Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas everyone
with the love of my life, George

What am I doing writing a blog?

Quilting is one of the few places in my life where all the corners meet and stay put. On this blog I plan to ruminate about quilting and life, the quilted life, cat and quilts, and any old thing that falls in and out of my brain. I'd be pleased to hear from you on all of this or any topic of interest!

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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Working on Quilt #117 - the Thanksgiving Cross Stitch quilt

I am busy working on the Thanksgiving quilt. The top is done with the houses top border and the maple leaf bottom border. For the sides, I did a free form strips and small squares with two left over maple leaves on the side borders. It ended up being a humongus quilt, about 85 x 90 inches. I said to Becky, my quilt partner and co-conspirator (also daughter) - "How did this one get so big?" Her reply was "Because you kept adding things to it, Mom." On Saturday, I monogrammed our signatures on the back, Becky and I. Here they are. Also a date which reads: "Thanksgiving 2014."
Then I hauled the quilt and all the necessary supplies, pins, scissors, iron, and my sorry self up to the attic (remember I am still doing stairs on my bum) and began pinning. By the end of Monday night, the quilt was pinned.
So now I have to decide whether or not to baste this monster of a quilt before I start quilting. I am of two minds, 1) it's extra work - why do it? Just suffer thru the pins and 2) if I baste it, I avoid the pins while quilting and I will have the cross stitch squares already basted before I have to hand tack them. That would be nice. We are headed to California in two days so I doubt I will have any time to work on it before we leave so I will mull it over on my mini-vacation. Time for dinner. Happy quilting!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

2013 - The Year of the Christmas Quilt #4 - "Scootin' Around Christmas"

Quilt #4 Called "Scootin' Around Christmas" went to my sister and brother-in-law, Bev and Bob Mitchum and I almost thought I would be taking it home. The very interesting thing about the selection of the quilts on Thanksgiving night, at Bev and Bob's home in Downers Grove, Illinois, was watching how each person gravitated to their particular quilt. After all were selected and conversation occurred over the 4 day holiday, I learned that some wanted another quilt but it was already chosen. At this point I feel compelled to explain that with the exception of team Osborn (daughter Jamie and son-in-law Jeff) and team Mitchum II (Nephew Rob and niece-in-law Laura), all the quilts were chosen by the women of the couple. The rest of them men were watching football and children. So Bev picked out the quilt for herself and Bob. I learned that she loved the color I call "electric lime" (also one of my favs, I am wearing it right now, goes well with white hair) and she really like the dot quilt which went to my grandson Wyatt before it was Bev's turn to pick. I knew that she also really like animal print, in fact, she was wearing an animal print sweater that night. So as a result, she was torn between two quilts, #4 "Scootin' Around Christmas" and #1 "You Can Keep Your Hat On." She eventually settled on "Scootin" and the lime green but we waited until the end of the evening to sew her tag on as we were not sure she would change her mind.
This was one of my favorite quilts to make. I really like the 3-D effect of the presents popping out of the corners. After all the quilts were done, I went back and added buttons to the presents - you can see that version in the first and last picture in this post. It really added some pop. The center square is a Northern Pine pattern and before I got too far in the quilt, I made it with an ivory background and this black background. Went with the black as you can see. The Christmas Shoppers on scooters is the source of the title and although the fabric looks vintage, it is not. Beads are sewn on the red, green and pink (yes, pink) star bursts all around the shoppers. All the time I was making this quilt, I thought it would end up with Angie, Bev's daughter but I was wrong. Angie got the next one. Now some more pictures of this quilt:
and a last one with the buttons on the present: