adventures of a quilting diva

Christmas time is often a busy time, but it is a beautiful time as well. It’s probably too late to start a Christmas quilt (at least for Christmas 2009), but you can still take in the sights and get some inspiration from the season’s festive color palettes.

Stroll through a few Christmassy shops and see what colors the trees are decked out in this year. Maybe you’ll discover just the right color palette for your first quilt of 2010.

Or maybe there’s a red & green quilt in your near future. Check out my “box of ornaments” above. 3 reds + 3 greens = 9 different red & green combinations. Not all of them are what we think of as traditional for Christmas, or even for red & green quilts, but it’s interesting to consider which patterns you might choose for each one and why.

I think it would be fun to make a Christmas tree quilt out of the bottom left combo. Which combo do you like best and what kind of quilt would you make from it?

Today I’m baking Christmas cookies. You don’t need to plan very far in advance to bake cookies. Just make sure your kitchen is clean and stocked with the ingredients you need. In an hour or two they’ll be ready to enjoy.

On the other hand, making a quilt takes not only the right ingredients but also much more time. Some people can make an entire quilt in a day or two, even an afternoon. Most quilters I know need weeks or months to complete their quilted masterpiece. So although I am baking cookies this morning that will be eaten at my daughter’s class Christmas party this afternoon, the quilt I am working on tonight will make its debut next spring.

I’m also thinking about designing a fish quilt. See the cookies on the bottom left part of the tray? Those are my version of Christmas carp. Carp is traditional for a Czech Christmas Eve dinner. Since I’m vegetarian this is the only carp my family and friends will get to see this Christmas. Although perhaps next Christmas there will be a Christmas carp quilt.

Some of the fish below are carp, but some are koi. I’m going to have to do a bit more research before I hit the sketchbook. Happy Holidays!

This Christmas, why not remember the festivities large and small by creating quilt blocks for each one. My tree block at left is from my Dear Diary quilt. It’s actually a January block, “Taking down the Christmas Tree” but it could just as easily depict a tree going up.

Make blocks for baking cookies, shopping for presents, attending a Christmas pageant, and more. Just about anything, really. Then make a New Year’s Resolution to piece the blocks together and quilt them so that next Christmas you can reminisce and enjoy your quilterly creation.

This year I hosted the Christmas Challenge for my guild, Citrus Belt Quilters. It was a stocking challenge, the quilter could choose any size, fabric, style or technique. (Can you tell that I’m not too big into complicated rules and regulations?)

This is my sample, done in wool felt on my Huskystar needle-felting embellisher machine. It’s decorated with yarn and Angelina fibers, and I hand-embroidered the front and back together with variegated pearl cotton, blanket stitch, my all-time favorite. It was quick, easy and fun to make.

Here are Lois Cowan’s stockings, first place winner for Moonlighters (evening meeting), made from recycled blue jeans. You can put stuff in the pocket on the top stocking as well as inside.

This is Yvonne Butner’s stocking, third place winner (daytime). The tree is decorated with all the things that cute little kitties dream about.

Phyllis Whitlock’s crazy quilted Texas Cowgirl Boot stocking took 2nd place (daytime). If only boots could really be crazy quilted, what a great thing it would be to wear to Houston!

And finally Kathy Willhoft took first place at the daytime meeting for her pair of beautifully appliqu

éd Christmas stockings. Enjoying eye candy like this is calorie-free!

Many cute stockings were made by guild members and donated to Community Service along with the stockings for the challenge.

I thought stocking ornaments would make appropriate “ribbons” for the winners. When you’re painting crazy quilt stockings and make a mistake, you don’t need a seam ripper to remove the “fabric”. Just paint right over it!

Have a pieceful Christmas and a scrappy new year!

I finished my snowman quilt in time for the guild meeting, but just barely. It was neat to see the different ways everyone used the snowman panel—no shortage of inspiration there! I didn’t bring my camera, but if you check the Citrus Belt Quilters website in a week or two, you should be able to see photos of the winners. We also had a magnificent potluck lunch. The CBQ members are not only wonderful quilters, they are great cooks too!

I enjoyed working with the polar fleece. Wintertime is definitely the right time to be making things with fleece. It took somewhere between 5000 to 6000 snips of the scissors to do the raggy seams. At least I was warm while snipping (yes, I did have the spring-loaded scissors which saved my hand from a sure fate of repetitive-motion injury).

The plaids in the plaid raggy quilt were taken from colors in the snowman fabrics so now we have a set of cozy Christmas-y quilts. These ones are for my family. Most all of the quilts I make are given away, and so we mainly have store-bought blankets and such in our home. And since I’m still gathering Christmas decorations, they really add to the Christmas cheer in our home.

happy quilting!