Bears, Santas, and a Sampler

The Holiday Rush is Here!

At this time of year, I always have a hard time keeping up, but so much more so with only one useful hand! I am doing much better - got my pink hard cast off last week, and am now in a splint - but I did have to slow down a bit. I have more wrist exercises to do than I can keep up with - 3 times/day at that! The swelling has gone down considerably, and I can now handle my bobbin without fumbling it!


I am a bit behind on both my quilting and my blog posts, so I thought I would try to catch up with a quick summary.

 I don't see embroidered quilts very often, but recently had 2 to quilt. The first one is an Alphabet ABC Bear cross stitch quilt that will someday go to a great grandchild. This is a really cute little quilt, and it was joyful to work on.

Because I don't think it a good idea to go over most hand stitching,  I echoed around the bears, words, and letters out to the edge. The sashings and inner border have loops with stars in the cornerstones. Teddy bears were quilted into the border.























The second quilt is all about Christmas. The treatment is similar, with echoing around the embroidered Santa blocks, but snowflakes in the borders and sashings.

The quilt I had on the machine when I broke my wrist was this beautiful sampler. I was about half way through it, and when I came home and looked at it I couldn't help but wonder if I was going to be able to finish it! Well, as you can see, I did, and I think it came out wonderful despite my handicap.
  

This quilt had beautiful shades of teal, purple, blue, and beige in it, and I just loved these fabrics. The outer border was done in feathers with matching feather triangles.


 

For the chain blocks, I played around a bit until I came up with a fill that I thought would work. I decided on a variety of fleur de lis patterns for the sampler blocks which seemed to compliment the fabric.

Since it is hard to see the quilting with the busy patterns, I have included a photo of the back of the quilt.

Well, that's about all I can fit in for today. Hope you all have been enjoying this wonderful fall weather we have had - winter is on its way!

Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the day: "The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter." (Psalm 74:16-17)