A Baltimore Christmas

For all you applique'rs out there, 

A Baltimore Christmas Quilt

I know it's only March, but as a quilter, I receive Christmas quilts all year long, and I just had to share this one! Since this is a Baltimore, you know there is lots of detail with lots of little pieces, and I commend anyone who actually finishes one of these quilts.  

On most appliques, I try not to quilt on the applique itself, but the Santa center block in the one was too large not to. This client also did not mind a little quilting on her work, so I did quilt veins in the border and holly leave, and just a few areas where I felt it was needed in the actual blocks themselves. 

This quilt is mainly a lot of background work, and I have included a few of the blocks for you to check out. It was indeed a privilege to have been given the opportunity to quilt this one!

Border 

Christmas Boot block

Wreath block

Gingerbread wreath block

Partridge in a pear tree

The large center Santa block

10 Minute Block Quilt

Fall Greetings!

It's always good to take some time to be thankful, and this time of year reminds us to do so. I am especially thankful to have been born in a country that allows such freedoms, and for those who fight to protect those freedoms! ( A hardy thank you to all our veterans!!!!)

Although I have experienced poverty, I have always had a roof over my head; although sometimes there was little food for all of us, I have never gone hungry; families have issues, but when times have been tough, our family has always been there for each other. This is just a few things on my thankful list - I am very aware I am greatly blessed - but just wanted to get you thinking. No matter what difficulties we face in life, we can always find something to be thankful for!

 I am also thankful to those of you that entrust your quilts to me and allow me to get creative with them. I have quilted 10 minute quilts before, but I really had some fun with this one. It could be because I just loved the colors, or the owls, bunnies, and hedgehogs, or perhaps I just saw this one in a different light. At any rate, here is the result.

The colors have a contemporary feel to them, so the quilting needed to continue this.To keep with the arc pattern of the cathedral window portion, a melon or orange peel pattern was used, with various fill patterns within. This left a sort of compass pattern down the middle, so to counter all those curvy lines, a crosshatch pattern was placed in these areas.

Within the "window" areas, a continuous curve pattern was placed in the center, with a small circles as a fill in the centers. This kept the 3D effect, as well and nailed down that bulky area that is caused by all the layers underneath the center.

Well, I have to get on to my next quilt (it is the holiday season after all). May each of you enjoy a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
(And, until next time, happy quilting!!)

Cathy

Verse for the day: "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2)

Embroidered Snowmen Christmas

The Holidays are Coming Quickly!!

We have enjoyed such a beautiful and warm fall that it is hard to believe that Christmas will be here in less than 2 months - Scary, isn't it?! I certainly have several projects that are in need of completion, and I am sure you do too.

This embroidered alphabet snowmen quilt kind of gets me in the mood - not only do I love snowmen, but this one is so cute, I really did not want to return it to its owner! But then, I am not into lawsuits, so off it went.

Snowflakes, swirls, feathers, loops, and needle pines were all incorporated around the embroidery. The snowmen were large, so did require a little quilting, but a 3D look was maintained. Snowflakes seemed perfect for their tummies, and, of course we had to put some snowmen in the border!


November is only a few days away, so I hope you are getting those holiday projects completed. Until next time, happy quilting!

Cathy

Verse for the day: "See that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." (Colossians 2:8)

Circa 1930 Quilt

Giving new life to an orphan -

Quilt as it is unloaded from the longarm.

At least that's what Linda Taylor says to think about when you machine quilt a "found" orphan quilt top. I always cringe when someone tells me they bought a quilt for $5 at a garage sale - the family selling it not understanding the amount of  hard earned money the material cost, or how many untold hours it took to complete. For this one, I picture the family watching the quilt being made - the painstaking hours of cutting out small remnants of fabric and then the piecing it together, bit by bit, with the hope that one of them would someday have the pleasure of warming themselves with it during cold nights. But then a tragedy occurs and the quilter is no longer with them. They have no idea how to finish the quilt, but they hang on to it, remembering their loved one in the process. Then, many years later, it is found in an old trunk, and the finder doesn't even know who did the work. The original family is long gone, and no one seems to know anything about it, so gives it to goodwill, where someone picked it up one day and said wow - what a find!!

Back of the quilt.

 This one was purchased at the Houston Quilt Market a few years ago. Now, previous to Linda making her statement at a workshop I thoroughly enjoyed, I would have been shaking in my shoes to take a machine to a hand pieced quilt that was this old, but I considered what she said, and tried to give honor to that loved person who took such time to hand cut and piece this intricate design. I cannot imagine how many hours it took - there are so many small triangles!!! The quilter must have also run out of the original green, since the border areas have a darker green hexagon than the body, and had to make due. That's what makes our quilts special - each one has its own unique characteristics.

A Closer look.

With all this in mind, most of the work I put into this quilt cannot be seen. I felt the original quilter would have most likely hand quilted a crosshatch pattern through all those triangles, so a stitch in the ditch was used in those areas. The result was a diamond pattern that is best seen on the back of the quilt.


For the center green hexagons, I wanted to give the quilt a little more character, but still keep it simple, so a very plain flower was placed in these areas.

My hope is the original quilter is looking down from heaven and smiling, pleased that her hard work has been given a good home and is at last completed.

Chain of Fools

I have also finally finished my "Chain of Fools" quilt, so here it is. It's always good to complete a project!!

That's it for now. Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "The heart is more deceitful than anything else and is desperately sick; who  can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds." (Jer. 17:9-10)

Marsha's Smokey River Quilt

Sometimes simple is best.

overall quilt

When Marsha brought me this quilt, her request was to keep the quilting simple, (She knows I can sometimes get carried away!) so that's what I did. The large blocks of strip piecing in the quilt are actually what I puzzled over the most! So while I was thinking about these, I started filling in the other areas, since many times this helps to determine what will be done with those "wonder what I will do with these".

border area

I usually do the border first, just to keep the quilt contained, and as I loaded the quilt, it was obvious that the border was a bit wonky, so the pattern chosen here was a curvy swirl pattern that would take up the excess in that border fabric. The 9 patch areas are a simple basic curve pattern to compliment the border, and the black border has a simple diamond pattern. Since straight lines were used in this part of the border, a triangular Greek key pattern was used for the light blue triangles between the 9 patches.

Main block areas

Moving on to the larger blocks, to keep the star areas simple, basic continuous curve and swirl patterns were used, with the same pattern in 9 patch and chain areas that was used in the border. Okay - so now what's left are those large strip pieced areas. Since line patterns were used in the border, the same concept was brought into these areas to compliment, this time as an "X" pattern running through the 3 colored strips. The result is a combination of curves and straight lines throughout the quilt, and does finish with a simple look. (Marsha was pleased.)

So I hope you are all getting back on to some sort of a normal schedule, now that school in back underway. Hopefully that means you have time to quilt again!


Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

A closer view

Verse for the day: " Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'"
(Isaiah 46:9-10)

Strip pieced areas

Ride the Waves

A More Contemporary Quilt

"Ride the Waves" quilt as it came
off the longarm machine.

I actually started this quilt about a year ago. This one was a kit I had purchased about 4 years ago, and when my granddaughter asked me for a quilt, I went through my projects and thought this one would be perfect for her. However, it did not take me long to determine I was short of fabric - hate when this happens - and so I had to hunt down the now not so available fabrics on the web and wait for them to come in to see if they matched. By the time all this was sorted out, this project did not get into full swing until around April. To start, things were quite simple - all I did was sew a bunch of strips together! (Yes, simple, but I get bored easily, so it took me a while.) I actually completed this one before I started on my "Chain of Fools" quilt, but did not think about blogging my own progress until later.

Leftover scraps

Once my strip piecing was completed, I used a template to cut them diagonally into blocks, and this left a lot of wasted material. I cut them all into triangles, when possible, and other various sizes, as the scraps allowed. I knew there would be enough scraps to make another quilt, so I saved everything until I figured out what I wanted to do.

Border added to top and bottom
to make the quilt longer.

In the meantime, I pieced the blocks together - with care!!! (Everything was cut on the bias, so it was too easy to stretch them.) The finished quilt pattern was square, and I wanted to make it longer, so I took some of those left-over pieces and created an additional border at the top and bottom.

Close up of quilting pattern.

Since the patterns in this quilt were so busy, I opted for an edge to edge pattern that reminded me of ocean waves. (And, quite honestly, it is hard to fit my own quilts into my schedule, let alone try to do them as a custom!)

Pattern used for leftovers

As I was sewing the binding on this one,  I found a triangular pattern in a magazine that I could use with the triangular scrap pieces I had reserved, so I laid out my them out accordingly, and then sewed them together. There were enough scraps leftover to make a 45 X 61" quilt, and I still have scraps - I'll have yet to figure out what to do with the rest of them.

The finished 45 X 61" quilt
made with the leftovers

Well, that's all for now. Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful summer - I can't believe school has started already!!!
Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power." Colossians 2:9-10

Summer Fun

July has been busy!

Dean and Karen enjoying the incredible Garden of the Gods.

It has been a while since I have posted anything, but then, we have been having too much fun! July is a vacation month for most, and we were supposed to see our son Brian during the first week, but he had some car problems and missed his flight, soooooo, since we had planned to take the time off anyway, we just did some fun things around town. Shortly after, we enjoyed a visit from Dale's brother, Dean, and his wife Karen. We always have a great time together, and this was no exception. We visited the Farmer's Market in Fort Collins, and afterward, since they were having a sale at The Cupboard, Karen and I had to stop in. You can spend a lot of time in that shop, and we certainly did - so much time that we were late meeting our son, John, for lunch! The guys all teased us, but we didn't care - we were enjoying ourselves.

Dean and Dale find a great place to rest while the girls shop.

We also took a mini trip with them to Colorado Springs, where we walked through the Garden of the Gods, shopped in Manitou Springs, and toured the Air-force Academy.(along with lots of shopping!)

When we returned home, we prepared for the arrival of our niece and her family, and all of us enjoyed lots of fun as they explored the area for the first time. Amy wanted to check out Fort Collins, so after visiting the Sculpture Garden in Loveland, drove on up and hit an ice cream store (that's what summer is about, right?!) Our shop exploration did not get very far as Amy got hung up in one particular store right at the get go and we never got her out of there!! I think she will come back for a visit just to go back to that shop again.

Jeff. Amy, John, Cathy, Dale, (back row)
Grace, Anika, Patricia, Dean, & Karen (front row)
at a family backyard barbeque.

Everyone has gone home, and I sort of have my house back in order again, so now I am working on catching up on my quilting - definitely behind. I have finished my "Chain of Fools" quilt, and hope to get it quilted soon so you can see the finished product.


That's it for now. I hope all of you are enjoying your summer - it is quickly coming to an end!

Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "Every word of God is pure; he is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him." (Proverbs 30:5)