Bringing Home the Christmas Tree

I always loved the quilt "Bringing Home the Christmas Tree" but never thought that I would make it.  One of our daughter's family always go to the mountains every Thanksgiving, to cut down their Christmas tree.  Every year their tree is bigger and more majestic than the year before! 

 Last Christmas their car got stuck in the snow.  When they were pushed and pulled out of their predicament, their car started sliding backwards on the ice!  They have enough adventures about their escapades to write a book, so I felt it was my duty to make a quilt for them. Shhhhhhhh......it's a surprise!

"Bringing Home the Christmas Tree" can be found in the book "Vintage Christmas" by Lori Holt.  I want to make every single project in that book, and there are many!

 

I love personalizing things, so I had the great idea to sew their photos into the quilt.  Their mini van is black, so I made a black car.  A month ago, they traded in their van for a white SUV. Nooooo!!!! I felt like saying, you have to keep the black van because I made a quilt about it!  Just kidding, it will be a quilt to bring back many wonderful memories.

I thought the other cars would look naked without people or critters peeking out of the windows.  I perused my fabric stash and this is what I found....some cute bears that wandered into a car.

A squirrel in the backseat, because why not?

It's Christmas time so why not include Mr. & Mrs. Claus!

Here's a vintage looking Santa waving, I just couldn't resist him!

I even machine quilted the quilt myself!  

I quilted a swirl motif and my swirls are getting so much better. Practice really does make perfect!

I used a Christmas fabric for the back that has lots of Christmas songs in the text.  The black is a little distressed in areas, which gives it an interesting look.

Thanks so much for being interested in my quilting stories :)

 

Sew Sampler Basket quilt finished!

 I finished my Sew Sampler 2017 basket quilt designed by Lori Holt. 

You can see some of the blocks that I posted about here. 

I finished the quilt top and talked about the process here.

Here are Lori's blocks, I tried to make mine look like hers, using the solid colors.

I finally machine quilted the Basket quilt this week.  It took longer than I thought.  I quilted flowers in the yellow squares and stitched in the ditch on the baskets.  I also quilted a flower motif on the borders.

I used an Amy Butler print for the back which I absolutely love!

I used  green for the binding, which I thought matched both the front and the back really well.

I also corrected one of my Red Sampler blocks from last week!  

Thanks for telling me about it Sigi ❤️

Red Sampler quilt along, week 3

This quilt along is so much fun!!! I made this itty bitty 3" square.  Thanks to Kimberly from Fat Quarter Shop's livestreams on YouTube every Friday, I've learned a lot of tips on how to sew these little squares. 

I made my three squares, one 12" and two 3" blocks.  I'm not crazy about my fabric choices in the top right square, but I'm going to leave it.  When you have about 50 squares sewn together, no one will ever notice.  This sew along is so inspiring, I just couldn't pass it up.

I corrected my Sunflower block from last week, it wasn't a difficult fix at all.

I've joined quite a few quilt alongs as I have a lot of time to sew lately. 1.  Red Sampler quilt along

2.  Sewcialites quilt along

3.  A Quilting Life block of the month

4.  Sunshowers quilt along, and I think I've decided to make two at the same time.  I just couldn't decide on one color scheme....two are much better than one :)

See you next week!

Red Sampler quilt along

 I saw that Lori Holt was having a quilt along, and I was all in!

Lori's creations are just too cute to pass up, no matter how many projects I have in the works.

Here is the link to her blog if you want to check her out.

I pulled out my red fabrics and went to town, creating these fun blocks.  I admired them, photographed them and.......I was ready to post week one on Instagram, when.....

I'm sure you see it!!!!

😩😩😩

I sewed the third row upside down!  It won't be a big deal to unpick and resew, but why didn't I see it??? 😂😂😂

I also made a mess of the flying geese block and I'll redo it. 

 I think I'll use my flying geese paper for it this time :)

Here's week two, sewn like a charm!  I really enjoy sewing the 12" blocks, but sometimes the 6" blocks are a little tricky because of all the small pieces.

Are you making Lori's Red Sampler quilt?

 Yay, I finished my Rosemary quilt, from the book "The Seedlings Quilts" by Jodi Godfrey.

My friend Nedra and I made  our quilts together on our sew days.  She used her beautiful Charlie Harper prints and I used my cherished and coveted Heather Bailey (Fresh Cut) and two Amy Butler prints.

This is Nedra's Charlie Harper quilt, isn't it beautiful?

The quilt shows off the large print fabrics in the big rectangles.  I made mine bigger with an extra row along the bottom and on the side.

The rosemary blocks are paper pieced with shapes I had never sewn before.  I've only sewn hexagons.  I savored the time I spent hand sewing the paper pieces.  I find it very relaxing to sew by hand.

I  bound the quilt with the bright berry colored fabric, as it stands out the most.

I used my large leftover pieces of fabric and pieced the back.  I love this fabric so much and used every opportunity to show it off in the quilt.  I think I've had this fabric for about 10 years, waiting for the perfect project! 

I also enjoyed machine quilting this quilt.  I used an all over flower design which I haven't tried before and I pebble stitched the negative area around the rosemaries so that they would pop!  

I think you can see the flower design I used below.

I'm proud to say that this quilt makes #14 in the grandchildren pile.  I'm going to make some extras in case parents want to choose and to have variety for the grandchildren who will have to choose last.  It's okay, they're pretty young and probably not too particular!

Thanks for following me in my quilting adventures ❤️

Doll Clothes

 My grand daughter is turning 11 and she still loves her 18" American dolls. It helps that she has sisters to play dolls with too!  I made her some doll clothes for her birthday and used my doll Red Rose, to do the modeling.

This fabric has a sparkly thread woven into it, and it wasn't very easy to sew.  There was a lot of unravelling, so I had to secure all the seam allowances with an overcast stitch.  It wasn't the most desirable fabric to work with...

Here is Red Rose modeling a garden outfit.  A nice broad rimmed hat to keep the sun out of her eyes, and a cute apron with blue vintage rick rack trim.  Red Rose has her garden bag full of some of her beautiful flowers that she just picked from her garden.  She's still waiting for her strawberries and blueberries to grow and become ripe.

This is a cute retro looking outfit with lots of detail.  I hand stitched the crocheted butterfly to the pocket.

This sporty outfit comes with a nice green sash to tie her hair back.

I think Charlotte will like these clothes for her doll, it's always nice to refresh your wardrobe :)

Easter Sunday

Easter is a very special day.  Our Savior lived again.  The most glorious, comforting and reassuring of all events of human history had taken place.  The victory over death.

The atonement is the greatest evidence we have of the Father's love for His children.

Easter is also a time for bunnies, chocolate eggs and little chicks.

Here are three of my cute grand daughters with their little Easter packages from moi :)

I'm flying to visit the other 11 grandchildren and had to bring a carry on suitcase just to fit the Easter treats!!!

Here's the link to my post about these bunny coasters.

Happy Easter, may you always remember the true meaning.