 This Christmas I finished this wall hanging for my mom. It was probably the best gift that I gave this year. Many years ago (back in the 90s) Mom and I used to get the Piecemakers quilt calendar and dream of making the beautiful quilt on the cover. We decided to make the one in 1994. It wouldn't be too hard if we made one block every month, would it? We would work together and encourage one another so that we would actually finish it, right? We quilters always start projects with good intentions, but we end up with a collection of unfinished projects stashed in a closet somewhere. Mom got tired of stashing this project several years ago and gave her box of stuff to me. I decided that these blocks were too pretty and had too much hand stitching in them to discard, so I would make a wall hanging with the blocks she finished so that she could enjoy them. And boy would she be surprised when she opened this gift!   I couldn't find the calendar cover with the beautiful color photo of the original quilt, but above you can see the drawing on one of the papers. You can actually still find this pattern for sale if you click here.  Mom got 4 of her blocks done - January, February, March, and April. She also made one of the setting blocks. This was all hand applique stitching, and hand embroidery work around the windows and door and other details. It was fun quilting this house!  In the box of "stuff" I also found sheets of plastic from the templates we made. This was before there were rotary cutting instructions for everything. We actually traced around plastic templates, added a 1/4" seam allowance and cut fabric by hand. For most of the applique we used the freezer paper method.  I liked this block better after I added the quilting. Getting the points right on this one was no easy task!.  The cow is SO cute with his 3D ears and braided tail.  And this is the setting block that I included in the quilt backing. Believe me -- making just one of these blocks was enough!!
Are you wondering what Mom's reaction was yet?? The truth is she didn't even remember making these at first! She kept saying, "I made that? Really, I made that?" "You mean I did all of that hand stitching?" "I made that?" Mom did quickly remember and loves the gift. So we had a lot of fun talking about this project and when we bought our fabric and other memories surrounding these blocks. We looked at all of the fabrics we used and talked about how pretty they are and what good taste we have. I hope to make the blocks that I finished into a wall hanging for myself sometime soon. You know I'll show you when I get it done! Thanks for bearing with me through this long post. I'm linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Happy quilting, friends!
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 Winter came to western PA this week, bringing several inches of snow. Snowmen can be so cute, and this is the kind that I like to make now. I'll leave rolling big snowballs to the kids and make mine with fabric!  Over Thanksgiving weekend Aunt Brenda had a sewing project for me, my mom, cousin, and aunts. She even had all the fabric cut out into kits for us. Pretty awesome! We used the Cut Loose Press pattern Snowman Runner by Annette Ryerson and one of those rulers that I love from Creative Grids - the 8" Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool. Four of the curvy log cabin blocks can be put together to make the circular shape for a snowman head. The hats and noses were machine appliqued on, and I added a narrow zigzag stitch for the mouths.  I have already sewn a lot of these curvy log cabin blocks, and after making 8 of them for this runner I wanted keep going! It was the first time for everyone else making the blocks, and they all caught on quickly. Sewing these really can be addictive - you just won't want to stop :-) ! We didn't put the holly leaf on his hat. Brenda had some other decorative buttons for us to choose from to embellish with.  Thanks, Aunt Brenda, for planning this fun project for us!
I did finish the binding and buttons last night (Friday) while watching The Great British Baking Show. Does anyone else love that one? Though it's Saturday, I'll still link up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Keep warm, quilting friends, and thanks for visiting!  It's now December, and I've already had customers at work wish me a Merry Christmas! It seems too early for that (though not really). I am still trying to finish up the last of the Christmas table runners to be listed in my Etsy shop.  Both of the table runners in this post are designs by Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures. The star runner is from her Little Charmers III pattern. I love everything about this pattern - love the star design and love that it uses a charm pack. The charm pack used for this runner is Holly Night by Sentimental Studios for Moda. It is very elegant with gold in all of the fabrics. I quilted with gold thread, of course :-)  Next is a Christmas Tree runner. The pattern is called Baby Juniper from Anka's Treasures Angles With Ease pattern book and The Triangler ruler. I've made LOTS of these, and they are so fun to make and feature different fabrics in the trees. They can be traditional, whimsical, modern or colorful batiks. This time I used fabrics from Snowfall, a fabric line by Minick & Simpson for Moda. That little candy cane print is so sweet!   I actually made two of these, and you can see that I have some binding to finish up tonight! I hope to be able to take some better photos tomorrow in the daylight and get them listed.
It is Finish It Up Friday, so I'll be linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting, and Merry Christmas!! |
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