Oh Christmas Tree Quilt-A-Long & a Giveaway!

January 5, 2016February 11, 2016 Elizabeth E.38 Comments

When I first saw this Christmas Tree on Instagram, I fell in love. So I proposed a Quilt-A-Long that would ~~force~~ enable me to to get it completed in time for Christmas 2016, for there is power in having to put your innermost feelings about quilts/goal setting out there in the world and shaming yourself into finishing it. I’m really good at this, I know. I wrote to Wendy Williams, who designed this pattern, and she gave us her blessing, and said “she can hardly wait to see the quilts that will come of this.” So onward, everyone!

The magazine where this pattern is found is Simply Modern Issue #3, and that’s the giveaway part. I have an extra copy which you can win, but wait a minute. First let’s do the business of this. If you aren’t lucky enough to win this, you can buy it from Fat Quarter Shop, or the QuiltMania people, or if you live in Australia, it’s on Wendy’s website Flying Fish Kits (link below).

I’ve broken it down into several steps, some easy and for some months you will be carting around your embroidery around with you everywhere you go, but these are definitely do-able steps. Here they are:

January, Step “prepare”: buy the magazine, gather your fabrics, buy the felt/wool, buy/find the pearl cotton. More about that in a minute.

February, Step 1: Make the tree on the background and stitch it down. If you use wool felt, she has an easy appliqué method.

March, Step 2: Make 21 flowers.

April, Step 3: Make 10 birds.

May, Step 4: Make the scene at the bottom. Wendy’s pattern (IG: flyingfishkits) has two cavorting reindeer. I plan to switch mine out to a simple nativity. Your choice. (If I were you, I’d also start haunting her IG site as she has lots of great embroidery ideas for the flowers. I’d also consider buying her book, Wild Blooms and Colorful Creatures, for more tips and helps.)

June, Step 5: Appliqué down the flowers.

July, Step 6: Appliqué down the birds and the scene.

August, Step 7: Sawtooth border (reds).

September, Step 8 (finish up Quilt-A-Long): Make wonky star blocks, sew them together and attach border #2. Ta-Done! I just have to deliver you here. You are on your own for getting it quilted and bound.

So here’s the drill for Step: prepare. Wendy calls for wool felt. Some of my IG followers have left a lengthy series of comments on an earlier IG post about threads and wools (scroll back in the feed to find it–it says Step 1 on it, which is an oops, but it’s those Flying Monkeys again). You can buy 100% wool and felt it yourself (more tips in her book or on the internet), or buy 100% wool felt. According to @yondergirlie, the preferred is the felt, as you don’t have to stitch it down as much as it doesn’t fray (sometimes the felted wools can fray). The general consensus was to use pearl cotton #8 for the embroidery. According to the pattern, you’ll also need a medallion-style piece of fabric to appliqué in the center of some of the flowers. I love Wendy’s combination of wool and felt together.

(all of my felts, threads and wools; some of the fabrics, and Sue Spargo’s Creative Stitches book for embroidery ideas)

I visited with the people at a local shop today that specializes in felted wool. When using the wool they use Steam-A-Seam 2 to back their pieces, fuse them to the top, and then they handstitch around them, using pearl cotton size 12 thread. All these are options for you to try and to experiment with. I’ll be using wool felt, plus some felted wool sweaters for accent pieces, that I recently re-discovered in my garage (let’s hear it for UFOs that deliver to your newest project). I also found a stash of wool felt that I purchased in Munich, Germany some years ago. If you want to take a trip there, I can provide the address (it’s another one of those things that I buy, hoard away, and then later find a use for, much to my delight).

Many others mentioned an ETSY shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/quiltingacres [copy and paste addresses into your browser address bar]. I’ve also seen Primitive Gatherings mentioned for felted wool, as well as @benziedesign on Instagram. I have found lots of Christmas fabric on sale this past month to use for the wonky stars, borders and background. So, gather away and get ready for the Oh, Christmas Tree quilt-a-long!

UPDATE (2/11/16): I’ve found two more sources for high-quality felt from companies here in the United States. I’ve ordered from both of them and can attest to the quality of these felts (and no, they aren’t giving me anything for free).

The first one is A Child’s Dream. Above snapshot is from their website; they have several different thicknesses and many more colors, but I went for the “Holland wool felt” type of wool.

The second is The Felt Pod. Again, a snapshot from their website shows many of their different products in their wool felt. This is the “Reds” page.

Now for the giveaway (domestic only). HOWEVER! if you live in Australia, Wendy has patterns of this tree for sale on her blog (just thought you’d like to know).

Since it’s my birthday tomorrow, I’d like you to leave a one-or two-line memory about your best birthday ever. I’ll randomly draw a name this weekend and get it sent off on Monday. Make sure you fill in an accurate email address as I’ll use that to contact you. And if you throw your name in the ring for this magazine, I’ll expect to see a finished quilt this coming December, as you wouldn’t want to just hoard it away from someone who really really really wants it, would you? ~~Leave your comments below.~~

NOTE: Comments are now closed. Giveaway winner will be announced this afternoon (Friday, Jan. 8th).

Chuck Nohara

Chuck Nohara Blocks • January 2016

January 1, 2016December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Note: This was supposed to be published in a few days, but the Flying Monkeys took over and things just got a little out of control over here. Over and Out.

Most of the time, I keep the Chuck Nohara blocks confined to the immediacy of Instagram, but as we start a new month (and a new year), I thought I’d show where we are.

Finished these. Don’t be too harsh a critic on my skills, as some were done in a car, some in an airplane and some while in a hotel room. But done is the operative word.

Starting to prep up these. Two choices are from Susan, of PatchworkNPlay, and two are mine. I love the ones that are a combo of hand appliqué and machine piecing. Come and join us! Refer to the earlier post for information about the book, 2001 New Patchwork Blocks, and follow our quilt-a-long on Instagram (#chucknoharaqal).

P. S. There’s a giveaway coming up in my next post for the magazine Simply Moderne, which has the fabulous Oh Christmas Tree pattern in it. Stay tuned.

Quilts

Spelling Bee Begins • January 2016

December 31, 2015December 14, 2024 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Sometime ago, I hatched an idea of making letters and words and ideas up in cloth. Not a new idea, but just one that emerged from the morass to capture my attention, I’d say. Getting a few friends to join me in this endeavor was the easy part. I set up a blog, Quilt Abecedary, where I experimented with making letters free-form, teaching myself as I went, failing and succeeding, jumping off my comfortable quilty cliff. That done, I wondered what to choose for a theme.

My first thought, and the one that lingered the longest was to do a series of words around the theme of “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Elizabeth” — verbs like bake, roast, chop, sauté and so forth. I have a recipe blog, Elizabeth Cooks, so thought to add that blog address to the mix. But somehow it just didn’t seem satisfying, as I couldn’t just settle into it.

I made my parents an embroidered sampler some years ago with a lovely saying celebrating their marriage:

When the one man loves the one woman and the one woman loves the one man,

the very angels leave heaven and come and sit in the house and sing for joy

The interesting thing about deadlines is that they force you to a decision, whether or not it’s the “perfect” one. And this idea–of making a Valentine’s quilt — resonated with me. For better or for worse, my marriage is the key to my happy life, and I wanted to celebrate that idea with a Valentine’s quilt.

I chose a range of reds to dark pinks in all shades, with minimal patterning, with creamy whites to light pinks to serve as the background. I’ll mark our progress as we move through this one-year commitment (the bee will disband at the end of the year). My beemates will choose their words and I’ll make the rest. We’ll pop up now and again on Instagram at #spellingbeequilt. We have no blog or Flickr site as it is only a year-long project. If this idea piques your interest, drop me an email with a photo and I’ll share your words on here, too.

Since tonight is New Year’s Eve, I thought it was a good way to celebrate the New Year by trying something I hadn’t tried before. I was quite struck by something my nephew’s wife posted today on Instagram. She wrote that she’d seen babies born, a friend’s wedding, job losses, and sadly, buried a brother; she summed it up by saying “So much great that I want to remember forever and so much heartache I hope I never know again. Goodbye 2015, you have made your mark. And now on to 2016, I have so much to tell you.”

She echoed my feelings exactly. I’ve learned a lot this year, working through my Lost Summer of surgery, continuing health problems and had to come to grips that every time I look in the mirror I think of more of my grandmother than I do those pictures of me as a young woman. But I’ve had the sweetness of my husband’s company during this time, good friends who rallied round, lovely readers of this blog (many of who have become good friends) and lots of new quilting opportunities to enjoy. So, to echo Casey’s words: Goodbye 2015, you have made your mark. And now on to 2016, a clean slate, full of hope and plans and big challenges.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Quilts

Merry Christmas 2015

December 23, 2015December 14, 2024 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

Christmas Treat Wallhanging (from here)

Merry Christmas 2015!

Largely because of traveling and family obligations, this season has felt like a mad dash, reminding me of the runners I met in the Metro in DC one December morning. But here we are and now it’s time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a thought-provoking New Year.

It’s time to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, with the thoughts of Mary gazing at her newborn son in wonder, perhaps hoping she could keep him a wee babe forever and ever, but of course, all children grow up and so did He. I celebrate her and him and the sweet feelings that arise at this time of good cheer.

Please do eat some fudge and toffee and savor some good food, whether or not you made it, or your mother made it, or you picked it up in the freezer section at the grocery store. (Time enough for dieting after the new year.) Please also play some Christmas carols and if you’ve got half a voice, sing along. What happens here after the holidays? I’ve got some posts coming up (after the company all leaves) about some quilt-a-longs for 2016, and I’m developing some new patterns for you to try. And of course, I’ll write about some quilty topics (haven’t blogged about QuiltCon Rejects yet, have I?), and some musings here and there. We’ll just see where the new year takes us.

I hope for you all a season of joy and of remembering the good, letting the rest slide into the background, knowing that all that we go through makes us who we are–perfect and imperfect and very human. . . and very much in need of each other. I wish you all time for reflection on family, friends (both near and wide in our quilty universe) and for all that we are grateful. I’ll see you after we traverse through the darkest and longest days of the year, moving always towards the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ and the light and warmth of Christmas.