Not Quite Christmas

Second practice table topper is done, and it went much smoother than the first one, which is for my mom for Mother's Day.

When I first started the ocean-themed table topper for my mom, I intended to use a wider variety of self-cut blue jelly roll strips from my leftovers. My blues include snowflakes, butterflies, flowers, batiks and solids. Once I got going, I decided sticking to one theme would be nicer if she ever has company for dinner. I'm hoping the family can gather again one day...

One of the reasons I made the first practice table topper was to see if I could complete the kit I bought for my mother-in-law's Mother's Day gift without purchasing the 60-degree diamond template the pattern says is required. I was glad I worked a practice table topper not only so I could give one to my own mom, too, but also because I made a few mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes was misreading the pattern. I saw (2) 1.5-inch strips as 2.5-inch strips. Pretty huge mistake! And what a tremendous size difference!!!

I did the second practice piece with my snowflake leftovers in the correct size because many of them have small print. I wasn't so sure the kit would look as good in the smaller size, but I didn't want to have to buy more fabric if I didn't have to. I feared I might lose a lot of the print detail if I cut the western-themed fabrics that narrow.

When I tried to visualize the Home on the Range strips half the width, I decided that was just too small. The lovely fabric designs would be lost. The illustration on the front of the Shabby Fabrics pattern actually shows fairly accurate placement of the print designs in the narrower strips, but I hadn't looked at that as closely until after I made the decision to go with the larger size. So I ordered more of the background, backing and binding fabric so I could complete the kit in the larger size. Any leftovers will be added to the quilt project I intend to help my mother-in-law with next month when we visit again. While I wait for the fabric to arrive, I finished whipping up the smaller table topper, which went SO much faster because it is SO much smaller!!!

Of course, I had to appliqué snowflakes onto the smaller table topper. Initially I thought I'd have to make a few new snowflakes because I wasn't sure I had six small enough to fit on that tiny table topper. But going through my Moda Blockheads 2 leftovers, I found a stack of unused but already-shaped flakes small enough to add to this project.

The backing of my second practice project is from my blue snowflake stash. I've now used up almost all of this particular fabric.

I also decided after pinning the second side of the binding in place, because the topper is so much smaller and because I didn't have the new fabric for my mother-in-law's table topper yet, that I had time to hand-sew down the binding on the smaller topper. I really like the way that turned out. I think in this small piece, top stitching on the binding would have detracted from the self-cut jelly roll snowflake leftovers I used in the binding. I did NOT use up all my blue snowflake leftovers for this project, and for that, I am joyfully content!

For the two blue table toppers, however, I did use up almost all my batting remnants. This is all the quiltable remnants I have right now. That will change the next time I finish a quilting project.

I do have a bunch of skinny batting remnants I use for stuffing amigurumi and pillows. I'm anxious to dig into my hand-dyed crochet thread stash once again so I can start making more amigurumi. It's been WAY too long! I used to crochet snowflakes and amigurumi on the bus and train during my daily commute. Now that I'm mostly working from home, I've been trying to establish and set aside a new block of dedicated crochet time. Not successful yet, but still looking for opportunities.

I also used up the snowflake diamond remnants to make a couple of new quilt blocks I can add to my Moda Blockheads 2 project, which, as I recall, needs a few more smallish blocks to complete the layout. Making these remnant blocks was SO fun, I really want to get back into block-a-week mode now! Just maybe not any new projects quite yet. When I get my WIPs down into single digits...

Moda Blockheads 4 started last month. I was SO tempted to dive in! I finally decided to save up this year's Blockhead patterns for after I whittle away a few more of my existing WIPs, including Blockheads 2. I don't know if I can finish my Blockheads 2 quilt this quarter, but this year might be doable. I am trying to finish SOMETHING on the project each week while others are making new blocks. I'm planning a rather spectacular and dramatic finish, so I think it will definitely be worth the wait!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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