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

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https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ 

off the wall Fridays   

peacock party

tgiffriday

finished or not

face off!

 slow stitching Sundays        

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This Creative Week Christmas scraps turned into gifts

 

previous Christmas quilt hanging in our stairwell

Welcome to my creativity round up this week!  This week I took part in a free workshop on creativity with three lectures a day. I love Eric Maisel. 

I spent an amount of time being creative in the kitchen this week, (yep even dog cookies turn into art around here)

cranberry applesauce poodle cookies as a mandala

getting out the Christmas dishes, and kitchen towels, hanging quilts around the house from previous years, and using Christmas scrap fabric to create a few gifts, and soothe my harried soul...

I approached each little mug rug with the same deliberation I do other art projects... this with that, lines, colors, angles, giggles, metallic threads, couched gold cording, iron on crystals... and surprise backings for some people. These will hopefully fit in Christmas cards so I don't have to go to a post office. 

I reorganized all my copies of recipes into two notebooks now, making finding ones we like easier. That meant getting rid of some we didn't like as much, and not one to waste paper, I painted another lady over an apple crumb muffin printout. (The muffins were dry and we found a better recipe)

I really like her, and learn from each drawing. Again I used the stabilo black crayon then pulled the black lines with water brush to form shadows. It's not easy to control but fun to see what happens!

some close ups....click on images to enlarge them further

I am quilting last year's Christmas quilt in large sections, then planning to put it together.... but it's a challenge to get through my small harp on the Bernina 1630

the center will be the hardest, 9 blocks already together, sandwiched with batting and backing and hard to manipulate through the machine. I start with the easiest bits, the top three, bottom three, the side 6, and next to quilt is the right side 6. 

time to safety pin baste! then quilt!

I will sew the quilted tops together pulling backing away to make a solid seam cover after the sections are sewn. I'll do the final stitching by hand to make sure it's nearly invisible. I've done many bed quilts this way.

For RSC, all the white/cream/beige fabrics are neutral scraps, the colored pieces are my kind of neutral scraps. Each octagon center is a special fun fabric collected over the years. 

okay so I collect a half yard and use just this much.... heh heh.... I'm a collector!

wish me luck quilting this!

and now some things you didn't know you wanted...

gifts quilters want this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O07J_q9UFEU

happy arting y'all 

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

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

patchwork Sunday    

 slow stitching Sundays                

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!

Christmas quilts --- from prior years

As I am going through my stack of finished quilts, and there are lots of them, I am trying to make sure they are all on my spreadsheet list. I am trying to remember to take a quick pic of each one. I thought I'd show you a couple Christmas ones.

Santa on vacation... I titled it "Wish you were here!"
I cut all components free hand with no patterns. The shirt was printed on a tropical fabric. It's small but there are always little places for a display...

I didn't try to take a real quality photo of each quilt because of time, just took them on my bed, then folded each to keep with the other seasonal quilts.

Santa is cavorting on the beach with Prancer who is wearing a life preserver, Santa is resting under a 3-D palm tree, holding a Mai Tai, and has sunburned knees! I grew up in Florida and saw many snowbirds with white skin, and red sunburns over the holidays!!

The other little quilt was a purchased embroidery. I set it simply and quilted hills of snow into it. A little embroidered fabric is tempting, but then you need to figure out how to quilt around embroidery. It reminds me that one doesn't always have to choose to be good... Milo has taken that to heart!

As I mentioned, I am taking quick shots and this one is fairly large for a wall piece at about 55" square. It was a kit using Linda DiBono patterns. I worked on it at a retreat, when we moved to this house and didn't know where my stuff was. That was about 17 years ago.

 Each applique is fused on, and heavily machine embroidered. The quilting is heavily done with sliver mylar thread that is fussy but very shiny and reflective.

The borders were my idea, and have couched brightly colored chenille yarn, and lots of sparkly threads.

I made this runner last year I think. It's done with a pretty border print and 60 degree triangles. 

It is also quilted with metallic gold thread, from Superior.

I love to see my older quilts come out of hiding. There are more Christmas quilts including bed quilts of Hunter Stars and others with applique or row by row designs. Our home is so small I just have stored them without being able to bring them out each year because they were "stored"

Now they have to be transported out West.
OMG

Have I mentioned I have more than 200 quilts?
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embroidery mondays

a flock of cardinals

this year's stuffie is the cardinal  from this pattern source apineindustriose

Every year I make a stuffie from  sparkly red felt. If I have lots of fun I make many of them.

This year I made 4 cardinals, with beads and sequins and embroidery. I added on weird little scrap wings.
One of them went to my good art quilting friend Cynthia, and she said it would live on her table with a nativity scene since she loved cardinals best of all birds, and she loves birds! I put sequins in a flower shape on hers. (no picture)

Whee! Not often I get a gift right!

Anyway, not content to make one for the stuffie parade, I had to make a flock for the tree.

Wire legs and little scrappy wings

embroidery and gold eyes.

Here's looking at you! I put little wooden bead eyes and marker to make an iris. Looks great!
Sparkly red felt, perle cotton embroidery thread, wire bent into legs and feet, beads too!

"Chirp! Chirp chirp!", said the Christmas Cardinal Coop

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!

My Christmas tree is flamingo pink!

Well, isn't everyone's???
Actually our big tree in the family room is white this year, more about that later.

Take a look at that pretty entry tree... all pink and beaded.
Beaded?
As I set it up this year, I looked to the right at my flamingo

Who proudly waves her sparkle flag all year while wearing her mardi gras beads. And her lei. Now she is holding a Christmas plant. She gave up her beads for the tree this month because....

Mama like-eee !!!
In previous years I went all out on a railing garland, but this year simplicity won out...

We discovered some years back that all three of us including the poodle got sick when we had a real tree in the house. We went to artificial, or as I like to say, artistic interpretation of a tree. This year I needed some of the pine scent, so we got a wreath of boughs and I draped the end of the lights on it. Voila!

Meanwhile back in the family room we unfurled the tree. It's is in three pre-lit sections, you stack them up, level it, it shakes itself like a dog, and there's your tree. I usually weigh it down with sparkle and ornaments and beads. This year is a lesser year. Instead of winding ribbon around and around I draped it from the top like streamers and I think I like it better! Gold see thru ribbon.

shimmer

I put on about a tenth of my ornaments,  some  flamingos, icicles of crystal, and some of Cole's.

That's when I began crying.

Oh my poor heart.

He never touched the tree, unlike my lab who treated it like a treat dispenser. She would walk over calmly, look around and choose an ornament, carefully take it off the tree and chew it up.

 Cole treated the tree like any other decoration. He would come in, see it had entered the room, give it a once over, maybe a sniff  test, and after inspection, leave it alone.

For a while I made a stuffie each year,  with red felt. They are lining the tv cabinet and under the tree this year.
 I never wanted to tempt Cole with a stuffie... even a grown poodle has his limits.

Cole's scarf and hat are resting on the little poodle Maria gave us when he went to Heaven.

"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" meeting a scottie under the tree

See the pretty bags?
I put them out as decoration. Now they have a purpose... we both ordered gifties for the other from Amazon prime.... from the same account. We don't know who's stuff is in the boxes!! Our solution was to put the unopened boxes in the bags til Christmas morning, and open them together to figure it out!

Drew said " of course, one of these holds the replacement heads for our toothbrush"
Nothing says Christmas like clean teeth!