Been splitting my time between Delaford and Once Upon a Christmas Time, enjoying doing both.
On the Delaford I have made progress on the Bird and Flower border blocks. I keep these on my design wall as I just love looking at them.
Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and leave the rest to God!
Been splitting my time between Delaford and Once Upon a Christmas Time, enjoying doing both.
On the Delaford I have made progress on the Bird and Flower border blocks. I keep these on my design wall as I just love looking at them.
Well, another new project. Over Christmas I wished I had Christmas theme quilt I could hang up during the holidays. I usually just hang up a redwork embroidery that is not really Christmas-y but looks nice with my holiday decorations. I do have one Christmas quilt, but have several places I like to change out the quilts for season in my house. And lo and behold, Gail Pan came out with her 2024 block of the month and it is Once Upon a Christmas, and was exactly what I was looking for. This one is only 6 months and will give time to complete the project for Christmas. Each block contains applique and embroidery and machine piecing - Love it!
Here is my first block:
I recently took a workshop at SewEndipitous taught by Diane Quirk for the Kira Quilt. This is a quilt designed by GE Designs
I love the pattern, but I saw sunshines rather than the colorful blocks used in the picture. So I chose to do my in Yellow and White with a Sunflower border. This is my EQ version of the quilt.
Sometimes I just have to step away from handwork and do some machine sewing. I recently purchased the Carol Doak book 60 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Star which includes patterns for 10 National Parks. This is a nice break for me, and I plan to do a star every month.
Below is my picture of the Denali National Park Star. This national park is located in Alaska and I decided to use the Alaskan flag colors to make the star. The park covers 6,000,000 acres of wild lands and has North America's highest peak at 20, 310 feet.
I have two grand children interested in working as park rangers, so hoping one of them does end up with that career and I can give them this quilt.
This morning I was able to sew on the border of Octagonal EPP pieces. This has been so much fun picking out the fabrics and riotous colors, but hopefully they will all blend together in the final quilt. Next up is a border of flowers and birds. I actually purchased this quilt pattern because I loved the center applique that I am getting ready to start. I think this is one of Katrina Hadjimichael's prettiest patterns.
I actually made this quilt in 2002, but not sure I ever posted a picture of it on my blog. This was a block exchange I did with some friends in Texas where we swapped Red and White 9 patches. I did all the embroidery myself just picking a wide variety of patterns. The nutcracker was done by my dear friend Donna Kassan, who is an avid collector of Nutcrackers.
This morning I took the last hand quilting stitch on my Dear Jane quilt. Its a bitter sweet moment when you take that last stitch, as Jane and I have spent a lot of quiet contemplative hours together in the early hours of the day when all is quiet. An empty hoop.....