A little side step -

To play with the Ugly Christmas Fabrics -

You KNEW I had to - right??? - ;))

I was thinking BIG - CHUNKY - blocks -

So - maybe - just maybe - I had an idea - ;))

First I took the Christmas Trees - which are directional - cut two big squares and then cut each one diagonally in both directions to make 2 sets of 4 QST -

Then I cut a big square of the Penguins - and made 4 more QST -

And then did the same with the Santas -

Made two Penguin/Christmas Tree Hourglass Blocks -

And two Santa/Christmas tree Hourglass Blocks -

I cut five squares each of the Grinch fabric and the Green Toys fabric - then cut each of them diagonally once to make HST -

Put the Hourglass Blocks on the wall - with the Christmas Trees oriented one in each direction -

Filled in with some Grinch HST -

I know they should be QST - for Hourglass Blocks -

But I cut HST on purpose because I have a PLAN - LOL - ;))

Then filled in with the Green Toy HST -

And it does look like an Ugly Christmas Sweater - doesn't it? - ;))

So then I separated the parts into 4 sections -

Now you should be able to see that the inner diagonal "sides" of the Grinch and Green Toy HST are all on the straight-of-grain - the outer edges are on the bias - and I know it looks bass-ackwards - but I did it on purpose - because - you know - the PLAN - LOL - ;))

Time out - to sew the Autumn Squirrel top together - I really love those colors - and played with the bottom right "orange" center - but then let the rest go "wherever" - so it's kinda haphazard - but I think it looks OK -

Up close - I like how those white flowers really POP - ;))

So then - back to the Ugly Christmas Fabrics -

I made two of these -

And two of these -

And sewed one set to opposite sides of the Autumn Squirrel -

And the other set to the other two sides -

The same way you sew a Square-in-a-Square block -

Now the sides of the Grinch and Green Toy HST that are on the bias are sewn to the straight sides of the Autumn Squirrel - and the Hourglass Blocks -

And the straight-of-grain sides are on the outside edges of the whole piece -

So the PLAN is to fold the corners in toward the middle -

And have the back side look like an Ugly Christmas Sweater - LOL - ;))

Tomorrow I'll mess with getting the batting in there - and trying that "monster" technique again - this time on a smaller scale - ;))

I doubt that I'll EVER use the back side of this table topper -

But it gives me another chance to try that technique without worrying about "wasting" perfectly good fabric - if it doesn't work out - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -