A new table topper

The month of June has just begun and a squirrel already attacked me!  Oh boy what does the month have in store for me.

It is sometimes strange how we quilters come up with ideas for a new project.  Friday afternoon I actually took some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful mid 70 degree day by laying on my deck.  That is when the idea came to me to make 60 degree triangles for a hexie table topper and applique a snowman head to each triangle.

Given that I was in the middle of piecing three other table runners, I filed the idea after quickly drawing a pic on a post it note pad.  That evening the hubby and I went for a bike ride, during that bike ride I kept picturing the hexie snowman topper.  Now I should have been just enjoying the scenery shouldn't I have.  Saturday morning arrives and I quickly finished piecing the tree runners I was working on.  We thought we were going for another bike ride Saturday afternoon, but the weather wasn't the best so we decided to stay home.  Enter the squirrel, and I let him have his way.  He helped me gather my gray and red fabrics, he even pulled out my 60 deg. ruler!  Yep it was going to happen.

Piecing the triangles was easy peasy, sew three together, press seams open and then sew the sets of three together.  Then applique on the snowman heads, I saved the felt noses for after quilting along with the button eyes.  I didn't want the gray fabric showing through the white so I used a fusible interfacing on the back of the faces.  I didn't use any fusible web then, but next time I might try it in addition to the interfacing.  I used Elmer Glue on the edges of the faces to hold them in place while I blanket stitched around them.

Add a small red border for a pop of color and a different gray for the outside border.  And it was off to the longarm to quilt.  A quick stipple in the center around the heads.  When I quilted the outside border I used a ruler for my straight lines and stitched right off the edge, I like how the lines intersect and give a nice pattern of diamonds in the corners.  I had this pieced and quilted before it was time to make dinner!  

A pretty red print for the backing finished this off nicely.  This piece was one of several yards, 42 yards to be exact that I picked up at our Walmart for only $1 a yard!!  Yes you read that right, I hit the jackpot on Friday morning, As I walked past the fabric department, there was a bin in the main isle.  I should just check it out I said, EEEK $1 a yard, what unheard of!!  The whole bin was from their calico wall they were just clearancing out and getting ready for the new stuff.  SCORE!!  So many great pieces for backings.  I checked to make sure they were of nice quality before I said I'll take what is left on the bolt!  Now to find a place to store them in my already full sewing room.  Guess I better get these fingers off to the sewing room!

A little bit of nature for your enjoyment. Jack in the Pulpit grows wild in our yard. 

These are growing wild in lots of places in our area.  These happen to be by our mailbox.  Gotta love me some purple flowers.  I think they are a type of phlox.   Yesterday we had a nice bike ride on an awesome paved trail that goes through town. Down by the river there are just gobs and gobs of these purple patches with a few white ones thrown in here and there.

Linking with:  Monday Making, Design Wall Monday DrEAMI