Fruitcake Under My Tree, Part 1

I'm making Fruitcake Under My Tree, a Moda Bake Shop pattern by Tracey Jacobsen at traceyjay quilts. This is my first project like this, actually following a pattern and doing the whole thing all by myself. I have to keep it a surprise from my mom, because this is actually a Christmas gift for her. That's really why I started this little blog, so I can blog all the things I wish I could talk to her about and then once she has the gift she can read the blog about it! :) It's SO HARD not talking to her about it. I ordered the fabric from fatquartershop.com and could hardly contain my excitement when it got here- I just wanted to show mom everything right away! I'm glad I've held out so this can be a surprise for her, but it is so hard! :) Hopefully blogging it will help with the temptation of spoiling the surprise. :)

Let me first say I LOVE THIS FABRIC! It is all from Fruitcake by Basic Grey. I am in love with it, I can't wait to show mom!! I love that it has a little bit of a retro feel but is still full of naturey stuff too. When I tried to order exactly what the pattern called for, Fat Quarter Shop had to call to let me know they'd just ran out of the material I'd ordered for the binding. So I had to pick out a different fabric from the line, which made me so nervous because how am I supposed to know if it'll look good as a binding- I've never done this before! I mean I've sewn before but never something like this. I want it to be totally perfect, so having that little kink threw me for a loop and made me really nervous. Then the lady called and told me that our plan B fabric was out of stock, too! Apparently with these fabrics, once they are gone, THEY. ARE. GONE! I was so bummed out, but she said they had a few more fabrics from the line in stock and after I explained what I needed it for she helped me pick out the one that she thought would look the best. It was so hard doing that over the phone, but most of the local places have sold out of Christmas material already! (One of the shop owners actually looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if she had any layercakes left of Fruitcake- she was like, "Oh honey, if you want something like that around here you've gotta be shoppin' in July!" Hahaha, crazy huh. The rural life!) Anyway, now that I have all the material I think it's going to look so pretty.

So I've been getting this done a little at a time, but last night I went bananas and stayed up until midnight working on it. I got all the blocks pieced and now it's just time to put together the strips and finish the top! I "string pieced" it, which is something I learned from a tutorial video, found here. I wasn't sure if it would work for this project, but I tried it out and it was amazing how much time it saved! I can't wait to show mom... Anyway, I tried to take a few photos last night before I cut the blocks apart...

You can see the continuous sewing between the blocks.
Also, MOM! I've been sewing such straight lines! HAHA :)

I laid out the top last night and I can't wait to see it finished, it's such a fun and easy pattern. It's going really quickly and I'm impressing myself with how few mistakes I've made... :) I about threw my sewing machine out the window, though... if I plan on sewing this much in the future I'm definitely going to have to upgrade, it just does NOT work well!