Carlene Foster's Gallery : Christmas, Strip Piecing

Christmas Pillow shams

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:28:13 GMT

Ever want to just decorate a pillow for the holidays, and then be able to go back to the normal decor? I made two of these shams to adorn a holiday seating arrangement. When the holidays are over, they can be stored with the Christmas decorations until next year, without having to dedicate special space for the actual pillows. Just slip over the throw pillows you already own. I could think of making these with someone's favorite color schemes for birthday celebrations as well. Marti Michell template set L and her Encyclopeida of PatchWork Blocks, Volume 4 were the inspiration for this creation. (That, and my obsession with Robert Kaufman's Christmas fabric from last year that I still own a bag of scraps from <grin>)

Christmas Place Mats

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:18:02 GMT

I had a 20 fq pack of coordinating Christmas fabrics that had been in my stash at least a year (more likely 2 years), that I couldn't get inspired to use. Quilters World December 2012 issue solved that problem for me: Stretched Nine-Patch Place Mats. If I were to do it all over again, I would use the Buggy Barn stack and whack, then reshuffling the order of certain stacks. Sometimes, I don't stop and plan that part so well. LOL I had leftover pieces of batting and backing was from Benartex...the line was called "dreamline" by some vendors. The idea was that the pattern was on the background in water soluable ink, you sew on the lines from the back and then when you wash the piece, the lines disappear. Loved the product, cannot find it on the Benartex website now. I bought mine through fabric.com and Amazon. From 20 fq's, I have a total of 30 placemats. I have actually completed all but 8 (due to lack of extra batting now!) Love the pattern.

Strip Therapy Log Cabin

Carlene Foster — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:00:28 GMT

This quilt pattern, using an uneven log cabin arrangement, can be found in the Strip Therapy series of books. It used one jelly roll and about 3 yards of border fabric to make it a large queen sized (it only fit the top of the mattress on a king sized bed). Fast and fun and you can use whatever kind of jelly roll fabric you want. This was Moda Marbles in the Warm colorway.

Disappearing 9 patch with hearts

Carlene Foster — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:18:55 GMT

I did this from a pattern I got online. What a way to use up some of those fq's that you have no clue what to do with them! I loved it! Half a heart was 6 inches x 3.5 inches, so these were not small pieces. Just watch where you place the dark and light colors when you make your nine patches (before you slice and dice into individual blocks again.) Simple, fun, fast.

Black, white and red allover

Carlene Foster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:05:51 GMT

This is a technique using a special ruler called a "Twister'. This particular throw used one fq bundle and some yardage for the outer border. It isn't very large, and I still have a stack of biased red, white and black 4 patches left over from the process. I am not a fan of the waste that you get from this tool. You start with a charm pack, or a bunch of 5 x 5 patches, sew them all together, then use the tool to cut a piece of every intersecting seams. I have cats, so there were many times that I feared my stack of petals would be rearranged until I could get back to them. By the time I had done this throw, I was over the process. Maybe as a one or two item accent......potholders. a cornerstone for a larger quilt that you just want to do something different....but, I'm not a whole quilt fan of this tool.

Christmas Dinner Table Runner

Carlene Foster — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:12:22 GMT

This table runner is not meant to hang off the ends of the table, which is a blessing for those with small children or pets. It is a Pam Bono Pattern called Holiday Flora. A little intimidating at first, but I actually think I'm going to like these patterns when I get a little more practice. I started this one on December 21 at 8:30 pm and sewed until 12:30 am, then got up on December 22 and finished hand sewing the binding. I gave it to my niece as a Christmas house warming gift that afternoon. She was amazed....me too.... LOL