It's Never Too Early For Christmas

Jane and Linda were at the quilt retreat too and spent much of their time working on a new collaborative effort - a quilt for Linda's little grandson. His birthday is in December so they are making him a Christmas quilt. How fun is that?

This is the pattern that served as their inspiration (it was in a post from Lori at Humble Quilts a few years back) but after making a sample house block that they had drafted they decided that it was just toooo big (I think it was a 10" block), and I think that they were right.

After a few tweaks and remeasures and another sample block they came up with this cozy little cabin design; they are 6" wide and 7" tall.

There will be several more cabins in each row than are in the inspiration quilt and a funky little Christmas tree added to each row as well. I have only seen the tree inspiration at this point but am dying to see all of the cabins and trees together.

Their border print for the bottom is more blue than red but will go perfectly with the fabrics that they have chosen, particularly because they are making the sky in their blocks from a variety of blues instead of the cream that was shown in the quilt above.

By the end of the weekend they had all of the cabins cut out and several together. I have it on good authority that all of the cabins are now assembled.

It is going to be so stinkin' cute! I can't wait to see all of the elements come together on this one. Lucky little fellow!....M

Snow Day

We had what the weatherman described as the biggest storm of the season this week with more than a foot of snow landing on top of what we already had in a 24-hour period and once again the snowbanks are so high that we have a hard time seeing the street from our house. There have been lots of  'snow days' for the children this winter - 'tis the season. What better time to share Betty's beautiful white quilt with you, affectionately known as the MOB (Mother of the Bride) quilt because she hand stitched it in the months before and after her daughter Julia's wedding.

She brought it to our girls weekend and the oohs and aaahs could not be restrained. It is the perfect marriage of colour and texture.

All of those little blocks of white-on-white, with the occasional bits of vintage embroidery tucked in here and there, meld together for a truly spectacular finish.

There are lots of spots for your eye to rest and admire the bit of colour and various bit of lace and embroidery. It leaves your mind to wander and imagine what part of a larger whole each of these strips or blocks were originally.

And in the corners she brilliantly incorporated four different pieces of lace. It is a work of art.

It is amazing how texture and subtle variances in white tones do all the talking in this quilt - no need to incorporate any other colours at all. Just lovely.....M

My Happy Little Valentines

I continue to see red these days but it's not all been from the fabric bins. To put it mildly, we have had a heck of a time with our Internet and phone service, which explains my long hiatus from blogland. We thought everything had finally settled yesterday but alas, that was not to be. I'm trying not to take a fit but it's getting harder and harder. Regardless, while I have connectivity I'm going to share my Valentines with you.

These are the result of all that scrap sewing that you saw the last time and lots of fun to make.

I started with a tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew  and went from there, backing and binding them all with the same red dot, very appropriately named Kiss Dot. The hearts were 5" and the potholders finished off at about 7 1/2".

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had them mostly together that I realized that maybe not all of the scraps had been pre-washed. I had made 13 blocks and at one point toyed with making a baby quilt, but I just couldn't risk all of that white background turning pink in the wash because you know if its a baby quilt it is going to need to be washed. I did wash the backing but still have my fingers crossed that nothing runs when they get laundered.

The gals got together for some quilting therapy last weekend (more to come on that) so everyone got a pair to take home. They were met with squeals of delight, so I'm thinking that's a good thing. It's an idea I got from Sandy last summer when she said she was making potholders for her girls get together. So everyone was happy - I got to play with my scraps and the gals got a little treat. Hope that there are Valentine treats this week for you, too. Happy Valentine's Day!....M

Seeing Red, and a Little Plum Too

It's probably just the time of year, you know - with Valentine's Day in the offing. Or maybe it was because I had pulled out all of my scrap bins to cut pieces for Halo and got sidetracked with the reds. Whatever it was I decided that I needed to make some of those small red scraps into scrappy fabric.

No plan in mind, just the fun of mindless sewing and seeing the bits and pieces come together in interesting ways rather than languishing at the bottom of a bin.

About half way through I set upon an idea of what to do with it so that everything didn't get chucked right back into the scrap bins or a WIP pile, and it was FUN! I'll have an update for you next time (how's that for a teaser?)

And speaking of teasers, how about this beauty that Betty is working on? Is it not amazing??? This is just a small taste of what I expect to see next weekend when we gals get together to stitch and catch up. I'll be certain to share lots of pics....M