I finished the machine applique on the Love Letters quilt by Barb Adams. I am normally a hand appliquer but I thought this method would be faster. And it was. . .
But, it was not nearly as satisfying and it got a bit monotonous by the 3rd block. I would wake up at night with the rhythm of stitch forward- stitch left-stitch right- repeat, going on and on in my brain.
But, it turned out to be a lovely quilt top and I look forward to hand quilting it later this year. I'm tempted to do a border on the top and bottom that would make it longer for the bed, it is 84" X 84" square. That being said, I don't have any more of the solid background fabric. I don't remember what color it is. It might be Kona Bone but it is definitely not Kona Snow or White.
I realized I never show my finished Sweet Land of Liberty quilt, pattern by Cheri Payne. It was fun to hand quilt.
This is the back of the quilt. I had these two panels from long ago by Sandy Gervais and since they had a patriotic theme, I used them for the backing along with some leftover twill-like fabric from the backing of another quilt.
I mostly quilted in the ditch and around the designs but once in a while I felt like doing more hand quilting .
I followed the design of the background to do quilting on this angel.
I just added some echo curves for this angel.
And I quilted a star in this blue field that needed a little embellishment.
I layered my Cheddarback (that I am calling The Children's Hour) quilt top weeks ago and now that Love Letters is done I can start hand quilting it. This picture is dark because I took it downstairs on a snowy day but you can see some of the hand quilting.
AND, speaking of snow, we finally got our first snowfall of the season. I know it doesn't look like much but in our drought ridden state it is absolutely delightful. We only go 2" here in the valleys but the mountains got over a foot of powder. The skiers are all so excited. I don't ski but love love love the snow.
I am so grateful!!!
My sister-in-law is a shopper. She bought this forlorn Santa at a Christmas clearance sale a few years ago. He's missing the center "HO" in his banner. She mailed it to me saying she thought I would know what to do with it. Ha! Ha!
I'm thinking about redressing it in a pieced coat. I was thinking rows of tiny flying geese but after seeing Barbara Brackman's latest post on cat mummies. . . I'm wondering about tiny log cabins.
I don't really know what I'm going to do with it but I'll take pictures if any re-decorating happens to go on.
This year my husband is down with a back injury. It makes carrying big boxes of Christmas decorations impossible. So I decided I would just decorate my little 3 ft. tree that I could carry by myself.
All of the decorations are jewel-like in colors of teal, chartreuse, magenta, and purple.
It's so unlike my usual tree of Hallmark, Country, and Homemade ornaments and garlands. It's a pretty little tree but I miss my usual one. Sometimes we have to make new memories, don't we?
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10 comments:
Wonderful quilts! And your little tree is perfect. Enjoy this holiday season, and prayers for your husbands speedy recovery.
Lovely quilt finishes--Sweet Land turned out gorgeous and the Love Letters is beautiful! Your quilting is so wonderful...
Sorry that your DH is down with this back hurting--I can totally empathize--hope he feels better soon. Your tree looks sweet and lovely...
have fun quilting while watching the snowfall hugs, Julierose
Wonderful quilt finish and quilt top finish! Both are a thrill to check off the list in my book! And your Blackbird Design quilt top is such a big accomplishment! All the applique, sigh... Beautiful. I have the books, but never managed to start any of the big complex quilts. /Love all the hand quilting too on the Liberty finish. Just makes me smile!
Yes, when it comes to decorating for Christmas, I find as I have become older I have to make new memories which take much less time. =) Love your jewel-like colours of the ornaments. This post is filled with quilty loveliness. Love letters is lovely. You will enjoy quilting this pretty. The quilting of Sweet Land of Liberty is gorgeous...fabulous back, too. Enjoy your snow. I will enjoy my sunny, summery days.
I love the rich colours you have on your little tree. I get your feeling about machine applique; one of the reasons I hand quilt is that I feel much the same about machine quilting. Your quilt is wonderful though.
Your «Sweet Land quilt finish is gorgeous. The Love Letter quilt is also very beautiful. Sometimes we have to change traditions and make things easier or in a different way! I hope your Christmas celebration will be great, and that your husband will get well soon.
So nice to see your beautiful work. You did a great job using the extra blocks on the back if your patriotic quilt. Do hope your husbands back improves soon.
I know what you mean adjusting to a different tree... we have the same type of thing here, just a small tree with a subset of our ornaments. But there's something to be said for keeping things simple! Your quilts are so pretty. I had a chuckle at your applique stitch rhythm - I can picture that perfectly. Well, the results are beautiful and you can concentrate on hand quilting it. Your quilting on Sweet Land is just so pretty. Beautiful snow -
Your Love Letters is beautiful. All that applique! I can't imagine myself hand stitching OR machine stitching that much applique! Truly a labor of love. I can, however, imagine the rhythm of stitching running through your mind in the wee hours of the morning. I'm sure you're more more than pleased to be finished with it!
Seeing your wonderful Sweet Land of Liberty all finished makes me want to work on mine again, and finish it. I think 2022 will have to be another year of finishing quilts instead of starting them. I have two or three that are close to being finished. I enjoyed seeing how you quilted some of it.
Cheddarback! It's fun to see how you're quilting it. (Not the ho-hum copy of the original quilt.)
We've had snow twice so far but it hasn't stayed on the ground long. It seems that we're to have weather in the 60s one day this week, and then the mid-40s after that. I love white Christmases but I don't suppose we'll have one this year.
Your Love Letter quilt is beautiful! And your Sweet Land of Liberty all finished with such wonderful hand quilting. Love what you did on the back. Hope your husband is doing better. I haven’t decorated for years. We go to other family members houses at Christmas, we don’t usually have company. Wasn’t that interesting about the cats. I think your Santa would look good in either one you choose.
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