Christmas Preview + DIY template

I'm trying to get an early start for our Homemade Christmas this year.  Booger posted some great ideas and I've been searching around for some inspiration as well.  Here's my pile of gifts so far (spoiler alert for some friends and family who read our blog!)

Two quilted totes, two pencil cases, one wristlet, one Christmas tree table runner and one Oh, Canada! table runner

The Christmas tree table runner was one of first things I made, I was so excited about it!  It's made from a layer cake (10" square precut) and using a wedge template it was super easy to cut out the trees perfectly!  Here's the tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company I used.  I was too excited to get started on this easy project that I didn't want to drive a ways to get a template in a store or order it online and wait for it come in the mail so I made my own! (If you would like to buy your own template, MSCQ makes a 10" wedge, check it out here)

I used the cardboard piece on the bottom of the layer cake.  The long sides of the triangle needed to be 10 inches (it's an isosceles triangle) so it was a perfect fit!

The lines show my attempt at different sizes before settling on a 7 inch base

I played around with the length of the bottom side so I could create two triangles from one square with very little waste.  The base of my triangle ended up being 7 inches.  I pieced the triangles together, added some skinny rectangle tree trunks and background and got the cutest Christmas table runner in no time! The fabric is Kate Spain's "In From the Cold" line.

You can make it as long as you like, just add more trees!

The quilted totes are made from charm packs, very little cutting required.  Here's the tutorial I used from Missouri Star Quilt Company (I really like Jenny's quick and easy classes that use precuts!).

I learned from my Etsy shop that my pencil cases were very popular so I made some more as presents!  Here's the link to the Bag Making Basics free class on Craftsy that I used to make them.

I couldn't resist the Oh, Canada! quilt pattern Booger sent me from Etsy!  Some day I'd like to make the whole quilt but just for today I made one block as a short table runner.  The finished size is about 12" x 24" or (30.5 x 61cm for the Canadians out there!).  It's a gift for one of our relatives that live in Canada.  It was my first attempt at appliqué and I am excited at how it turned out!

This also involved crazy piecing, what fun!

That's it for now, more patterns and fabric are piled up to be made shortly!