Christmas Crowns

 March brought us new snow

and the endless freezing temperatures.

But there's always a bright side.

Christmas Crowns

2014

57" x 57"

I brought March in like a lion

with another quilt finished.

The pattern is

from Di Ford's book

Primarily Quilts...

19th Century Inspirations

published by Quiltmania.

Her original inspiration is from 

Henrietta Smith Glover,

of Huntington Connecticut,

c. 1840-1865

I used bright poison greens and

vibrant turkey red repros along with

a few golds.

The fabrics didn't have busy patterns

so the graphic design of the quilt could be the star.

I opted to have it machine quilted and 

went with an overall pattern 

that loosely resembled swirling feathers.

I thought it added another element

to balance and soften, just a little,

the sharp angular lines of the blocks.

With a complicated quilt finished,

I feel the need to do something

simple and quick.

 My machine is humming already.

 Until Next Time-

Has It Been A Year Since I Started?

 It has been a year,

not a year of constant work,

but a year from start to finish.

It was last February 

while I was staying in Denver,

helping to take care of my little grandson and granddaughter,

that I began this

wool/flannel project

designed by

Primitive Gatherings.

There was lots of prep work:

fusing, cutting

and more fusing ,

along with  some help at the ironing board.

("Hey, Nana, I think it works better like this.")

But the blocks got done.

Well, not done completely.

There was lots of button hole stitching to do.

 I even had help with that.

Then all the borders were appliqued,

 half square triangles made,

and the top was finally pieced together.

Last week I got out my Perle cotton

and started big stitching.

Big stitching doesn't take too long

It is big stitches, after all.

So here it is all done,

quilted

 and bound.

Not bad for a calendar year,

even with help.

 Until Next Time-

A Good Little Gismo

One of my friends had 

the opportunity to go to 

the Houston Quilt Festival last fall.

And she brought me this little gismo.

 It's a needlepuller

by Anneke's Quilt Supply

from the Netherlands.

I hadn't used it until she mentioned 

it a couple of weeks ago and 

told me it was a wonder when

she was doing big stitch quilting on wool.

She's right!

I  thought I would finally give it a try

on a flannel/wool piece that

needed quilting with some Valdani Perle Cotton.

It did work great!

 I was able to pull the larger needle 

through those heavier

fabrics quite easily.

It's worn on your quilting hand.

The pointer finger is placed through the hole 

and the pushbutton is pointed toward the thumb.

 I was actually able to load my 

needle with a lot more stitches

than usual.

Then you slide 

the eye of the needlepuller

over the tip of the needle,

 squeeze the button with your thumb,

it grabs the needle, 

 and Da-Dah...

you pull the needle through.

It does takes a bit of getting use

to on your fingers.

I haven't mastered that yet.

But it did work very well.

I looked on line to try and find a source.

Amazon carries them, but 

they are out of stock,

so you might have to do more searching

or head off to a quilting venue

with lots of vendors.

Someday you might want to look for it.

It's a good Gismo

to have on hand.

Until Next Time-