String Rings and a Ring-Necked

The bindings are ready for the three small projects I mentioned yesterday.  I'm hoping to get them all quilted in the next few days.

Do you like working on small stuff, or do you prefer larger quilts?  I like both, but small things have a special appeal to me, creatively.  I like working with scraps and experimenting with putting different fabrics together in a fun way, but not necessarily in a bed-sized quilt. 

I don't usually save selvages, but as I work with some recently thrifted Christmas fabrics (more on that below), I thought I'd save a few selvages to use in another fun small project in the future.

The pheasant—who needs a name; let's call him Phrank—seemed to be a good temporary parking spot for selvage number one.

I won't burden him with too many more, though.  He's kind of a delicate old thing, poor Phrank.

We set up our little four-foot Christmas tree on a wrought iron pedestal table last weekend, but it seemed like it needed something underneath it.  Not exactly a tree skirt but something for the potted base of the tree to sit on.  (Okay, so maybe that IS a tree skirt.)  Since the table is circular, I thought I might make a string ring table mat in Christmas fabrics, following my tutorial for it HERE.

It needs to be a little larger than the ones I've made before, so I'm cutting 7.5-inch Dresden wedges instead.

I've given away all the string ring mats I made back then, so it's fun to be making another one again. 

My string strata is 7.5 x 13 inches or so.  I cut five wedges from each strata.  I try to make each strata with different fabrics, and I usually make four different strata sets.  The more variety in fabrics, the more interesting the final ring looks, I think.  

Here I started to put just two different strata's worth of wedges together. 

With the third batch of wedges added, you can see it developing a little more with the variety.

This is where it stands as of now, below.  The lighting in the sewing room makes the colors read darker and flatter than they actually are.  There are a couple metallic prints that make it sparkle a bit, too.

I may move a couple of wedges around before I sew it together, but I don't want to overthink it too much.