Merry Christmas... I need a nap!

I can't believe I finished all the Hudson quilts in time for Christmas!  I put the final stitch in the binding on Katie's Hunter's Star quilt at 10:45pm on Thursday night, so it made a trip through Mr. Washy and was dry at 12:15am on Christmas Eve.  The Jumbo Vacuum bag from The Container Store worked like a charm, with all five Hudson quilts and a half dozen shirts compressing down to the size of a medium suitcase!

I do have the two Columbus quilts to finish (each one needs the binding sewn down), but we won't leave for Columbus until New Years Eve, so I have five days to finish two quilts -- compared to the mad dash to get two quilt bindings sewn down in two days, finishing these two will be a cake walk.  Update:  All quilts are finished for Christmas, 2010!  Everyone loved his or her quilt, and here are the pictures to prove it.  Okay, well to be honest, Greg wanted to wait to open his present till we get back, but we know he'll love it!

So, here are some pictures of the Hudson quilts:

Mom and Dad's Amish Steps Quilt Mom and Dad's quilt is made from batik fabrics, and the quilting is "stitch in the ditch" two inch squares with a medium meander in the outer border.  Mom and Dad insist this quilt is the most beautiful quilt ever made.

Jenny's Zen Quilt Jenny's Zen quilt is also constructed from batik fabrics using one of our favorite patterns from Blue Underground Studios.  The quilting uses the "Wondrous Waves" template (# HW31) across the main quilt.  With a fairly dense quilt, the 2" finished border is unquilted, save from quilting the year and my initials.  Jenny insists this is the most beautiful quilt ever made.

John's Hunter Star Quilt John's Hunter Star quilt uses two different batiks for the background, each one with red kanji on a black field, and two guilded gold prints for the star points.  The inner border is a gold-on-black print, and the outer border is a chinese knot pattern.  The backing fabric has large, red kanji characters on black and small black kanji characters on gold.  The stars are quilted using a free-motion "stitch in the ditch", and the squares were quilted using the "Celtic Square" template (# DAY15), although when quilted on this fabric, the motifs look more like chinese knots than celtic knots.  The border was quilted with a large meander and included my initials and the year it was quilted.  John absolutely loves his quilt and was extraordinarily pleased to have a "ninja" quilt, complete with throwing stars.  John insists that this is the most ninja-est quilt ever made.

Katie's Hunter Star Quilt I started Katie's quilt at a Hunter Star class, and the instructor was quite concerned that the fabrics I had selected were too close in hue, value, and saturation to work effectively in a Hunter Star quilt block.  By the end of the workshop, I had my first square constructed and enough pieces to layout one star, and she was quite happy to see how unfounded her fears were.  Of course, I never had any doubt.  This quilt uses the 6" blocks, so there are 80 blocks; each block is comprised of 8 pieces of fabric, and Katie was properly amazed with the 640 pieces of fabric in her quilt.  The interior diagonal lines running through the stars were quilted "stitch in the ditch" using the walking foot; the outsides of the stars were quilted "stitch in the ditch" with a free-motion technique.  The squares were quilted using an interlocking hearts/flowers template (# HH42).  The borders use a medium meander, including my cursive initials and the year.  katie absolutely loves it and insists that this is the most beautiful quilt ever made.

Robert's Arcadia Quilt Robert's quilt top is pieced from civil war reproduction fabrics that I bought in his home-town of Danville, Illinois.  Everyone who knows Robert (or has seen his wardrobe) immediately recognizes these colors as very "Robert" colors.  The backing fabric was tea-dyed, and upon washing the quilt, I discovered some noteworthy fading of the color.  Under other circumstances, I'd be quite upset; but in this case, I'm delighted with the fact that the color faded far less (or not at all) underneath the stitching and far more so elsewhere, bringing the quilt stitching into a much stronger contrast (as can be seen in the last two pictures).  The large squares were quilted with the "Flowers & Curves" template (# HH2), and the four adjacent squares were quilted using the "Elegance" template (# HH54) in a 4.5" size.  The borders were quilted with a smallish meander, including my cursive initials, the year it was quilted, and special message (and inside joke).  Robert was quite taken with the quilt (and especially loves the secret message / inside joke stitched into the border quilting), and he insists that his quilt is the most beautiful quilt ever made.

The Columbus Quilts:

Greg's Amish Steps Quilt Greg's quilt is a second "Amish Steps" quilt, using many of the same batik fabrics as the one I made for Mom & Dad.  His borders, however, feature a leafy batik that we've dubbed the "Marijuana" print.  I used a "stitch in the ditch" technique with a walking foot to outline each rectangle with a fairly tight meander for the outer border, including my initials and the year.  Greg hasn't opened it yet, but he will insist that it is the most beautiful quilt ever made (at least if he knows what's good for him).

Haley's Six-Pack Fat Quarter Quilted Tote Bag Haley's tote bag is made from six fat quarters; the pockets are quilted with a meander tight enough to qualify as stippling, and the rest of the bag is quilted "stitch in the ditch."  Haley hasn't opened it yet, but no doubt she will insist it is the most beautiful quilted tote ever made.

Kathy's Arcadia Quilt Kathy's Arcadia quilt was made with the Hungarian Blues collection fabrics.  The quilting of the motifs (large and small) are identical to Robert's Arcadia, but the borders on this quilt use a "Feathers and Curves" template that rather resembles a leafy vine.  Kathy is a big fan of blues and paisley, and she insists this is the most beautiful quilt ever.

Colin's I Spy Quilt Colin's quilt is comprised of 63 charm squares (5" finished size), with three squares cut from each fabric, except for the Oreo cookies, of which there are nine squares (because his nickname is Cookie).  The outer border is genius for an I Spy quilt with the eyes looking out of the jungle, and everyone loves the backing fabric as Colin will no doubt spend hours driving cars over the roads.  The quilting is very simple:  Sitch in the ditch around the charm squares and the borders, with additional parallel lines quilted at 0.5" intervals on either side of both borders.  Colin insists his is the coolest quilt ever, at least we assume that's what he's saying with the "gup" in his mouth.

I know I could add a new post to add the new pictures as we exchange gifts with the Haab family, but my OCD side wants all the Christmas, 2010 quilt pictures in one post.

No time!

Matthew and I are so busy trying to get our Christmas Presents finished that we've had no time to blog. Matthew should have some lovely pictures of finished quilt projects to show soon. The odds of me finishing on time this year are not looking good. I started early this year, but apparently my projects are to ambitious for the amount of time I have. Tomorrow we are having a basting party at Matthew's house. I will have at least one to baste. I needed to have all three done.

Gift of Love

Matthew and I have been dealing with all of life's difficulties by quilting. This started July 5^th when I taught Matthew how to quilt. On last Tuesday we found out that a friend had a recurrence of her cancer. We were devastated. With not much else to do but wait and worry, I headed to the fabric store. While Matthew did his day job, I began the cutting and piecing. Our goal was to finish the quilt and a matching tote for her first chemo. I stayed up until 3am working for days on the quilt after my little ones were tucked safely in their beds. By Saturday afternoon it was clear that the race was no longer to finish the quilt before chemo, but to finish the quilt before she passed away. We headed to the hospital Sunday night with my husband driving. When we called to check on the room number, we found out we were too late. I do not regret for a minute the huge quilting marathon. It gave me comfort to work on this gift of love. I'm sorry that we didn't finish earlier, but I would not wish her to have suffered longer. After a bit of time has passed we will take this quilt to her husband as a symbol of our love and affection for her.

Sweet Menagerie

from the Moda Bake Shop. The fabric is from Joann Fabrics

Border fabric close-up of photo quilt

Emroidery squares on photo quilt

Photo Quilt

I'm almost through with the first of four of these quilts. In the three big blocks the words, "May the love that surrounds you fill your heart with warmth" will be embroidered. Then all the way around the center 6 blocks photos will be sewn on.

Today's Forecast: More Layering and Basting

I finished piecing Arcadia 2 last night just after midnight, and Kara will be helping me layer and baste tonight.  Arcadia 1 was a pain in the rump to baste because of the staggered sashing lines, so this time I'm going to give Hobbs Fusible Cotton batting a go and see how that works for me.  Kara and I fumbled through using this batting on our last layer/basting blowout, and I don't think she's done the machine quilting on that project started yet.  I think it will go much more smoothly for us now that we know we'll have to flip sandwich over successively to get all the big wrinkles out.  Kara was also going to double-down on her Blue Bell quilt to get the embroidery in the borders finished so we can layer and baste that one, too.  I'm still shuddering, though, remembering our last layer & baste event which nearly turned into a slumber party when I sent Kara home in the wee hours of the morning.  So I've drawn the line:  We can baste one quilt, or two quilts, or three quilts, but not four!  Well, maybe I'd reconsider for crib quilts...

More of Laura's quilt

I'm still not very good with our fairly new Canon camera. Also, my room isn't big enough to get the whole quilt in the picture.

Laura's quilt label

Laura's quilt finished

Sam's quilt back

Sam's Quilt

The front of Sam's "Grinny" quilt.

Quick Update, Then Off to MMKR

I'm all packed and ready to take off early tomorrow morning for MMKR, the Men's Midwest Knitting Retreat.  Of course, I'm taking some knitting with me, but I know I'll spend much of the weekend continuing to bind quilts by hand.  I'm very excited, and I have a fabric store or two to stop & visit along the way.

Before I toddle off to bed, though, I want to post a few pictures of the second Arcadia quilt I'm working on.  This one uses the Hungarian Blues fabric line, and I know Kara's going to want to steal it.  I'm slightly pleased with it, and the only real problem is the temptation to pack up the sewing machine & accoutrements  so I can continue working on it over the weekend.