Super Mail Call!

Yesterday's mail brought a huge surprise, and now I can tell you about it! As most of you know, SewCalGal hosted both a physical party in San Diego and a virtual Christmas Quilters Party as a benefit for Operation Homefront last month, and of course there were door prizes, raffle prizes and a Golden Basket prize for each party.    She had notified those of us who had won a raffle prize a couple weeks ago and gave us a list whereby we could indicate which of the raffle prizes we might be interested in, and she would try to match each winner with a desired prize.

So, yesterday I was expecting my regular Stash tea order from Amazon and when the mail lady drove up our long driveway and honked, I figured that was what had arrived.  But no, the tea is still nowhere in sight, but what did arrive was this huge priority mail box:

   containing all these delicious goodies!

Unbeknownst to me I had won the Golden Basket prize!  To say I was floored and amazed is an understatement!   So many generous sponsors donated prizes for the Quilters Christmas Party and a big Thank You! goes out to each and every one!  You can see SewCalGal's wrap-up post on the Quilters Christmas Party here and also watch for an upcoming post from SewCalGal announcing a Virtual Silent Auction also to benefit Operation Homefront!

It seems 2013 will be my year for learning several new to me quilting techniques.  I had already decided to learn machine applique.  Can you believe after 30 years of off-and-on quilting, I had never done any machine applique!  So, this past week another NewFO was begun, and this is my progress to date.  I found that machine appliqueing around all these pieces took a lot longer than expected, but isn't that always the case.

This will be part of a small piece I'm making as a gift for a young Mom of an Angel.  A quilted wall hanging created by Ulla Niemela of Ulla's Quilt World was my direct inspiration for this little angel.  Ulla creates an abundance of charming little angels, children, animals, etc. in fabric, some are freestanding dolls, some are ornaments, and others are quilted items.   Next I'll need to trim this panel a bit and add some borders, then the fun of free motion quilting it can begin! 

Now it seems I'll need to bite the bullet and learn English paper piecing!  Did you see among that prize package an entire kit and pattern for making a Night Blooms quilt?  Step one of the directions reads "you will need 48 copies of the paper piecing pattern page."  Yep, I'm gonna have to learn paper piecing!  Fortunately for me, the pieces aren't as tiny as some patterns I've seen, so this may possibly be doable even by someone as spatially challenged as yours truly!  I'll definitely print at least 50 copies of the pattern and make a couple practice blocks before cutting into this gorgeous Queen of the Night fabric collection!

There's also a book that came in the box Just around the Corner by Kari M. Carr that features mitered borders with inner scallops!  How cool is that!  These borders would lend themselves so well to baby quilts or as a perfect complement to a quilt with the allover FMQ feathers we've all been learning to do recently.  In the book she also demonstrates the Clearly Perfect Angles stitching template that clings to your machine and allows you to easily stitch perfect half-square triangles, flying geese, joining border and binding strips, etc.  There also just happened to be one of these magic templates included in the box!  More fun!

Well, that's the excitement from my little hillside corner of the world! 

Operation Homefront and the Quilters Christmas Party!

My maternal grandfather was a recent immigrant from Poland and a newlywed when the United States was drawn into World War I.  He enlisted in the Army and served in the trenches of France, surviving mustard gas poisoning.  My father served in Korea toward the end of World War II, one of my maternal uncles was wounded while serving during the Korean War.  The list goes on, with many cousins, and now their children and grandchildren also serving in our armed forces.  One cousin has three grandsons now serving in Afghanistan, they deployed together in late summer.  So, when I heard through SewCalGal of Operation Homefront and the assistance they provide to our military families, I knew this was an event I needed to participate in!

Going on right now today, our friend SewCalGal is hosting two benefit parties for Operation Homefront, one a physical party for those living in the San Diego area, and the second, a virtual party for bloggers near and far!    For those who haven't heard about Operation Homefront, this is a non-profit organization that reaches out to our military families and veterans with assistance for a variety of urgent needs ranging from housing assistance to gift baskets filled with necessities for new moms who give birth while their husband is deployed overseas.  The needs are many and varied, and our donations not only offer financial assistance but much needed moral support for our nation's true heroes.  You can find more information about Operation Homefront and the benefit Christmas Party right here on SewCalGal's page.

 

The Christmas season is one of nostalgia, each little decoration evoking memories of earlier years and traditions, of family and friends, and favorite foods and so much more.   Memories of a Christmas season 30 years ago were awakened late this summer when I discovered this little unfinished patchwork ornament in a tin among a collection of embroidery floss, trims, and little bells.

There it was, still pinned, a seam partially hand sewn, just as I had left it 30 years ago this next week as I began labor and left for the hospital for the birth of my daughter.

Now seemed like a good time to get this little 1982 ornament finished and sent off to my daughter in her 30th birthday card!  So, over the past week I handstitched the remaining log cabin pieces, found a suitable print for the reverse side, added batting and double-hand quilted it, first outlining the logs on the front and then the Santa face on the reverse but not allowing the quilting stitches to go through to the reverse side in either case.  I then found some polyester ribbon and decided to add it as one continuous length along the outer edges on both sides of the ornament, then hand stitched the outermost edges together.  This is my 30-year finish!

The inspiration for this ornament came from a little book, published in 1980.  I think next year will be a great year to make not only the dowel tree, but all of the ornaments described in the book.

It seems that all my favorite holiday memories involve fabric in one way or another!  A very special Christmas decoration is this 30-year old fabric tree.  I believe the instructions were in an old Women's Day or Family Circle magazine of the era, though it may have come from another magazine.  Four of these were completed during the summer of 1982 while I was expecting my daughter.  I was living in Alaska at the time and my mom traveled out for an extended visit.  We spent quite a few happy hours cutting all the triangles, piecing and stuffing these trees.  Two went to my mom and my former mother-in-law, and I have the remaining two, which will eventually be passed on to my children.

The next few are from my Thimbleberries phase of the mid-90s:

There are so many more that hopefully I'll be able to share in future posts.  For now, I hope you'll join the Quilter's Christmas Party festivities today and donate whatever you are able to Operation Homefront!  And, from our house to yours, Blessings this Christmas Season!

FMQ Challenge - September and The Quilters Christmas Party!

September's challenge was presented by Paula Reid, whose tutorial challenged us to use a feather stencil for our sample piece.  At that time I was knee-deep in Christmas gift quilts to be completed and thought there would probably not be time to complete the challenge.  Our December challenge presented by Patsy Thompson which is all about quilted borders presented the perfect opportunity to accomplish two challenges with one little sampler quilt!  (Photos are not the best, the blue washout marker is not completely eliminated yet.)

I pieced a simple Amish style quilt with some Moda solids I had in my stash, probably not the colors I would have chosen had I gone to the LQS with a plan in mind, but serviceable for this project.  The square center panel contains the September stencil challenge.  It was surprisingly quick and easy to accomplish.  I didn't have the exact stencil Paula used in her tutorial, so some hand drawn facsimile corner feather detailing was added to a circle feather stencil I've had for years and never used.
When time permits additional background quilting will be done in the outer areas of the square.  I also plan to try hyperquilting in some of the feathers and the holly.

Now, on to the December Challenge with the three borders, but first a trip to the LQS for some red thread for the holly berries.  The only red shaded threads I had on hand were horrible and required unstitching early this morning. 

Last, but not least, don't forget SewCalGal's Quilters Christmas Party taking place on Sunday, December 9, in San Diego if you live nearby, and world-wide for quilty bloggers!   This party is a donation fund drive for a very worthy organization Operation Homefront which provides various types of assistance to our wounded returning military personnel and their families.  See SewCalGal's blog post here to find complete information, and please help support our military families!

FMQ Challenge: Bonus Tutorial #1

When I first saw this tutorial posted by SewCalGal featuring Linda Moran's gorgeous hand-marbled fabrics, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  Last year's Christmas gifts included a piece of our oldest grandson's art work printed on fabric.  This would make a perfect little wall hanging for my sewing room framed with some of Linda's hand-marbled fabric.  I learned that Linda also occasionally sells her fabrics on eBay and I was the lucky bidder on two fat quarters.  My stash produced a small piece of peach colored Radiance and a purple solid nearly matching the dark purple border on the art print.   These were used to frame the art print before adding the hand-marbled fabric.

I liked this piece of marbled fabric for the strong linear qualities and the almost herringbone effect of the very tiny feathers, although the other piece I purchased with its stone/teardrop designs might have proved a bit quicker and easier to quilt.  My finished sample measures 15 inches across, and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  Here are a few close-ups:

The back is not particularly a thing of beauty.   It looks a lot less densely quilted than the front appears.

Thanks to Linda Moran for providing us with this great tutorial and introducing us to free-form quilting possibilities with many types of patterned fabric!

The holiday season tends to be one filled with nostalgia, especially the older we get, and this year is no exception.  My daughter will be 30 years old come mid-December.  This past summer while rooting around in my sewing stuff, I discovered this tiny hand-pieced log cabin Christmas ornament.  I was working on this very ornament when I went into labor with my daughter.  And here it sits, some 30 years later, still pinned and ready to be finished.  I think it's about high time I set about completing this and get it in the mail to her - what do you think?


On Sunday, December 9, SewCalGal is hosting a Quilters Christmas Party extraordinaire, benefiting Operation Homefront.  The party has two versions: a physical party in San Diego as well as a virtual party for bloggers world-wide!  This promises to be a fun event with raffles and door prizes, and for us bloggers a plate of our favorite homemade Christmas cookies and cup of tea as we visit with many other quilty bloggers attending this event.  I hope you will be joining the fun!  For more information from SewCalGal's site, click here.