Pre-Christmas: My Christmas Quilts

The Christmas decorations are not complete until Christmas quilts are up. This year there were little late getting up because I wasn't feeling well and we were very busy with the Nutcracker. Most of the quilts were up by the fifth or sixth of December and the last few small ones were up by the 12th.

Here is a link to another blog post called How Many Christmas Quilts Do You Have? This doesn't include all my quilts so I will add those pictures to this post.

I am sure you have seen these quilts one time or another on my blog over the years. I felt like sharing them again.

 Machine appliqued Angel.












My Believe in Santa, I gave this away one year, also machined appliqued. 

 My Christmas Charm, machine appliqued.












My Dear Jane Swap Christmas Quilt. I forget how many blocks I made for the swap.  I made a couple of extra to make the layout I wanted.  This quilt was in the AQG show and the judges liked how I did my corners, that it followed the line layout.  They thought it needed more quilting but I didn't agree.  My first attempt at free motion feathers. They are definitely free motion.



I made two of these also, I gave one to my big daughter and put Halloween fabric on the back.  She loves Halloween.  When we were at her home for Thanksgiving she proudly showed me she has the quilt on the wall with the Halloween side out.  I told her to turn it around for Christmas so she can use it all year long. 



This was a kit I purchased in Colorado one year when I was there with my job.  I loved the fabrics.  He is on the same hanger as the Santa quilt and he is straight I just hold the camera crocked.








 
This is a winter quilt and I leave it up until February, the others come down.  It was also a class sample for 9 Patch Pizzazz. 








And last but not least is my Stick Santa made this year. I finally brought him home from the quilt shop.  He was a class sample but no one took the class, but he did sell patterns. 

I hoped you enjoyed the Christmas Quilt show.  

Have a Merry Christmas and please remember the real reason we celebrate the season. 

I guess I have been because I have been tearing up a lot when I hear Holy Christmas songs and see some of the videos made by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

Fall Get-away 2010

Let me start off by saying I had a really good time at Fall Get-away or what I usually call Quilt Camp.  I ate too much, laughed a lot, and did a fair share of talking.  I also did some sewing. 



mequilter with Topsy Snowman



The first thing I finished was my small quilt for the silent auction.  Don't let the title of the auction seduce you into to thinking it is a tame event.  Those ladies can sure bump you around with their hips if they really want something.  Luckily they are all soft bumps. 

The weather was a lot cooler in Prescott than here in Mesa.  I actually had to put on my long blue jeans on Thursday night and wear a sweater each evening and morning.  I'm not complaining.  I'm ready for the cooler weather to come!



Topsy Snowman



If you would like to check out more pictures of came you can go to my album on my Webshots page.  There you can see some of the other quilters and some of the sites of the camp we go to in Prescott. 



mequilter and Painted Desert



Here am I with another project I finished the top on.  This project I started at the Fall Get-away in 2004.  It took me most of Friday to piece the borders and sew them on to the center.  Those are very small pieces.  It is from the July/August 2004 Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting. 

Those items hanging behind me are some of the auction items.

 

Painted Desert



Here is Painted Desert all by itself and basted and ready for quilting.



me sewing

Yes I did actually sew, and there I am with my sweater on. 



My Camp Projects



Home again and here are my camp projects. 

From Left to Right:

Christmas Cardinals,

Tumbler table runner,

Painted Desert.

I also started the Yellow Brick Road quilt.  I purchased this fabric in Orland Florida in May of 2009 when Richard and I were there last year.  It is on my list of quilt to finish this year.

So there you are a little bit about quilt camp and the sewing I did.  I came home on Sunday and relaxed and began unpacking.  Monday I did more unpacking and all the weekend chores, because you know how it goes, if you aren't here they don't get done.  I was back to work on Tuesday.  This has been the first chance I had to blog. 

Happy stitching!

Mystical Horses and Snowman

Waiting to go on the frame

One of my goals for the weekend was to have my Mystical horse quilt on the frame.  Well it is on the frame but not in the way I can quilt it.  It is just draped across the frame until I can piece the back.  Luckily the weekend isn't officially over, there is still tomorrow, Monday is Labor day.

Mystical Horses with Borders

I was able to add the last border this morning.  Mr. B is holding up the one side so I could take a picture of the whole quilt.  I just realized that I have a couple of names for this quilt, I guess I should be more consistent.  I have it labeled in my pictures, as Mystical Horse, and plural as Mystical Horses.  In EQ6 I have it as Mystic Horse.  I just check and Laurel Burch called it Mythical Horses.  Very interesting, I guess I better decide on it's real name before I finish it. 

Topsy Snowman

I also made some progress on the Topsy Snowman, he is all appliqued and quilted, the binding is on the front side and most of his embellishments are done.  He just needs a few more buttons up his front.  Four more wakes ups before I leave for quilt camp. 

Topsy Snowman

After my Genealogy Society meeting I had a few minutes before the local fabric store closed so I ran in to buy my embellishments for my small auction quilt for Quilt Camp. 

Embellishments

I'm going to go sew for a few minutes before I go to bed.

Quilting Update

New Design Wall and Big Board Covering

I did accomplish a lot of quilting type things this week which means I did very little Genealogy.  I just really felt the need to accomplish a few quilting things.  Two items were completely unplanned for this week, well one of them has been on my to do list and once I did that I saw something else that needed to be done so I did it.  The one item on my to do list was to remove the old muslin on my big board and recover it with new muslin.  Well that sucker is heavy and once it was moved, I notice how dirty my design wall was, we use to have two cats that liked to hang out on the big board.  So I ripped the old batting off an re-covered it.  Which meant I had to move all my storage stacks that live under my big board.   As well as climb up and down the step ladder.  It also meant that I need to go buy more batting then I realized that I could get a flannel backed table cloth for only $5 and that was cheaper and worked just as well as batting.  I ran off to the local store and pinned it to my insulation.  Since it was bigger than my design area, I cut it with my rotatory cutter, by moving a small cutting mat against the wall to cut off the extra tablecloth.  It worked real slick and was easier than cutting it with scissors.  I can't get over how clean it all looks.  One corner of the Big Board had been scored brown. 

Topsy Snowman

My next little project was to start working on my quilt camp small auction quilt.  I sure hope it will find a happy new home.  The theme for camp is "Let it Snow".  I think my little quilt will fit in just fine with the theme.  He still needs to be machine appliqued and quilted and some buttons added as embellishment.  The border print was a fat quarter I picked up from an ugly fat quarter exchange about 2 or 3 years ago at quilt camp.  I don't think it is ugly at all, and now it looks great with the other fabrics.

Mystical Horse 3 borders on

This is my other project.  I designed this in EQ6 and had the center completed since Sept 3 of 2007.  Almost three years.  I have even had the fabric for the borders for at least 2 years.  Today it called to me.  This is Laurel Burch Mystical Horse fabric, her first run of the design.  I really like the print of the fabric and the colors.  I only had fat quarters of it and maybe one or two half yards.  I just didn't want to cut the fabric and I wanted to use it all, or most of it.  This is my own design.  I did a lot of the color placement on the design wall.  Yes I have tow design walls, one in the sewing room and this one at the end of the hall to the bedrooms, it is right outside my sewing room, or a friend calls it the "Lady Den".  I just couldn't do plain borders so I purchased two different colors and the black for the resting border.  I was thinking of doing mitered corners for the big border but when I drew them in EQ7, they didn't impress me.  So I made 9 patch blocks instead and I really like the effect.  I still have one more border to sew on, but the day has come to an end and I most go to work tomorrow. 
Good night and happy stitching.