July - Christmas Quilt Along - Post #1

Hello Everyone,

Today is the 2nd Saturday of the month and that means it is Christmas Quilt Along day! Many thanks go to Sue for hosting the festivities this month on her BLOG.  As soon as I logged in to Sue's site this morning, she emailed me the directions for the next block for the Scatty Christmas Stars quilt.  Here is my block #1 with all my required elements.....polka dots, checks and a kinda sorta a plaid.

And then here is my block #2.  It was a bit dicey getting all of the reds to play well together.  Not much green going on in the blocks for this month.

Here is the whole group together for the blocks I've completed so far thanks to the Quilt Along.  It is very painless making only two blocks a month.

Sue asked how we decorate our homes at Christmas.  It is the Full Monty at the cabin and at the house in the city.  At the cabin, we erect and I do mean erect a 15 foot, 300 pound artificial tree with hundreds of lights.  This is a day-long project that requires many family members to complete.  We almost always start the holidays the day or weekend after Thanksgiving.  Luckily, everyone was fed well and has the stamina and strength to haul the boxes up out of the basement and begin the assembly.

The whole tree has a 'cabiny' theme with Buffalo check ribbon and many ornaments given to us by family and friends.  My sister is the main contributor to our collection of cabin ornaments.  She has as much fun picking them out as she does placing them on the tree.

The boys/men literally have to hang from the rafters to place Santa at the top of the tree.  This is no easy feat.

After the torture, I mean fun of the day, we all head outside and admire our handy-work.  We gather around the fire pit and toast marshmallows and make S'mores.  Now that makes me hungry!

Keep checking back today for more Christmas fun.

As always,

Lynn

Midnight Star Quilt

Hello Everyone,
I'm teaching a class called Midnight Star next week at In Between Stitches.  The pattern is from Mary's Hickey's Comfort and Joy 14 Quilts for Christmas  from Martingale & Company.  I made this quilt so many years ago that I needed to give myself a refresher course yesterday.  There is nothing worse than to appear to be a complete idiot while teaching a quilting class!

My original plan for my day was to make one of each of the three blocks.  Well, 10 blocks later I finally called it a day!  I would make a block and think, that's cute, I think I will make another one.

The new version is going to be very scrappy.  I'm beginning to think that Scrappy is my new middle name!  I have limited fabric selection here at the cabin, so I make due with what I have.  It has become quite the challenge that I enjoy.

Note that I have included all of my required elements, polka dots, checks, stripes and plaids!

I decided that I want to include a machine quilting feather and cable tutorial for the class.  I haven't machine quilted on my Bernina in years.....so another refresher course for me yesterday in machine quilting.  First I marked a strip of fabric with my stencil.

I drew in some arrows to show the class how to continuously quilt their borders.

....and here you go, my sample of the cable and feather.  While quilting on my Bernina, I remembered how much fun it is to machine quilt.....once I figured out how to lower my feed dogs.  I actually had to get out the manual.

I traced the design on a piece of paper so everyone in the class can have a copy.  Proudly they can say, I quilted this quilt myself!

Check out Cathy's blog Quilting on Main Street and you can see that she is busy working on Christmas projects also. You can also join her Christmas in July Quilt Along. And, this Saturday is the Christmas Quilt Along hosted by Sue.  Check out her blogsite this weekend and you can see what quilters all around the globe are making for Christmas.

Have a wonderful day!

As always,

Lynn

Back to Quilting

Hello Everyone,

I feel that I've been gone from Blogland for quite awhile now....but I'm back to the computer and my quilting for the rest of the week.  I finished stitching the little watering can for Party in the Garden.

Here, you can see that I added a little embroidered stem stitch around the center of the flowers.  They needed a little 'something' to make them appear to be finished and stand out a little bit.

I started on the flower box yesterday.  What was I thinking when I drew all of these little pieces?  I used the starch method to prepare each of the flowers.  I use glue very sparingly and just tack the flowers together so I can move them around and place them on the background.

I'm auditioning shutter, window, and flower box fabric here.  I still have quite a few more flowers to make before this blocks is ready to be stitched.  The flower box is the most labor intensive block on the whole quilt, so once this one is done, there are just two more blocks and the applique is finished!

This block of the month will be starting soon at ThimbleCreek, click HERE for details.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

As always,

Lynn