Spare Parts

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah N. offered spare parts from her Carolina Christmas Quilt. I raised my hand and she graciously sent them to me. Her fabrics are beautiful, as is her piecing. Now I am ready to get back to sewing and making progress on my CC quilt. My DH had the past week off, and while I did not spend a lot of time at my sewing machine, we did make a trip to a new-to-me quilt store, I'll show some of my purchases later in the week. Now, if only the sun would come out....

Design Wall Monday

This is the third Christmas quilt I am working ever so slowly on. It started with a churn dash block swap in 1999/2000. You sent off the center square to fellow quilters, they made the block in their choice of colors and returned it to you, and you did the same for them. The 20 blocks sat for quite a while waiting for some inspiration. At some point, say 2008 maybe? I earmarked a Christmas quilt in a magazine that was designed by Robin Pandolph. In fall of 2009, I was looking through my magazine clippings for ideas for a different project and made a connection between the two! It seems like it should have come to me alot faster than that. Anyway, I added dark green,gold, and cream from my stash to enlarge each block to 15" finished. Now I am going to sash them with a dark green and gold stripe, add more dark green as the final border, and add it to the flimsy pile. I really like how it is coming together. Go see Judy L. at http://www.patchworktimes.com/ to see more design wall inspirations.

Quilty Christmas presents!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas Day! I love getting anything quilty for Christmas! My DH gave me a new 6 x 24" ruler, two books, and a Jim Shore Santa. Today looks like a great day for sewing....

Tree table topper

This table topper is made from a free pattern called Trees on the Table offered by Marcie at Patchalot Patterns in 2007 at http.patchalotmore.blogspot.com. It went together so easily and I love it. My plan is to get this finished by Sunday, because I also want to make the pattern she is offering for this year, Christmas Punch. Almost all the Christmas decorating is finished, and hopefully, by Wednesday night, all the shopping will be done. Looks like the possibility of sewing on Thursday!

Christmas Tree Skirt

For years, I've been telling one of my lovely sisters that I would make her a Christmas tree skirt. This fall, I finally decided that this was the year. I drew some ideas on graph paper, trying to come up with a good design. My sister was appreciative, but what she wanted was a scrappy homey feel. Hey, I can do scrappy and simple! Here is the final result, my sister really likes it! It closes with three adorable buttons shaped like stockings. It is finished with purchased bias binding.

Sidetracked...

My DD#2 was out of school on Monday for a teacher workday. She wanted to get some fleece so that she could make a jacket. We ended up with fabric for two jackets, some fat quarters for mystery background fabrics (man, am I glad I got those!), and some craft items. Somehow, I got roped into making the fleece jacket and the second jacket. My Dad has decided to visit my sister in Germany (leaving on Sunday), so now the tree skirt I am making for her has a deadline! Okay, priorities.... tree skirt, jacket #1, mystery, jacket #2. This afternoon, I am taking DS to get his driving permit, and this evening DD#3 and I are continuing to make some ribbon Christmas trees. I wonder what DD#1 is going to want to do when she gets home from college?

Mystery quilt

My SIL's quilt
My quilt

I love doing mystery quilts! I am currently working on Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas mystery. The first mystery quilt I ever did was by Judy Hopkins. It was presented as a series in the Lady's Patchwork Circle Magazine in late 1992, early 1993. My Mom hand quilted it for me, and I love using it! My SIL is also a quilter and I was trying to talk her into doing the mystery along with me (long distance as we live in different states). She came to visit in March of 1993 with her three children. Then, in one of those rare occurrences here in the south, we had a blizzard that shut down the city. She decided to join in the mystery, and we cut fabric all that Saturday. When she finished hers, she machine quilted it and gave it to my dd#2, who was supposed to be baptised on that Saturday. My daughter was baptised a few days later, after the roads cleared somewhat, and the entire trip has many fond memories for both of our families. My niece and nephews had been in the Philippines for several years after living in San Antonio, Texas and had never seen snow. They loved it! DD#1 had never seen snow before either, but as a two-year old she was not very impressed! You can tell from the pictures that my SIL put hers together differently from mine - that's what comes from getting the next step to the mystery over the phone! I just noticed that one of the background fabrics in this quilt is one of the background fabrics I am using in this latest mystery-maybe this will be the end of it!