Christmas in July

I dug under my cutting table and pulled out another plastic container with an aged project. That's my goal this year - to empty some of those containers. I don't know why, but I felt like working with Christmas fabric. It could be the post that Brenda did on shopping for Christmas all year long. About three years ago, I took a class at Stitch 'N Quilt Shoppe with Pat Wys. The class was her Christmas tree skirt, Slice of Christmas.


I selected Moda's Maison de Noel Christmas fabric, one of my all-time favorite Christmas fabrics. The pattern involves a special ruler. I borrowed Carol's ruler because the shop was out of the rulers when I took the class. It's probably time to return the ruler to Carol. The last time I worked on this project was at a Summer Stitch-In.

I cut one panel completely wrong. That's when it was put back into the plastic container to age. I wasn't sure that I had enough fabric to complete the pattern. About a year ago, I ordered additional fabric from several online shops. This afternoon, I cut the additional strips that I needed. With my Ipod playing a favorite book, I completed sewing the strips together. Sometimes this weekend, I'm hoping to press the strips and cut the wedges with Carol's ruler. This pattern makes two Christmas tree skirts. It would be super to have them ready for Christmas gifts.

Lucky!

I won! This weekend Pat Sloan hosted an online sewing retreat. She gave away 20 prizes throughout the weekend from the comments on her blog. Sunday evening, I won one of the last prizes. Yahoo! Pat is sending me a bag of her scraps. I love scraps especially someone else's scraps.  Thanks, Pat! This is a real treat. The whole online retreat was super. Just what I needed after an exhausting week at work.

The missing Maison de Noel fabric has been found. My friend Carol saw the picture and plea on my blog. She found the fabric that I needed in her stash and brought it to me today. Many of you checked your stashes too. Thanks for looking! 

Looking for Maison de Noel

Have you ever had one of those sewing days when you just wanted to throw the entire project across the room right into the trash?  Well, I had one of those days with a Christmas tree skirt that I was working on. I cut an entire section wrong. When I looked at the pattern , I realized that I wouldn't have enough fabric for the project because I had not followed the directions in cutting the section. For this project,   I'm using an older fabric line from Moda, Maison de Noel.  I put the project aside, and out of sight. Every once in a while, I would find myself thinking about this project.  I hate wasting fabric especially fabric that I love.  I thought about using the strips and making a string quilt. I thought about making another Strawberry Pie from my friend Pat at Silver Thimble Quilt Company. The problem is that I don't like to give up on a project.

 This weekend, I took it out again. I assessed the fabric situation. How much did I need? Of which fabrics from the eight in the tree skirt would I need more ? I searched www.quilshops.com, Ebay, and Google. I found 4 of the fabrics that I needed at two online shops. I really needed only about 1/2 yard of each. I still need the holly fabric pictured on this post. I can get it on Ebay, but would cost about $10.00 for half a yard.

 Would you my online friends, please check your stash. Does anyone have half a yard of this holly fabric from the Maison de Noel line by Moda that you would sell, trade, or barter for?  I know someone has to have a piece in their stash.  

Thanks so much for looking!