Swooning for Christmas

I had this idea in the spring when I finished my swoon quilt , sketched it out, and then it sat.  It sat while my son broke his ankle and had surgery, while my husband blew out his knee and had surgery as well.  It sat through four months of crutches, through summer vacation, soccer seasons and the rest of life.  But I kept looking at it.

At last I started .  Now it is done.


A large scrappy Swoon quilt to snuggle under while we read Christmas stories!


There are 108 half square triangles and 492 squares of fabric in this quilt, all simply pulled from my stash.  The quilt measures 72 inches square, just a few inches smaller than the original Swoon quilt .


The backing is pieced and the quilting is simple.  I found that there was so much activity in the quilt with dozens of different fabrics that the quilting hardly showed up at all, so I kept it basic.


I went with a scrappy binding as well.  After I finished it, I had it laying flat on the floor so I could cut all the stray threads off.  As I worked my littlest girls marched and danced all over it, then sat down and started playing I spy with the fabric squares.  I love that this quilt will be large enough for several of us to snuggle under, and that it will supply lots of fun hunts for their favorite squares.


Many loved fabric prints are included in this quilt.  Some that I’ve saved for too long and others that are the last little piece I had. Some that I purchased this year (such as Aneela Hooey’s Cherry Christmas) and hope I never run out of.


The holidays are fast approaching!  I’m so happy to have this project completed with plenty of time to enjoy it.


In fact, we already are!  THIS is the best part of quilting.


Jennifer

Flying Geese and Zig Zag Rail Fences

They did it.  The girls finished their quilt tops!


I am so proud of them.  They put in a many hours of work, learning the basics of piecing a quilt.

My daughter’s friend was so cute.  When she finished hers she stood there and kept looking at it with a happy smile on her face.   For her quilt we made strips of flying geese in the colors of the Young Women’s program colors.  I love the way it turned out.


We added a happy border to the quilt and it turned out the perfect size.




My daughter chose a zig zag rail fence design in the same color scheme.  Again, we’re so pleased with the results.  At the last minute she decided she wanted a solid green border.  It turned out to be perfect, giving the eye a place to rest with all the movement and color in the design.




Our next step is quilting and then binding the quilts.  I’ve loved every minute I’ve spent with these girls as they’ve worked at this project.  I hope these quilts will always bring back special memories for each of them.


It’s a lot of fun to make something, but to teach someone else to make some thing themselves, well, that feels awfully good!

Turquoise Star Quilt



This quilt is just so… happy.  The colors are bright and cheerful and it makes me smile.  I finished it weeks ago but my computer has been unhappy and I wasn’t able to get the pictures off my camera until now.


I love the patchwork star and I’m glad I tried hand quilting.  It wasn’t overwhelming since I only hand quilted the turquoise background and it was a great project to learn on.  I’m sure I’ll be doing more of it, especially after I saw how many lovely colors the Finca Perle Cotton is available in!


For the back I pieced together many scraps and used more turquoise solid.  I always love the way quilting lines look on the back of quilts.


The quilt is bound in a cheerful stripe from the Tweet collection, of which this quilt is made.


This is my 8th finished quilt for 2012.  I still have several I hope to complete before the year ends.


Stats:

size:  60″ x 60″ finished fabric:  Tweet by Timeless Treasures (released early 2012), solid is from my stash, not sure of color or manufacturer (it doesn’t match anything on my Kona card) pattern:  made with the Made in Cherry Quilt Along perle cotton:  I used the Finca brand, size 8, and purchased it from Yarn Bazaar .
hand quilting:  See Anna Maria’s excellent tutorial on hand quilting Have a great day!
Jennifer

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