th day will be the assembly & completing of the quilt (or pillow).

Ready to start?

First, you’ll need to select some fabrics.

Fabrics the colors of Christmas are going to be my choice,

BUT

there’s no reason you can’t use any fabrics your heart desires.

(No. You may not come over & use my Thimbleberries stash!)

Let me reiterate,

it’s a 12″ quilt or pillow,

scraps that you love will do!

Hint & Spoiler alert:

There’s going to be 1, just 1,

Tiny Dresden plate, but don’t let that scare you.

For now, go collect some fabrics

& iron them with some Mary Ellen’s Best Press

then meet me back here later today.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

 

 

 

My Life

Christmas Traditions

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Do you have Christmas traditions?

We have many if I think about it.

One that I have is our church’s annual bazaar

which coincides with our 59th annual smorgasbord.

I’ve been chairman of the bazaar for 28 years!

I can remember because the first time was Chloe’s first Christmas

& I was pregnant with Blake.

In recent years some of our best-selling items are sweet treats!

Many of our parishioners participate.

Each year, among other things, I make sweet treats.

This year I’ve made

homemade caramel & chocolate covered pretzel rods,

brownies in the shape of decorated Christmas trees,

Rice Krispie treats also in the form of decorated Christmas trees on a stick,

peppermint bark, (my niece Sarah’s favorite),

chocolate drizzled Christmas shaped pretzels,

& lastly banana bread in the cute mini ceramic pans.

They each make great gifts!

My favorite part is wrapping them to make them look festive.

I dare to ask, where else can you go to find such things???

The smorgasbord includes;

turkey, fried chicken, potatoes, gravy, pigs in a blanket (no! not hotdogs in a crescent roll!),

veggies, rolls, salad & many home baked desserts!

Have I tempted you yet?

If you live in the area

I hope you stop by for lunch & shopping.

Our Lady Queen of Peace Church

132 Butcher, Bethalto.

Hope to see you there!

Just Keep Sewing (& holiday eating & shopping)…

Susan

 

 

 

Christmas Sewing

Getting Ready For Christmas

suznquilts

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over,

are you thinking about your Christmas decorating?

If you’re like me, you love to decorate with quilts.

If you would like to make some Christmas

quilts that you can finish between now & Christmas

take a look as some small-ish quilt patterns here:

These first Christmas patterns each use my Tiny Dresden plate template.

 

Lollipop Tree

Tiny Dresden - December

Dresden Buddies Santa

Dresden's on a String

My Mini Dresden Template

makes these stockings:

Quick & easy, Quilt-as-you-go???

This is probably my best-selling pattern ever!

Have you made at least one???

You could make one for you

& each of your friends between now & Christmas!

A Pretty Table

Or, the lap quilt version which was my best-selling pattern

until I designed the table runner version.

A Pretty Package

Or use my 2 templates & my unique Quilt-as-you-go technique & make:

Ultimate Gift

Or maybe a tree skirt or two with adorable gingerbread boys & girls?

Maybe a sampler pattern?

A bit more detailed,

but so much fun to create that I made each of them twice!

If you can’t find these at your local quilt shop,

they can all be found on my website.

Better get started on your Christmas sewing now if you haven’t already!

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

A Giveaway!, New quilt pattern

New Fall Pattern Winners!

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Thanks for all the kind words regarding my new patterns!

I’m happy to announce the 3 winners of their favorite one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

10. Elizabeth Hile Says:

I am absolutely loving the Dresden Village!!

Great way to incorporate Dresdens! The village houses are too cute!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9. Sally Christiansen Says:

I love all the new patterns because who doesn’t love little tiny houses.

the Dresden Village is my favorite though

because you have little tiny houses, little people and Dresden!

How can anyone resist wanting to make it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#3  Debbie Weinman Says:

Really like Dresden Village! Beautiful quilt!

Well, it looks like my favorite is your favorite too!

So, once you three have your new pattern,

there will be no excuses not to join my quilt-along!

Ha, gotcha!!!

Please email your snail mail addresses to me: Suznquilts@aol.com

& I’ll ship your pattern right out to you.

For those of you that didn’t win,

thanks for the kind comments.

Look for your pattern at your local shop,

or now on my website.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

A Giveaway!, New Pattern Sample, New quilt pattern

New Pattern, Dresden Village & A Give-Away Too!

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The final new pattern that I want to show you is the biggest

(& in my opinion the best!).

Dresden Village.

I love this quilt!

Lots of Tiny Dresden plates.

Lots of little houses.

Some big houses.

Some little dolls.

Some little trees.

Some new blocks, Tiny/Mini Dresden plates.

LOTS OF FUN!

This quilt is a great way to use some of those treasured

fat quarters (24) that you bought & don’t know what to do with.

Just add 4 background fabrics

1 taupe fabric

& 1 black fabric.

What do you think?

Want to make one?

I plan to have a quilt-along with this quilt!

Doesn’t it look like fun?

So, would you like to win one of my new patterns?

Just leave me a comment

telling me which of the 5 new patterns is your favorite.

3 lucky winners will get that pattern free!

I will draw for the winners Friday night by 9 p.m.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

 

My Life

New Pattern, Around The Block

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The fourth new pattern that I want to show you is

Around The Block.

How cute is this???

Just 3 of my new Tiny/Mini blocks,

& 6 little houses!

I love making these Tiny/Mini blocks!

Don’t you love the pieced backgrounds?

It just adds another dimension to this runner.

They’re addicting!

And the little houses are like candy.

This little pile of cut pieces are all it takes to make them.

Soon the whole top is complete!

You could make this one in a day for sure.

There’s so little to it that I don’t have hardly any assembly pics!

It’s on my website now too if not at your local quilt shop.

One more new pattern to go.

Stay tuned.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

New Pattern Sample, New quilt pattern

New Pattern, House+Love=Home

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The third new pattern that I want to show you is

House + Love = Home

I love quilts with words

and whenever I can add little Dresdens…

This is the string of houses laid out on my sewing room rug of many colors…

Making the words was fun.

Next came auditioning fabrics for the doll blocks.

Once the decisions were made it was easy to make the “parts”.

Then deciding on the center fabric for just the right look there was next.

Love this calligraphy/postal stamp fabric!

Once all of the blocks were made I rearranged the little blocks for color.

All fun & soon all done!

House+Love=Home is now on my website if not at a quilt shop near you.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

New Pattern Sample, New quilt pattern, New tiny Dresden plate quilts

New Pattern, Home Sweet Quilted Home

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The next new pattern that I want to introduce to you

set the tone for all of my new patterns this fall.

Don’t ask me where my ideas come from,

because I just don’t know!

For some reason I made this quilt some 12 years ago…

I made it entirely of civil war reproduction prints.

I love the dark muddy tones.

This is one of my signature Quilt-as-you-go quilts.

For some reason I never turned it into a pattern, go figure.

I even had a larger size house block designed & going…

But enough about my serendipitous brain!

For some reason I imagined that the little houses of these quilts

would look awesome with my popular & fun

little Dresden plates.

So, I reworked this quilt with pretty new fabrics

& also changed up the flowers to include petals of Tiny Dresden!

I started with the house blocks.

That’s where all the fabulous color is!

I made the roofs my “Lazy Susan” way.

Next I pieced the main structures.

Love, love, love sewing the rainbow whether it’s bright & cheery

or dark & muddy!

How can anyone resist?

The next step was to decide on a stripe print to build the quilt with.

Then decide on just the right border print.

Found it! Lol

The vines & leaves were quick & easy thanks to just the right tools!

Soon the appliqué was ready for the borders.

I used the tiny blind hem stitch for the vines & flowers like I always do.

For the fusible web appliqué I used Sulky 12 wt. thread as always.

It just helps my appliqué stand out.

Next was the easy part, the quilting.

Just sew the blocks into strips & add them to the foundation!

Quick, easy & fun!

This will be cute hanging in your house,

or that of a friend!

Available now at a quilt shop near you or on my website.

Stay tuned for more new patterns.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan