Winter Wonderland Table Topper Tutorial

If you are thinking about making a quilt project for the holidays, this might be the perfect one! I decided to make a beautiful blue table topper for my Winter Wonderland Island Batik project. This is not only fast and easy…..it would be a perfect project for using up scraps. My Winter Wonderland Table Topper is 22 inches x 22 inches and will fix nicely on my table.
All of the Island Batik Ambassadors have been sharing Winter Wonderland projects this month made with Island Batik fabrics…..I barely finished mine before the month was over.I made this to be a table topper but it could also be used as a wall hanging. Notice the variety of blue batiks? I had a little bundle of 3″ x 20″ strips that were included in my Island Batik ambassador box and I challenged myself to use them with the Box Quilt Block tutorial. It is always fun to see what can be made from the pieces in a collection. I added a cream batik for the neutral color.

The first time I received strips like this they were only 2 inches wide by 10 inches but I was able to make this narrow table runner.  I also made a Summer Table Runner in no time at all using 1 1/2 inch x 10 inch strips.

I love a challenge….what could I get out of the 2 1/2 inch x 20 inch strips that would work for the Box quilt block. I was able to get four of the 4 patch box blocks out of the scraps.

I had to do some improvising – from each strip I could make two identical blocks.Cutting the quilt block pieces:

• Pick two different colors or prints for each block (a light and dark work the best) plus your neutral fabric.
• Neutral – cut three 2 inch squares.
• Print One – cut one 2 inch square and one 2 inch x 3 ½ inch rectangle.
• Print Two – cut one 2 inch x 3 ½ inch rectangle and one 2 inch x 5 inch rectangle.

The corner pieces are folded back and trimmed as shown in the Box Quilt Block tutorial.I made two identical block which means I repeated the cutting twice, then made two more for the 4 patch box quilt block.

• Make four of the 4 patch blocks
• Sashing – cut two 1 ½ inch x 9 ½ inch pieces and one 1 ½ inch x 19 ½” piece.
• Cut the border two 2 inch x 19 ½ inch and two 2 inch x 22 inch.

The other day I mentioned that my neighbor gave me a bunch of flannel scraps and other things. There was also some fusible polyester batting and I decided to use it up right away on some pillows and this table topper. Evidently my vintage 15-91 Singer sewing machine does NOT like fusible poly batting.

I started out with little flowers in the center blocks…..did all of them and then started quilting just the cream background (I had a couple skipped stitches but could live with that). All of a sudden I was getting skipped stitches all over the place…ugh! I did all the things you are supposed to – checked for lint, changed the tension, changed my bobbin, changed my needle. I didn’t change the thread as I was using Aurifil and I know it always works great. The weird thing was that I could quilt on my scrap sample and had no problem, then I realized it was cotton batting.

I am pretty sure it was the fusible stuff, I never seem to have good luck with fusible batting. Thank goodness my granddaughters were staying here for a couple days as I was able to get out my seam ripper and pull out all the stitching while watching Angry Birds.

Yesterday I pulled out some Warm & Natural batting and decided to just go with a simple free motion stipple which I think actually looks pretty good on it. I had also used that same fusible batting on some pillows that I used my walking foot for some straight line quilting and never had a single skipped stitch…..strange. I’ll be sharing them soon.I hope you have enjoyed this Winter Wonderland table topper tutorial and if you make one I would love to see it! Feel free to pin this tutorial also.

Linking up with Sew Can She Show off Saturday and The Chicken Chick blog hop .

Looking for a neat basket tutorial that is free? Check this out.

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