Christmas Gifts 2010

Now that the suspense is over, I can unveil some of what I made and gave for Christmas this year.

First, here's my big brother Bob holding up a rag quilt. Now that I have the Accuquilt rag quilt die for my cutter, it's so simple to cut and make these quilts. And since they're quilt as you go, I don't have to send them out.


Here's Fred playing like he's sleeping under the one I made him for his recliner:


My sister-in-law Paula also got gifts made with the Accuquilt cutter - the triangle-in-square die cutter made it simple to cut the bits for these three pillows:


Mom got a red and white table runner. These arrowhead blocks were from Quiltmaker's last issue (scroll down to see some of the blocks in progress, in a previous post.) The blocks went together very quickly. Here they are on her coffee table with some candles on top:


And here is the whole runner, on my design wall:



In other news, I'm now a member of Quiltmaker's Scrap Squad for 2011! I never thought when I sent in my application that they'd accept me. But now I have my first assignment from them, I've already picked fabric from my stash for it, and I plan to start cutting tomorrow. Can't tell you much about the project we're doing yet, but I hope to use up a lot of the blue and khaki flannel left over from my two rag quilts above.

December Update

Gosh, I'm not posting much, am I? I'll try to start doing better, I promise. ;) I've been busy, though! Here's the Carolina Christmas logo I just finished for Bonnie at Quiltville:


I've also put this logo on different items in the Zazzle account, if anyone wants to show their support for Bonnie and advertise for Quiltville.

Here's what I've been working on in the evenings after work. First, the finished Autumn table runner, at the completed top stage:



When we used it on the table at Thanksgiving, Mom decided that it would look better just a little longer, so I added another couple of rows of blocks on each end. I'm glad I hadn't backed it and quilted it yet!

And this is the Block of the Month row by row quilt I've been doing for the last year, finally all sewn together. It was just a little too tall to hang on the library shelves, so you can't get the full effect of the row of maple leaf blocks across the bottom:



Two final borders on this and I'll be done. I can't decide if I want a 1 inch brown, then a 3 inch green, or a 1 inch green and a 3 inch brown. :D If anyone's interested in seeing all the instructions for the blocks we used for the rows, they're all on the quilt guild's website: www.ucquilts.com

And finally, the pinwheel blocks you saw the EQ design for:


I've decided that I've definitely met and exceeded my scrappy comfort level with this quilt. Color controlled scrappy like the brown/cream/green row quilt = good. A billion different colors of calicoes put together like this one = bad. That triple-scrappy sashing between the blocks is too, too much scrappiness. It does look old-fashioned, but the end result is too busy.

I'm now planning to unsew and rip out the sashings you see there and use a fabric that reads as solid instead, maybe a blue or a dark green. I can always cut up the 1 inch sashing strips into segments for 9 patch blocks, maybe even use them between some solid borders for this quilt. I've got 17 blocks finished. I can't decide if I want to make it a 4x4 layout and have one block left over for the back, OR a 3 x 4 layout and have 5 left over for a whole row on the back, OR make three more pinwheels and do a 4x5 layout. Decisions, decisions!