Some Early Christmas Joy

Holidays are coming!

As quilters, we have usually already started thinking about Christmas by now. Our projects do take a while to complete, no matter how simple they are. This cute little quilt is not simple, for the embroidery itself took some time to complete, and I just love the joy of the season it represents: joy; peace, merry, love, delight, magic, believe, noel, and cheer are embroidered in the blocks.

Quilted crosshatch inner border. 

The outer border is a busy fabric, so a simple feather pattern was quilted there. The inner border has a crosshatch with a Christmas variegated thread. The small black border was small enough to let it stand alone.




The embroider blocks were highlighted with and outline and echo around the wording, and then a small swirl pattern around the circles. The border around the blocks was a ribbon-like swirl pattern to give the look of a wrapped package, and the small blocks were given a holly leaf pattern.

Quilting detail of embroidered blocks

Holly motifs in small surrounding blocks

I always like it when I receive a Christmas quilt long before the season hits - I can relax, and enjoy the quilting process without the pressure!








That's all for now! Until next time, happy quilting - and help your quilter out by getting those holiday projects to her early!

Cathy

Verse for the day: "Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11)

Some Charity Edge to Edge

Happy August!


Summers often seem so busy with vacations, family visits, and other stuff, and I hope you have all been enjoying some special times.


I have had these charity quilts from LNCQ (League of Northern Colorado Quilters) sitting in my closet since February, and I finally had a gap in my schedule to get them quilted. A big thank you and many blessings to those of you who contributed time and materials to make them!

These charity quilts give me a chance to show you some more edge to edge quilting patterns. This first one is quilted with a flower pattern, which gives some life and definition to this simple quilt.















This next quilt looks like it will most likely end up with a young girl, so to keep the fun happy look, I quilted in a butterfly pattern.

This one looks more like a young boys quilt, so it has an owl pattern quilted in.

A panel quilt of a gnome village has a "Sunny Day" quilted pattern.

It is hard to say to whom this pinwheel block quilt might be blessed with, so it received some simple quilted feathers that would be age and gender neutral.

And finally, this really happy little quilt, and the smiley faces just said bubbles to me.

 I am so relieved to be able to finally get these out of my closet, and I am sure the charities these will go to will be anxious to receive them!

Happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: ".....Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil." (Joel 2:13)

A Visit to California

Samantha and Emily enjoying the
Lake Tahoe beach.

Family - What a Blessing!

Sarah with Emily, Ryan, Samantha, and Adam at
 beautiful Lake Tahoe

Dale and Cathy with Ryan, Emily, and Samantha.

It was about time we were able to make it out to California to visit our daughter and her wonderful family! The grandchildren are growing up way to fast, and this visit we saw some big changes in them - We both had to reach up to hug Ryan, and the girls are becoming beautiful young ladies. But we had so much fun!

Emily doing some serious painting.

Samatha often gets a bit silly.

The girls and I always do lots of crafts while Dale and Ryan play golf. Usually, Sarah's husband Adam plays also, but since he hasn't played for quite some time, he decided it would not be very good for his ego to go against those two.

Sometimes the girls do some
silly things to poor Grandpa.

Grandma trying to figure out the game.

The girls tried to teach Grandma their new game - I'm a slow learner - somehow you obtain an apartment, get married, have a baby, and the baby grows up. When you tune into the game each day, it is a surprise as to what stage your baby is at - but you have to care for it! A good game to learn some responsibility, but I have to say, I don't think I was a very good parent, since I never quite got the hang of what was going on!

We have been back home for a little over a week now, trying to rest up (it was a long drive!) and get caught up on things. Cathy is, of course, back to trying to get those quilts out!

More quilts soon!
Cathy
"For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good." Psalm 107:9

A Grand Champion

Congratulations!

For all of you who contributed entries to the county fair, thank you! We so enjoy going to see all the beautiful quilts hanging - so diverse and inspiring - and what an opportunity to show off all the work and effort you put into your quilt. I also think it is worth entering to obtain the suggestions for improvement from the judges - they do a wonderful job of encouraging and stretches us to improve our skills.

Congratulations to AJ, who won the Grand Champion award for her beautiful Christmas quilt! I have an overall picture here, but you can view her quilt in my December 2013 blog - it is amazing and worth your visit.

Not all of us can be grand champions, but it is very satisfying to win any award, and also to know that you were courageous enough to try!

Love to all of you, and again, congratulations to our fair contributors!

Cathy