Quilter's Wishlist

I saw a Christmas wish list posted at Bella Online, but I have to admit her list said more about the quilter's deficiencies than about quilting. Or at least this quilter's deficiencies. A needle threader speaks more to my shaky fingers and poor eyesight; the iron that turns off automatically reminds me of my forgetful nature. And getting new scissors and teflon mats is all well and good, but if anyone wants to make this quilter's heart flutter, check below.

This is a selfish listing of just SOME of the fabric art I'd love for someone to put under my Christmas tree -- in no particular order.

Ruth McDowell's self portrait of Nude Reclining -- or just about anything that Ruth has made.

Virginia Spiegel's 400 Songbirds. I fell in love with this piece when I wrote about her and several other quilt artists' activist quilts.

Valerie C. White's Sunrise and the Rooster and just about anything else she has made! I adored writing about her for Quilters World. If ever I feel down, I just visit her site and look at her quilts -- they always lift my spirits. Maybe it is the colors or the movements or a reminder of the fun I had writing about her.

Anything quilted by Karen McTavish! I love her style and her subversive tendencies. A quilter should have tattoos! Why not?

Eileen Doughty's activist quilts -- any of them -- and her Meteor Shower (shown below)-- any of her landscapes. Oh heck, anything Eileen makes I like and would love to find under the Christmas tree!

Well, it goes without saying -- Hollis Chatelain -- I fell in love with her Burkinabe Mother before many people had heard of Hollis.

Caryl Bryer Fallert. I'm almost afraid to write her name for fear I'll misspell it, but I can't make a wish list without her work on it. Anything, anything. But I did fall in love with her Feather Flower and Feather Study (among others). They rather remind me of Jacobean designs.

Jacobean reminds me of Mary Sorensen's work. I have one chickadee pattern on the blog and would be happy to see that hanging on my wall. But I also have fallen for her Persian Dawn Jacobean design.

Laura Schwarz Smith is new on my radar and I hope to find out more about this artist and her work. I particularly liked her Il Postino shown here to the left. Okay, I liked Imagine and Awakening and....

To look at more quilt artists and their work, Lyric Kinard has amassed a delightful list.

Tiptoeing toward Christmas

It is the day.

I finally dragged out the decorations, turned on Christmas music and dressed the tree in a few garlands, ribbon, and ornaments. It looks quite festive.

I have great intentions of making a tree skirt. In fact there is one half made in my 'to be completed' pile. I believe it has been there for about five years. I look at it every year and somehow never get around to finishing it. I've packed it up and moved it, but can't quite seem to find the time to finish it. Maybe for next year....

While setting knick-knacks around the house, positioning our stuffed reindeer family, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, the nativity set, and Santa and reindeer, I kept wondering what I'd use at the base of the tree. Then inspiration struck.

Another antique quilt. If you'll recall my last blog discussed the crazy quilt that now covers the table near my husband's chair -- by the way so far nothing has been broken. Whew!

I keep my antique quilts packed away all year. Can't really enjoy them very much that way. They aren't heirloom quality, they are sentimental quality. I remember sleeping under the flower garden quilt that Mom had made before she was married.

She may have worked on that while trying not to worry about the Great Depression that settled on the land while she was graduating from high school. She may have stitched those hexagons together around the happy yellow centers as her parents were packing their things to move from the farm that the bank had repossessed.... But my memories of the quilt include only good times, happy dreams of a young girl.

So this year that worn, but still colorful quilt, encircles the base of my now decorated Christmas tree. A few presents lay atop it already. And I wouldn't be surprised if before the evening is over, three cats will have staked out a snoozing spot on it.

Yes it is an antique, but more than that, it is a link to family. And this year, I need all of the links I can forge.

Christmas gifts and decorations

Tis time for some holiday cheer and preparations for gifts and decorations as only quilters and needleworkers can do. It takes time to do these projects and even starting now might find us stitching at the eleventh hour on the holiday eve. That seemed to have become a tradition with my mother-in-law. Each year found her and maybe some of her elves (daughters and granddaughters) working on stuffed toys, quilts or clothing for one of her 16 grandchildren.

Nobody says old fashioned Christmas quite like Debbie Mumm and her delightful primitive holiday patterns such as this free Santa Door Banner pattern. Of course she has many more beautiful creations with patterns available in her book, Quick Country Christmas Projects.

Also featured on that same site is a free flying geese pattern to make Christmas stockings. Although I particularly like the table runner with the pieced poinsettia motif.

While thinking of the holidays, Jennifer Chiaverini has written an Elm Creek Quilts novel just for the season with the apt title: The Christmas Quilt. The entire series embraces the art of quilting as well as the women who make them.

A Beary Merry Christmas has been around for several years, but the pattern continues to warm my heart whenever I chance upon it. The free pattern is available here.

Of course memory quilts make great gifts any time of the year, but maybe during the holiday that celebrates family, they are even more beloved. I particularly like the quilt book "Memory Quilts in the Making" compiled and edited by Rhonda Richards for Oxmoor House.

A Redwork quilt is also beautiful at any time of the year, but seems perfectly suited for a Christmas quilt. You could take coloring book pages and embroidered them on squares and set them together with Christmas patterned fabric or alternate them with star squares or turn them into pillows. Here is just one of an endless number of Internet sites that feature coloring book pages.

A story quilt of the nativity seems in order, too. I have a basic pattern of the holy family that I am hoping to make this year. But I also stumbled across this lovely quilt that may also make its way into my 'to be made' pile of quilt patterns, books and ideas.

For a variety of Christmas quilts where you might come up with ideas for your own original, check out Forever in Season. Well, maybe this will whet your appetite and get you started on the seasonal gifts. Or perhaps you'd like to just start making charity quilts to donate for this season of giving? If so, don't forget the dogs and cats as well as babies, homeless, sick, war torn, or those whose loved ones are fighting in the military.

Of course there are other holidays -- Thanksgiving, Hanuka, Veteran's Day.... all good reasons for quilt making.