Christmas Ornaments quilt finished !!

 

Finished and what a feeling of relief and accomplishment! It's big and heavy to me. I used to make lots of bed quilts both hand quilted and machine quilted but I'm older and parts of me are injured making this finish a wonderful feeling! I am calling it Christmas Ornaments for now but no label is made yet.

Milo: can I get on Mama??  (Mama: nope)

 I started this last Christmas by drafting my own octagon and finding fun special holiday fabrics to cut

piecing around them pineapple style with pretty holiday scraps, squaring them to 12.5" and arranging them on a design wall. When I saw how big it was, I decided to quilt it I'd have to design a way to quilt it in large sections, rejoining it after that. 

This meant I could use lots of fabrics on the backing of each section, and I used a variety of preprinted block fabric, and others large enough to cover this territory. For a person who uses an aged Bernina 1630 with a small harp to do all her work, this took a lot of planning

looks small here but it is 72" X 72" and my harp opening is 6"

some of the backing fabrics

Apologies for the weird looking angles, this is larger than my design wall that sits propped up on 4 baskets, making the quilt buckle out at the bottom and look distorted

this process means planning which unit will have extra backing to use as a flap to sew over the quilted seams, sandwiching each section, carefully quilting each section first then machine stitching. Next carefully fold the planned flap over that seam after pressing, and hand stitching it closed....

which took much longer than it ever has before! But it looks good, almost invisible as you could see from the larger shot of the backing

after a couple sections were sewn to the big 9 block center section, I was able to free motion stitch snowflakes. I cut my own out of freezer paper to use as templates....

see the different white/cream fabrics used?

Again, this was hard to photograph because of the size, but it hangs perfectly straight and even! 

I chose a fun red and white strip, also used in the blocks, and had just enough for a binding, a 3/8" uneven strip left after it was done and dusted! I put the binding on the outside borders after quilting them but before attaching them to the other part.... then hand stitched the flap over the border seams, and joined the bindings.

the floral is backing the border, and I pulled the floral fabric over to form the seam cover

So the photo doesn't do it justice but I just love this quilt. And am grateful I was able to finish it.

I wrote a list on Thursday's I Like post of art techniques I'd like to learn/do this year.... there is always something to learn or try.... for now I hope to cram some The Quilt Show videos in today before my membership runs out, then sort out the studio and plan some projects for the coming year. 

linking with:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/ 

patchwork Sunday       

oh Scrap Sundays

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays 

http://www.inquiringquilter.com/ Wednesday wait loss

Midweek makers wednesdays  

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/ 

https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ 

off the wall Fridays   

peacock party

tgiffriday

finished or not

face off!

 slow stitching Sundays        

https://myblog-lunchbreak.blogspot.com/ 

I LIke Thursday # 330 bye bye 2022! I want to learn.... well you'll see

 

Christmas vacation pizza mandala

 

Welcome to the last "I Like Thursday" of 2022.... I like Amy's Pizza on my Christmas dishes! I like to cut my share into thin strips and like turkey pepperoni on mine.

A couple likes for the end of the year....starting with the idea that we're able to start fresh each year.

 great movie 

"the glass onion" a knives out mystery

I loved the knives out first movie, funny,  clever mystery plot who's ending surprised me! Same with The Glass Onion movie, (Netflix) 

other than streaming, tv is awful right now. I have new Midsomer murders lined up to watch, new Virgin River's to watch, and a holiday Agatha Raisin to see

Watching on youtube:

new year's day dinner party

Fine Dining

recipe: https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/amish-chocolate-covered-cherries/

We mostly try sweets recipes by making half recipes which I did with all these. I tried making chocolate covered cherries, buckeyes (peanut butter cups ) amaretti cookies:

 

recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/amaretti-cookie-11933611

which are chewy on the inside like macarons with none of the fuss, the amaretti cookies are so good we decided we must make them all year,

 and candy cane cookies (from last year's recipe)

  the cherries take a week of counter sitting before they are ready to eat, the peanut (in our case sunflower butter)butter candies are excellent, the candy cane cookies are my very favorite. And cute.

recipe: https://homespunseasonalliving.com/chocolate-cheesecake-cookies/

tried a new to me recipe for chocolate cheesecake cookies. Lots of good ingredients like stick of butter, full fat cream cheese, brown sugar, ghridelli cocoa but they are dry and almost tasteless. I learned to make chocolate buttercream icing and frosted them, saving the flavor.

the good news and the bad news.... they don't taste like much but we have a lot of them

 

Our Prompt this week is: 

I sent out this prompt: facing a turning of the calendar page, and a new year stretching out in front of us, is there anything you'd like to try or learn this coming year? 

some new art technique for instance, a new hobby to try? a place to visit? a an art challenge to do? 

Think of something you'd be excited about.... what would you love to do or try even if it's not really possible? They say, reach for the stars right?  

1.I'd love to finally learn how to use Goodreads for keeping a log of books read, series I liked, authors I enjoy, and review the books. I'd like to have a place where I can keep track of books I want to read

2. Ravelry... it's too hard for me to figure out but I want to

3. Keep a running list of quilts finished with size, date, why made, etc because every time I set this up, I lose the list, or forget to log it in, or or or

4. learn to use gouache watercolor paint, as I got some for Christmas

5. learn to weave beads on a loom

6. use my hand dyed/painted fabrics to do free form organic embroidery without self sensorship which kept me from doing it this year. Use hand painted silks in this, and specialty lumpy yarns/threads

7. Is this the year to return to playing piano? It's been a long time

Milo's Moment

Finally! My turn! Lookie at some of my presents.... the chicken has a lot of parts that need removal with strong poodle teeth, the monkey has arms and legs you pull back and forth, the purple thing holds treats I can use my big poodle brain to figure how to get out, and treats!

 I guess I like my new baby bear pjs from our papa bear, mama bear set from Christmas. 

 They fit well, are stretchy, not very warm but they are cut well away from my privates and velcro closed instead of Mama sliding them over my head touching my delicate ears 

I tried to trick mama into giving me a candy cane cookie, they smelled so good, or at least tripping her so she dropped them

but she was too fast. Don't worry, I got some pumpkin cookies just for me, some applesauce almond butter ones made with rice flour in my treat bone, and am pretty content! Although.... the peppermint candy cane cookies are still there Mama, you still have time to give me some!

candy canes make great hearts!

 Mama: sorry dude, made with wheat flour!

now sit! stay! visit these people to see what they are excited to try, or learn the new year! 

http://littlepenguinquilts

 craftscaviescontras   

https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/   

 http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/

 

 the knitty quilter

https://lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com/

princess bubbles creates   

https://knittingquilter.blogspot.com/  

 

https://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/

https://www.homesewnbyus.com/

https://faithtrustandbreastcancer.blogspot.com 

 grammajudyb.blogspot.com 

http://www.piecefulthoughts.com 

 https://www.mmmquilts.com/2022/12/gratitude-70.html

http://3poodlesandanana.blogspot.com  

 https://tentoesinthewater.blogspot.com/

. https://www.su-sieeemac.com/2022/12/the-last-thursday-of-2022.html

                                                                  LINKING WITH 

https://brianshomeblog.com/ 

http://itsasmalltownlife.blogspot.com/   

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com

thankful thursday

friday smiles at a stitch in time   

rosie and the boys nature pics