Holiday Wishes Sew Along

 Welcome to my blog! 

I am happy to participate in the Holiday Wishes sew along hosted by The Fat Quarter Shop
and Sherri Falls of This and That.

Sherri has been a quilt pattern designer and author for a number of years. 

Every year her ideas get better and better!

I was asked to choose a pattern from the book and put my 'mark' on it.

I wanted to make 9 blocks and turn them into a pillow.

I chose the pattern Deck the Halls Mini for a pillow and started out strong.

All the squares and components cut using Lori Holt's Cozy Christmas blues and turquoise for 4.5" square blocks.

A lovely stack.

As I mentioned, I started out strong. 

I assembled the center 9-patch style blocks.

I had plenty of time to finish my project. 

Then we traveled to London and my in laws were here, 

and a week later to Toronto for a family wedding. 

It's been a whirlwind. 

Kids on summer vacation and so forth. 

I finally settled down to finish my project last Thursday.

I sewed a bit then my machine went haywire.

I'm not kidding.

I re-threaded my machine over 20 times, changed the needles, changed the bobbin, cleaned out the bobbin case area and so on.

Finally I was able to get it sewing again.

I still don't think it's working 100% correctly. 

Anyhow, I pieced and pieced, sashings sewn and then I saw it.

I had actually turned all the flying geese components the wrong direction 

and I didn't even see it until the top was complete. 

I looked at me quilt top and then the picture and the book and I was in utter disbelief.

Yes, there were some tears shed. 

I won't lie. 

It really upset me.  

I was just beat. 

I had fought with the machine for nearly 2 hours to get it sewing and then sewed it all wrong!!

I just couldn't un-sew them.

So I decided to start over again the next day. 

Just making one mini block correctly was HUGE for me.

The book is very well written. 

My second star went together perfectly because I wasn't interrupted.

My star block looks great. 

I've even made progress quilting it for a pouch. 

It's not christmasy but shows how versatile the project and block can be.

More information about the book in video form below. 

If you'd like to see a few other projects that bloggers are sewing along, you can find them here:

Tina of Emily Ann's Closet

Nicole of Modern Handcraft

Amanda of Jedi Craft Girl

Until next time....

Vickie