A few Christmas quilts on the wall

This is last year's Christmas quilt, kaleidoscope technique by Ricky Tims. You draft your own pattern. I showed the details of it in last year's post Click HERE to see kaleidoscope-finish   
I was so  late to finish I forgot to do a sleeve so I added one this year.

I also did a sleeve for this from two years ago

and this one from 1990.
That was the year I took a class with my friend Cindy in Tampa on the "latest" technique of paper piecing.

(my grandmother foundation pieced many a string quilt onto old yellow pages from the phone book)

Paper piecing was like opening a window to a new quilting life for me. I loved it and this little hand quilted piece that finishes at 18" X 22"   (each block finishes at 3")


Since I was adding sleeves to a finished quilt I did them a bit differently.
I usually cut them 9" wide, fold them, catch in the binding (there's more to it but that's enough for now)

This time I just folded a 5" wide piece, finished the ends, folded in half WRONG sides together. Seamed it. Moved the seam to the center  of the tube, pressed it open, and sewed that tube with the seam to the quilt back. Can't see the seam and the insides are all smooth. I'm not entering this, so I needed a small opening.

 Make sure to measure so it's perfectly even after pressing. Take care catching the very edge when stitching

This year's Christmas quilt, the poinsettia from uneven log cabin blocks is STILL on the design wall.
I can't seem to make the simplest of decisions lately. I added log cabin style, two green fabrics to the sides, and today thought I might just do top and bottom borders in red, and bind the whole thing in green...

Maybe adding in this cool metallic ribbon top and bottom

The blocks are all scraps but the border is poinsettia fabric, and I had a half yard, just enough!

Can you see the ribbon if you click on the image to make it larger??


Then I left the room and when I came back I thought it looked unfinished.




I decided this is not for competition. It's not up for top awards, I'm just making it to sew happiness into my life. So...

just make it quilty. I wanted it to be more playful, or modern, or edgy but I also want it done.
See the one on the wall next to it?
While I knew how to use the ruler, I made more blocks with scraps but this time mixed green and red strips in each block.

I also mixed in one of my all time fave fabrics, just scraps left, and those are left because I used the fabric to line a vest, hated the vest, and tore out the lining to keep! Yea! Note this is an old time drunkard's path setting called lover's knot.

See the little flower ladies peeking through in the blocks???


I decided to "make it work" piecing if I needed to in order to border this one with my flower girls.

 

I'll have to save this Christmas Cow fabric for later!