Family Quilt Treasures

My Hubby and I spent the day with his mom yesterday, helping her clean and straighten one of her bedrooms. We worked, cleaned, sorted, threw awy and gathered for donation all day long. We were exhausted by last night, but the room looks great and Meme feels great about it! In one of the closets, we unearthed some family treasures. 2 quilts made by my hubby's paternal Granny! Now I have several quilts made by his maternal Granny and her mother, but I had not seen any made by the other. My MIL gave them to me! I love old quilts, made out of necessity and scraps and used as long as possible. The first is a neat pinwheel design:

The second is an elongated hexagon:

I love the little "egg cup" fabric!

Both were hand pieced and hand quilted. I will treasure them!

Christmas Fabric find

One of my goals (well 2 to be exact ) for 2010 is to make Christmas quilts for our beds. I got a start on that goal on Monday when we drove up to Boone to check on my son's cabin since the snow and ice storms. The cabin was fine, and on the way back, we stopped at on of my fave quilt shops, Sew Original. The quilt goddesses were doing end of year inventory, and I was just strolling about. I spied their group of Christmas fabrics and in that group was the layer cake I have been lusting for, Figgy Pudding. Now, I didn't get the Christmas quilt fever until mid December, and then it hit me hard! I began Googling "Christmas Quilts" at every opportunity, gathering ideas and inspiration. I found "Figgy Pudding" and was immediately drawn to the mix of modern and traditional, the reds and greens complemented by Robin's Egg blue and chocolate brown. I started trying to find the fabric on-line. Close to impossible, a fat quarter here, a half-yard there. But a layer cake, no way.

Well, there it was, a lone Figgy Pudding by Basic Grey for Moda Layer Cake. And as I was fondling it gently, lingering over each pattern, Kay calls out "all our Christmas fabric is half off". Needless to say, I changed my grasp on the fabric from a lover's caress to that of a death grip! And not happy to just get the Last Remaining Layer Cake, I also snatched up a Fat-Quarter set of Figgy Pudding as well. I know a single layer cale is not enough for a bed-quilt, and we have a king bed. Here are my goodies:

I have also decided on a pattern. Atkinson Designs "Slide Show". 

I love Terry Atkinson's patterns. Her directions are clear and she includes fabric amounts for a variety of sizes. I think this pattern will show off all the beauties in "Figgy Pudding". And I love the little squares in the sashing! I am not sure about the color of my sashing, but I am NOT using white! After all, we have hounds who love to lay on the bed! I am leaning toward dark red, brown or taupe. Possibly one of the "Dimples" colors. Now, what to do for the other bed?

A Christmas Miracle

I knew when we adopted Sarge it would be a long road to "pet" status for him. He had serious trust (or should I say anit-trust) issues. He had been negleted and was seriously underweight, full of ticks and fleas and scared of his own shadow. We have worked seriously at loving on him, taking him for walks and romps at the park. It helps having 2 other dogs that are well adjusted. But I was not prepared for Christmas Day!

I had alerted everyone to his shyness. Unfortunately, the weather was crappy and our ususal crowd was sparse, but that meant less people for Sarge to fear. My sweet Daddy loves the hounds (where do you think I got it?) and took his time talking to Sarge.

As you can see, Sarge responded by letting Daddy pet him!

Pepper, of course, had to hog the attention and went in for some sugar!

Sarge took treats from my Mom and stayed around to enjoy the day with us. It is so rewarding to see this beautiful dog blossom!

My brother and SIL didn't make it this year. We have had snow, but since they live in Banner Elk (mountainous), they had SNOW. And on Christmas Day, they had ice and lost power. They also had to spend Christmas morning at the Emergency Vet Clinic with their Jack Russel, Taz. Fortunately Taz seems to be on the mend, but as of yesterday, my brother still didn't have power. 

The 10" of snow of December 18-19 has lingered here, and Christmas Day brought 2.5" of rain, so we had flooding in our basement. It was coming in under the door. Then on Saturday, Dec 27, our furnace went out. Seems like a tradition as it went out last year on Christmas Eve. We had a repairman out, and we are blessed to have the money to fix it. I have been just piddling around, sleeping until 8, lingering over coffee and the paper. I did finish piecing a top and the back, but haven't pinned it yet. And I have been practicing piecing curves!

 

 

 I pulled out scraps and just sat down and did it! Each one was easier and better than the last. I have fabric from the Moda "Arcadia" collection ready for this quilt. I have also been making hanging sleeves and sewing them on for my show next month.

 

A question for my fellow quilters out there: What is a Schnibble? I have seen the "Year of Schnibbles" badges, but can't figure out what a schnibble is. The schibble quilts are cute and scrappy (which I love!), and I would love to participate if someone can tell me how! Just leave me a comment or email me (kheliwud at gmail dot com).Thanks in advance!  

I am thinking/planning on what my quilting goals will be for 2010. I will blog about them later this week. Anyone out there have interesting quilting resolutions?

Some Quilt love

Shelia LOVED her quilt! She said she had been waiting for me to make her one! She told me it was her FAVORITE gift! I knew she would be very happy!

 

Sam loved his too! He opened it and immediately exclaimed "Its a skateboard quilt!"

So now, back to the studio for more sewing! Oh, and this:

My Mom and I are having an exhibition starting January 27,2010. Stop by if you are in the Stokes County NC area!

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to all my blogesphere friends! 

I wish for all of us peace and love.