Christmas Greetings from Elm Creek Manor done!

Now up in my entry way, this actually might get a bit more quilting for next year, and needs blocking, but later.

Christmas Greetings quilt progress

Saturday I spent much of the day at the sewing machine, stitching in the ditch (along the sashing and the narrow red block trim) is done, and a bit more. Two blocks are mostly quilted, and I am working on the center block. Now I need to make some decisions on how to quilt that field of snow!

I have been looking at Leah Day’s website to get some ideas. The falling snow is a variation of one of her designs. Still need to do a filler pattern around the outer applique shapes. I used a very light silver Rayon for the snow, a bit of glimmer. And I need to fix some of the icicles hanging from the roof.

While stitching in the ditch, I did part of the Feathered Star, still needs something in the star, but I will use green for that stitching, not the gold.

Cornucopia of Thanks done!

At around 98" square, this will be for our bed. I have two matching pillowcases made so far, need to make another two. Love this quilt!

Album of Quilters a Top!

Got the signature and a strip of fabric from the last swapper, pieced the block and got the last bit assembled! It is now a top. I'm looking for something to quilt in the alternating plain squares, top of my list at PIQF this week.

This was started last year, one of the UFOs on the 2012 goals - getting there! Now to get busy on this weeks Grandmother's Choice block, a nice easy one, Aunt Eliza.

Cornucopia of Thanks quilt top done

It is a top. After much angst, I put my big girl panties on and just did it. The borders are all pieced, just didn't have enough fabric (this was from my stash), or the design of the fabric made me piece it, the stripes and directional print. I wanted to do mitered corners, but would have had to piece even more than I did, so I revised the plan. First and third borders are not mitered at all. The middle striped border has corner blocks that were mitered and then pieced onto the stripe. They just were not long enough with two widths of fabric to miter without the corner blocks. Now I can move on to the next thing on my UFO list, not sure what that is yet, there are several contenders. This will probably go to my long-arm quilter since I already have a couple of tops to quilt once I get them basted. Maybe that should be next.

Cornucopia of Thanks center done

Well, the center is done, now on to borders. I just wish I had more of the dark rust fabric. The first border is that, and it will be pieced, and I really like to use the lengthwise grain for borders since it stretches less. The final sashing was cut widthwise, and it is stretchy. Bah. Perhaps I will cut the next border just a bit small to compensate for the stretchiness.

Loyal daughter block

Loyal Daughter was designed by Jennifer Chiaverini and published in the latest 100 blocks magazine by Quiltmaker. I used Inklingo to print most of the shapes needed for this block and then hand pieced it. Hand piecing a block when the stitching lines are printed on the fabric for you is fabulous! This will be one of the extra blocks for my Cornucopia of Thanks quilt.

Cornucopia of Thanks - sashing in progress

I still have two more blocks to make, but they will be hand pieced and are waiting for "hand work time". Meanwhile I have been stitching sashing. I have it broken into about 6 types, cornerstones done, horizontal inner sashing done, vertical inner sashing done, still left the blended sashings (horizontal and vertical) and the final outer sashing that is only half the width. The inner sashing is directional fabric, just to make things fun . This is a stash quilt, and I didn't have enough fabric to make all the sashing the same, so it is two different greens. They are the third and fourth fabrics from the left in the picture in the last post. The first two will be borders, along with one other fabric, not sure what yet. here is the whole design wall - and here is a look at how it looks when sashed. Blocks are 12", sashing is 6".

Cornucopia of Thanks BOM

This month I started leading the Cornucopia of Thanks BOM on the SBS and other Elm Creek quilts Yahoo group. The BOM is using the pattern from Jennifer Chiaverini's "Traditions from Elm Creek Quilts". I picked out some fabrics from stash. Our first block was Augusta And I also made cornerstones then I decided to make more blocks. And decided that the gold fabric did not play well with the cornerstone peach fabric. So made another Providence block. Then I made a bunch more blocks, having too much fun! These are the reject blocks that didn't play well with the rest, they will be a table runner. I like them together. Two more blocks to make, and a lot of sashing!

Asian Mill Girls a top

I need a better name for this quilt, but right now it is temporarily dubbed the Asian Mill Girls quilt (top). I got the borders on tonight, now waiting for the backing fabric to come, probably not until 21 Dec . On the plus side, I dropped "A Wild and Crazy kinda Quilt" at the longarmer's today, and they promised to have it done before Christmas. It might need the binding still, but DD will be able to open it on Christmas. The wool batting will be nice, it snowed on her the other day, and we don't get much of that where we live.

Christmas Greetings from Elm Creek Manor top done

I've been leading a block of the month for this quilt, posting the next month's block at the beginning of the month. That meant I could be trying to do a complex block in a busy month, so during some slow months I worked ahead. Consequently I got all my blocks done ahead of time, and got my quilt top put together before Christmas. Yeah! Will it get quilted before Christmas? Don't know, I have a couple of other quilts I need to get back to finishing, before this one gets basted. But meanwhile, I can enjoy it pinned to something, and I'll take that and be happy.