Christmas Tree Paper Pieced Stocking

Getting into the spirit of Christmas anyone? Well here is an adorable paper pieced Christmas tree stocking where I found the pattern in the December 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Instructions were quite clear. The tree in the center of the stocking is decorated with a felt star and bulbs that are connected to embroidered strings. The star has blanket stitching around it. The binding is a delightful red and green stripe.

The background fabric and binding is from the Christmas Paper Doll fabric line made by Windham Fabrics. The fabric can by purchased at fabric.com except for the Christmas Tree fabric is only available with a cream background. Rivercityquilts.com does have the black Christmas tree fabric available at their online store. If you should visit Windham Fabrics you will find a free downloadable quilt pattern using the Paper Doll Fabric.

The quilt shown here is one I designed myself using the Paper Doll Fabric. Isn't is adorable? I made it for a fundraising auction and it sold for $200.00! The pockets below are filled with outfits and hats! Every little girl will love dressing those dollies. Actually, I wouldn't mind having a quilt for myself to use for decorating purposes and allowing the little girl to come out of me.

Jewelry Cinch Bags and Eight Minute Potholders

What fun making these fabulous jewelry cinch bags. Just fill the inset pockets with earrings or petite necklaces and fill the center with larger pieces of jewelry. These will make great Christmas gifts. Is anyone thinking Christmas yet? Also, pictured is an eight minute potholder that was gifted by one of my quilting friends in the Quilters Passion Group on Eons.

There is beauty in maturity. Once the colors of the hydrangeas were bright and vibrant, but now they are subdued and calming evoking peace and simplicity. They grace the table with elegance not in a grab attention manner but a drawing one in naturally. Isn’t that like our Father in Heaven who wants us to be quiet long enough to tell us how much he loves us and to hear His response to what is on our hearts? So what is on your heart today?

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Star Autograph Quilt with Borders

Star Autograph Swap Blocks

Several years ago I participated in a block swap with a quilting group on Eons. The fabric selection was to be your choice of color using brights. Each block is 10" with various forms of signatures, some being machine embroidered but most are inscribed with permanent ink. Few chose to add buttons to make their blocks even more unique.

So today I finished putting the points sash on the outer edges. Now I need the perfect border fabric to pull all those bright colors together. Using Electric Quilt I determined that I needed a large print with the bright colors used in the blocks. Will I find it?

So I drove down to my favorite quilt shop, QBee Quilts, this afternoon. Fortunately it is only about 5 miles down the road from me to see if I could possibly find something that I had in mind. Voila! they did! So I hurried up and purchased it (well I did take time out to visit with the proprietor for a few minutes), ran down to the library to find a book on cd so I can spend the evening sewing and listening to Nicholas Sparks' "The Last Song." This will be a great way to spend a hot day--car registered 103 degrees and who knows what the heat index was with the high humidity. My sweet "Cassie" has been sitting in front of the fan, her hair blowing in the wind in order to keep cool.

If you make a quilt for one son you need to make one for the other one. Another 10 minute block pattern.

This quilt is made up of 3 seams, 10 minute blocks. The quilt top came together rather quickly. It was a Christmas gift for my oldest son and daughter-in-law. As I was making it I was hoping they were going to love it and by surprise they did.