Christmas in July: Back to the Basics!

Setting the scene: you found an awesome Christmas fabric, you are ready to use it, but coordinates? There are none to be found; ugh.

Basics to the rescue!

Your local quilt shop always has basics - when in doubt - run to that basics aisle and dive in - there is bound to be a selection of fabrics there that can round out your fabric choice!

I started (on right below) with a stunning fabric called Scarlet Poinsettia from Michael Miller Fabrics:

I used the colored dots on the selvedge to choose coordinating basics: Fairy Frost for sparkle, a fun gingham, some pindots, red and green Krystal tone on tones, as well as a solid. Love it!

So you can always curate your own collection as long as you bring that selvadge swatch with you to your favorite quilt shop. It's also a good idea to enlist some help from the shop - they may have more fabric ideas for you!

I created a Fold'n Stitch Wreath and a Scalloped Basket for the holidays and love the results! Would you even know that there is only one Christmas fabric included?

The classic Fold'n Stitch Wreath uses 3 fabrics. The key to success is contrast - all 3 fabrics should highly contrast one another.

The applique stitch that I used is the blanket stitch - I used a 50 wt thread here - I generally like a more substantial thread, but I liked the color here.

The Scalloped Basket below is useful and pretty and what a great hostess gift!!

We even used the corners that we cut from the placemats to create a bonus project - the Waste Not Trivet!

Here is our trivet (about 7" across) - you can use it for a mug rug or a trivet for a hot casserole! Get a pdf of the pattern here!

We started with the cutaway corners, top pic below. We zigzagged them together to get 2 shapes - see bottom pics.

Here are the trivet shapes sewn together.

Then we used 2 squares of 2 contrasting fabrics, cut slits in 2 of them and fused 2 squares to the shapes. Then with right sides together, stitch around the shapes. using the shapes to guide you as you are sewing around the curves.

Make sure you clip into the corners, then turn to right sides using the slits. Place the shapes slit sides together and topstitch the shapes together.

Get all of the particulars in the pdf.

I hope you enjoy your July - don't forget to add a little Christmas to it!

Keep on stitching!

-Kris