Christmas Quilt #2

Does anyone remember that old Saturday Night Live skit set during the '96 election where Steve Forbes writes a book similar to Primary Colors and names one of the characters 'Lamar Alexander 2'? Any time anything is the second of something I can't help but think of that skit and laugh.

This quilt was a gift for my stepmom. This was a project that Nikki started a long time ago and never finished. She hand pieced all the blocks on it and then it sat. Trying to unload some UFO's from her work room she sold the pieces to me and I finished putting it together and quilted it.



This quilt is not my normal styling, but I figure with Christmas you can throw normal style sensibilities aside and do just about anything you want :)





To quilt it I ended up doing a sort of wonky free form grid. My good sewing machine is still patiently waiting for it's new motherboard so that limited my quilting abilities, however, I'm still happy with how it turned out.



The backing is coordinating kelly green and white polka dot (or snowball, perhaps) with a few scraps of fabric from the top.

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My stepmom professed her love with it so all in all I think it was a success.


P.S. I'm also aware that now I've reference SNL twice when referring to my sewing. Who knew they'd have so much in common?!

The Christmas Quilt

Wait, what? A Christmas quilt in June?

Yes, a Christmas quilt in June, but I'm actually behind, not ahead of the game.

I bought some Michael Miller Christmas fabric from a coop last summer. I thought the fabric was fabulous and bought a lot and than realized there was nothing I normally made that would necessitate 11 yards of Christmas fabric. Cue quilting music. So I spent an afternoon at a friends house looking through her quilting magazines until I found something. I had intended to make it for last Christmas, but it didn't get done in time (obviously) so I finally started on it last week. I got all the blocks pieced together and I laid them out and I'm just not happy with it. It's hard to look at and something is off. I've decided that the border fabric isn't right so I've sent off for some more evergreen ta dot in hopes that a darker border fabric will make the difference. Stay tuned for the finished results.

the birth quilt

Before my second was born my friends were nice enough to plan a blessingway for me. Unfortunately, Oz had his own plans and came three weeks early so by the time my blessingway rolled around he was already a week old. We held it anyways and just shifted it's purpose a little bit.

At other blessingways I've attended we'd always made birth necklaces for the pregnant momma. While reading Birthing From Within there was a section on blessingways and it mentioned a quilt. I thought this fit me perfectly so I requested that each of my friends make a quilt square. While some of them complained a little, in the end they all made something great. The only problem was that since Oz was already born I was in no hurry to sew it up (having a newborn and all). I told myself I'd finish it up before he was one and I just squeaked in under the wire (he turns one tomorrow and I finished it yesterday).

Let me say this though, I am not a quilter. I've made a few in the past and they're not what you would call spectacular. I was nervous about this one, but fortunately I have a fabulous quilter friend who helped me along. The added bonus is that I'm borrowing her back up machine, which just happens to be a Bernina Activa 145s, and it's a million times nicer than my normal machine. This made quilting it much, much, much easier.

Overall I'm happy with the way it turned out. It's not perfect, but it is certainly filled with positive spirit and will surely be a family keepsake.