Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christ is Born



A belated Merry Christmas to you all. What a busy time of year. In all of the hustle, bustle, shopping, eating and engagements, it is all too often easy to forget what we are actually celebrating. The truth that God loves us so much to give us his only son as a way to show us an example of what being a servant to God is all about.


Without Christ example, would we really understand the depth of God's love? Would we understand what it really means to be a giver? Would we really understand grace?

My life has truly been blessed by God. I have come to know love, happiness, contentment, faith and joy with what I have. My Christmas prayer for anyone reading this blog is that you find the same blessings in your life.


In Jesus Christ holy name, Amen




Heritage Quilter

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Santa's Coming!!!

Jolly Ole Saint Nick is on the way. He was also the last of my Christmas decorations to make it this year.



I've had the Santa's Coming kit for about 3 years and this year it made it out of the closet. When I saw this wall hanging on the cover of Quilting for Christmas 2005, I had to have it. So, I placed my order from Quakertown Quilts. The kit was great. It even included all of the buttons and jingle bells to embellish the quilt.
Since this is one of those quilts that I'm sure is the beginning of a family tradition and could possibly become one of those treasured family memories, I decided to quilt this one by hand.



The ornaments are fused to a heavy felt. You then hot glue some floss to them to form the little hanging loop.




The 24 ornaments help us count down the days to Christmas. Each day of Advent, you move one ornament from the boarder of the quilt to the "Charlie Brown" tree that Santa is holding. My son has taken on the job of moving the ornaments each day.

Enjoy





Merry Christmas.....Heritage Quilter

Friday, December 19, 2008

Tagged

I've been tagged by A Passion for Applique. Here's the game, once tagged, you go to your picture files. Pick the 4th picture in the 4th folder and publish it. Well, here goes. Let's hope it is a good one.


This photo was taken recently. This is a close up of some of my quilting with my new friend Maxine (my longarm). The quilt belongs to one of my customers. This was the first time using this pantograph and I wanted a close up of the design. It is called Hears and Daisy's and it is so much fun to quilt. I've used it a couple of times since this first one. I also love the variegated thread on batiks.
Now to tag 4 others. (Most of my buddies have already been tagged, so this could be hard) I guess I'm tagging anybody who wants to play...
Here are the rules:
1. Go to the fourth photo file on your computer.
2. Choose the fourth picture in that file.
3. Post it and explain.
4. Tag four people to do the same
Go or it.....Heritage Quilter

Friday, December 12, 2008

Camo Cards

My 8 year old son wanted a camouflage quilt. Well, I haven't seen much camo in my local quilt shop. So, I've been putting him off for a couple of years.



Now, there is nothing like a deadline to get you motivated. In my husband's family, we draw names each your on New Years Day for the next Christmas. This is great for a quilter. You have all year to make and plan for your gifts. This year, I made one of my sister's in law a quilt. Not too big, just a small lap throw in her favorite color. It also happened to be one of my favorite patterns, Card Tricks.



The only problem with the Card Tricks block is the number of triangles in each block. It just makes the piecing a little trickier. Too make the block easier, I decided to use all squares and rectangles. This really speeds up the piecing! You gotta love that.



When the ladies at the quilt shop saw it at a "Show and Tell", they asked me to teach the class. Not a problem until I realized that I will have already given the quilt as a gift before the class. Now I have to have a sample for the shop.



This is where the Camo come in...It's time to make a quilt for my son. His patience is wearing thin. The closest thing to Camo that I could find were some brown and green batiks. Brown with spots and green with oak leaves. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I have to say, my son loves it. I hope you do too.



Here is a close up of the quilting. Maxine did a great job too.






Heritage Quilter

Friday, December 5, 2008

Interpolated Image

The dictionary defines interpolation as the insertion of something foreign or new. Now, apply that to a quilt and you have an interpolated image. I know, the first time I heard it, I couldn't figure it out either.

In September, my quilting buddies and I went to a quilt show a little over an hour away from home. There we saw the most amazing wall hangings. In this show, there were about 4 or 5 wall hangings and they all had "interpolation" or "interpolated" in the name. After asking one of the "white glove" ladies of the local guild, we discovered that the class for this quilt was taught at a local shop called the "Overall Quilter".
Now being a quilter for going on 20 years now, I'm not baffled on the construction of many quilts, but this one got the better of me. The flowers on the fabric seemed to explode right before your eyes. My quilt buddies couldn't figure this one out either. So, there was nothing left to do but take the class. I had to know how to make my fabric do that!

The ladies at Overall Quilter were extremely gracious. When I asked about the class and told them that there were at least 3 and maybe every 5 of us from "home" that were willing to drive the hour plus to come to the shop just to take the class, they scheduled one just for us!
Are you ready to see the results?
This is MC and our teacher, Debbie showing us how to "find" our image on the fabric.












Here is LB cutting up her image. You can see that she has part of it on the design wall already.

BW is putting hers on the design wall.

This one is mine on the design wall. I'm ready to start the sewing.



Finished and borders added. I'm afraid the pictures really don't do the quilt justice. It just looks fuzzy here.
Anyway, I love the technique so much, I've bought 4 other fabrics to make more floral explosions!
Heritage Quilter