Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours the very merriest Christmas ever!

Whacky Ladies Bee Meeting

I have missed several recent meetings of my local quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies, so I was glad to be able to attend last Thursday night.  We met at Mary's house, which is only a couple of miles from my house.

Here is some of our Show-and-Tell.

Sharon made this quilt using squares of fabric from a panel, to which she added several borders.

 

Carolyn has started putting together the large red and white blocks from her Block of the Month project from Wish Upon a Quilt.

 

 

 

She is doing another BOM using black, tan, and gold fabrics in batiks.

 

 

Marilyn showed us her festive quilt top in Christmas fabrics and colors.

 

 

Mary also had a Christmas quilt, with trees and cardinals.

 

 

Since we were at Mary's house, she showed us her "napping quilt."

 

 

And here is another Warm Wishes quilt (slightly out of focus, sorry!)

 

 

Lori made a purse from her own original pattern.

 

 

Here is a pinwheel quilt.  I think it was made by Paula.

 

And this is Paula holding a Nine-Patch Pizazz quilt, which I think was made by Mary.  I love the rich colors.

 

I showed my recently returned Round Robin quilt that had been lost for years.  What a surprise when the person who had it found me on Facebook and mailed it to me!

 

 

I also showed the Re-Vision quilt from Cyberbee that I was supposed to have finished over a year ago.  The beautiful top was made by Mary Corcoran.  I have chosen a beautiful hand-dye by Ricky Tims to add a final border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



When it's 85 in March...

When the temperatures have been 85 degrees F for two days in a row, what is one to do?

How about work on a Christmas quilt?  Ho-ho-ho.  I finished one of several Christmas themed quilts today for my customer Teresa.  This one is in contemporary Christmas fabrics with red, gold, chartreuse, and turquoise colors.

It's not that obvious, but there are six stars that make up the design...three red and three green.  Here is a red one.

And here is one with green points.  Aren't those fun fabrics?

This one is a nap-size quilt, and I don't like those to be too closely quilted.  They should be soft and cuddly. 

Some of the fabrics had ornaments with a coiled hanger, and there were lots of holly leaves.  That made my quilting design choice pretty easy. Holly leaves and curls. 

Okay, so I did not stay in and sew all day.  I have been trying to explore lots of nature trails and green ways in my area to keep Kasey and myself interested on our daily walks.  Today we headed to the Falls Lake Dam.  There is a fishing area just below the dam.

The bridge is part of the appropriately named Falls of the Neuse Road.

Falls Lake is the water reservoir for Raleigh, Wake Forest, and other surrounding areas.  It was formed by damming up the Neuse River.  I remember when it was being built.  Charlie and I took our little boys out there and watched the lake slowly filling in.

There is a nature trail above the dam race that we decided to explore.  Shortly beyond the dirt road is a footpath marked Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

The trail was an easy walk through the woods.  We came across a large granite rock outcropping that I know my grand-kids would enjoy playing on.

The spring violets were in bloom.

We eventually got our first glimpse of the lake from the trail as we entered the Falls Lake Visitors Area.

I did not know there was such a building.

I did not go in because I had my dog with me.  I know where our next excursion will be.  There is a trail down to the lake from the visitor center that is waiting for us.  Aren't the redbud trees looking pretty?

While we were near the visitor center, a large raptor bird swooped down near us and landed in a tree.  I was trying to decide if it was an eagle, an osprey, or a red-tailed hawk.  All are residents of the lake area.  A lady came walking over to me excitedly saying, "Oh, I see a golden!"  I thought she meant a golden eagle. 

 Nope. 

She was talking about this little golden!

Turns out, she is one of the "foster mothers" in the Neuse River Golden Retriever Rescue group.  We were invited to their April Golden Retriever Re-Union at the lake, even though I did not adopt Kasey through their group.  Nice to make new friends!

Yesterday we were back at the green way behind Heritage.  It is becoming commonplace to see one or more of these beauties lurking in the wetlands or woods. (Squint a little and you might see a deer silhouette near the center.)

Kasey was very interested in this very large bull that was close to the electric fence at the farm on the Wake Forest end of the green way.
 

That was one close encounter that I did not wish to pursue!

Another Christmas Quilt

If you have been reading my blog this month, you may remember my post about the Gingerbread Houses quilt I entered in the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show on SewCalGal's blog.

She has added a new feature which allows viewers to have a chance at winning one of the great prizes! Just visit her blog and leave a comment or send her an e-mail about your favorite quilt in the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show. Drawing will be December 25, so hurry over! There are some lovely quilts to drool over in the show.

In addition to the Gingerbread Houses quilt, I have quite a few Christmas quilts. Today I will show you one that I made from a block exchange with my quilt bee back in the nineties. The bee has changed names from Just Between Friends to the Whacky Ladies, and I think Marilyn and I are the only remaining original members of this group.

We made pine trees from strip pieces of different lengths with two half-square triangles in each strip. I remember this being a complicated pattern to measure and piece, but I like the way it turned out. Since the trees are not embellished, the quilt is not just limited to Christmas decor. It is just big enough for napping on the couch, although it is currently hanging on the wall in my living room.

To have enough blocks for the quilt, I had to make two more of my blocks, featuring the blue-green-violet batik tree fabric. Of course this was long before I had my long-arm machine, and I used one of the decorative stitches on my Bernina to add garlands to each tree with metallic threads.

I have gotten my new machine (Janome 6600) set up, finally, in its table that fits snugly around the machine. I have only spent a short time playing. It is weird to sit down to sew, and not even know how to wind a bobbin or thread the machine without consulting the manual. It feels very strange after so many years of using my very familiar Bernina. But, I think I will like it.

Today's plan: another workout on my Wii Fit, and then make something fattening to take to the Christmas Eve gathering at my son and daughter-in-law's home! I am thinking...Bourbon Balls!

Gingerbread House Quilt

I decided it was time to take a break from my Christmas party tasks today, and join in the fun of the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show from Sew Cal Gal's blog. I have made quite a few Christmas quilts over the years, but will share a special one for this post.

Back in the nineties, I was the lucky winner of the December Block Party blocks at the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh. The pattern was a simple house with a chimney design, that we were encouraged to embellish as desired.

They were all really cute!

If you glance to the left upper sky section, you will see Santa and his sleigh...

How about a candy house? Lots going on here!
One of my favorites...Santa's boot is just disappearing down the chimney. And I love the lace work to make the gingerbread trim!

My own house block was plain and simple...

Not this one...lots going on in this candy house!

I put all the houses in a nine-patch design, and bordered them with Gingerbread Men from a Debbie Mumm design. Many of the ginger people were embellished with trinkets or fused novelty fabrics that represented our hobbies and interests.

I was teaching elementary school at the time...

I love flowers and gardening...

And my husband had just gotten his Private Pilot's license.

There is a little quilter girl holding scissors and a quilt block next to the house block that I made.

This was so much fun to embellish! Now the grandkids want to know which one is "them." Hmm, I need to add one eating fruit loops and another wearing a pink dress. And a few eyes need to be tacked back down. But this little wall quilt still has a strong appeal to me!

Christmas in July?

Well, yesterday I showed you the Christmas tree farms. Today, a Christmas quilt that I worked on yesterday. It was definitely not Christmasy weather here in North Carolina. The day was hot and humid, and then erupted into thunderstorms in the afternoon. But I managed to finish this very pretty quilt in contemporary colors.

The customer wanted an overall design, so I looked at the motifs on the fabrics and used spirals, holly leaves, and little leaves/berries.

We used King Tut "Reed," a yellow-green cotton thread slightly darker than the greens in the quilt. I was not too sure how it would look, but I am really happy with the way this quilt turned out. The back is the yellow-green with colorful small squares in the picture above, and the quilting does not show on it at all.

I have one more to do for this customer- a gorgeous Moda in soft taupe, rose, and blue. The thread I ordered from Gammill was waiting on my doorstep when we got back on Sunday- they provide super-fast service.

Christmas Quilts

The Grove Park Inn got me in the spirit to start decorating for Christmas. So, yesterday, I got out the Christmas quilts and started changing out my decor for the holidays.

This is my version of Gingerbread Houses, from a block party exchange at Capital Quilters' Guild many years ago. I added the border of gingerbread men that are personalized with the hobbies of the members of my family.I used to participate in many block exchanges. This quilt has blocks from a Cyberbee Santa swap and an Internet Snowman swap.

This little guy came from a kit I purchased in a Crafters' club long ago. I don't think I was a quilter then. I kind of like the wobbly flying geese. I did not quilt this until years later.

I also made a whole stack of bookmarks to give as Christmas favors. Most of them are made from a fabric I painted, stamped, and foiled last year. I added some shiny stitches and fibers.

More Christmas Quilts

Here are a few more Christmas quilts.
The first one is made from blocks received in two separate block exchanges: Santas and Snowmen. It took awhile to figure out how to set all these dissimilar-sized blocks.
The next one is the one-and-only quilt that someone else has made for me! My dear sister-in-law Lee made this wall-hanging from a magazine. I taught her how to do the applique stitch while she was making it. I never dreamed she would give it to me! I love her fabric choices, which look like Hoffmans.









The big one is a scrappy quilt I made to use up my stash of Christmas fabrics. The block was from my guild's block party one year. I made the block but did not make it to the meeting. This thing just kept growing! I keep it on the bed on our third floor bedroom (the one that is becoming my paint studio!) year-round. It is very warm, with a Thimbleberries flannel on the back.

The label is from a book I frequently use. I use Pigma Micron pens, felt-tip fabric markers, Tsukineko inks, whatever to color them.