New Year Thoughts

It's hard to believe that I've just passed my one year mark for my blog. It has been so amazing to me to meet and "talk" with people from all parts of the country and all over the world. Some of you I feel have become friends and that's an amazing thing to me. I'm looking forward to 2011- there is such hope to see a whole year stretched out in front of you. I've been reading alot of blogs where people are listing their projects for the new year. It's fun to see all the potential, but there seems to be such pressure on us as quilters to finish all the projects. Years ago, we simply curled up and spent months either hand piecing or hand quilting our projects (or at least I did). I know times have changed, but I hope we can resist putting such productivity pressure on ourselves and find the joy in the journey. Having said that..... here's my project I would love to finish this year. And I'm completely stuck!!!

I finished piecing this quilt in about 2002, had it basted and started hand quilting it. And here it still sits :(.. My friend Kim and I made this as a joint project together and of course, she finished hers and gave it away - hand quilted mind you LOL!!

Can you see all the great Robyn Pandolph fabrics (I remember we were obsessed with her fabrics).

Here's the back art (love it!!).

Here you can see some of the quilting. It's the orange peel pattern.

Most of the markings have evaporated off the front, so even if I wanted to finish, I can't see them any more.

Thanks for listening and sharing this journey with me.

Until next time, make something beautiful.

-Karen

Christmas Quilts

I thought I'd give you a quick spin around my living room and see all the various stages of my Christmas quilting over the last 25 years. Here's my tree with my homespun tree skirt.
I made up this pattern and intended to applique some Red Wagon (Snowbound) angels or shepherds on it, but you can see how far I've gotten with that!!

Here is the very first Christmas quilt. This quilt brings back so many happy memories I can't bear to part with it. My sister (who lived in Lakeland, FL at the time) made these one summer when she came to visit. She has one identical to this! :) The colors and fabrics have changed so much.

This is the last Fireplace quilt of the year, not over the fireplace because there's a wreath there.

It always looks so pretty here in the hallway.

Here's a close up of the quilting, I wanted them to look like Christmas trees. I was able to figure out a continuous line quilting design and I'm very happy with it. This was one of my first projects when I learned to machine quilt.

This is my angel quilt. My friend Kim and I made this quilt together as a quilt-along before there was such a thing I guess (circa 1997). It's a very special quilt for me.

And here are the Joy Angels. I am putting the angel banner on my list this year - I really want one!!

And I love my big star and angel. I'll do a post after Christmas about the whole angel quilt. It's not really Christmas, so it stays out most of the winter.

Here's the latest one I'm working on. I've been trying to finish this for 4 years!!!!! It's also done in the "one of a kind" method. I'm hand quilting it but it doesn't even have that much quilting in it. I'm hoping to spend some quality time quilting over the holidays since we are not travelling this year.

The colors in this quilt make me so happy. I think it's that barn red and the caramel/brown. Just realized I forgot Snowbound - I'll do that separate.

So that's my living room, filled with Christmas quilts and they all get used!!
Until next time,

-Karen

Carol's Birthday Quilt

Today is my friend Carol's birthday. This is her birthday Christmas quilt. I gave it to her last week.
It's made using the premise of the 'One of a Kind" quilts that I showed recently in my office art.

I think you can tell that she loved it :)!!

The back was this great "Dashing thru the snow" by Teresa Kogut that was out several years ago. It's 54" wide and the perfect size for a lap size quilt backing.

The blocks were made using pillow panels and stocking panels. I really love this technique. And these pillow blocks looked so vintage.

You just start with one block and it starts to gr0w. So each one ends up being one of a kind!!!

Until next time,

-Karen

Navy Challenge Quilts

The last few weeks have been so busy, I haven't shared the Navy Quilt Challenge Exhibit. This is the grand prize winner. It truly is stunning. In the ribbon edge are printed the years from 1911 to 2011. I'm still not sure how she did the ghost plane and carrier. It is worthy of Best of Show!

This quilt was not in the show but was done by our Guild several years ago as a gift to the Naval Air Museum. I was honored to have made a patch for this quilt (mine is at 9 o'clock). It's in the permanent display at the museum.

Here is mine - Going Home, hanging with some others. You can read the whole story of my journey to make this quilt. What a thrill.

This quilt was done by my friend Cena and came in 2nd in her division!!!! Congratulations on a great quilt. The face was based on Robert Redford in "The Great Waldo Pepper".

This quilt was done by my friend Sheree and is called Cradle of Aviation. It's of the lighthouse out a NAS - a landmark in Pensacola. How much fun to see all our quilts hanging.

The rest of these pictures were my favorites. They were stunning in person. Some won, some didn't but they were all so wonderful.

This quilt was done the lady who thought up this idea. These were made from real shirts and had tiny buttons and names. Sorry I didn't take a close-up.

The exhibit was hanging in a part of the museum called the hangar. There are planes everywhere!!

This quilt was chosen as viewer's choice. That's a real American Flag appliqued on and it was stunning!

If you get a chance to see this exhibit next year, I hope you'll go. It's a wonderful tribute to 100 years of Naval aviation.

Until next time,
-Karen

Santa has a quilt

I decided to decorate the little table out in the garage that leads into the kitchen. Normally this is totally covered with junk. I wanted to put my little Santa out there, but it looked so bare. So I cut a bunch of 3 1/2" squares of my homespun red, green and tan and made him a little quilt.
It didn't make much of a dent as far as de-stashing goes, but it looks so cute!!! I quilted wavy lines on the seamlines and in the middle of the block.
Have a happy Saturday.
-Karen

Almost Forgot

I'm starting to decorate and remembered that I forgot to post abut my "harvest" fireplace quilt. This was part of the series of New York Beauty block quilts I did several years ago. In this one, I added the deep barn red which is kind of the signature color for my room.
These are really such deep, rich colors - probably not for everyone, but perfect for me.:). I'll be changing this out for the Christmas one, so wanted to share it.
The kitty is hard to see, he's in the upper left corner (center).

Until next time,
-Karen

Trail Mix Update

Well, the second to the last group is done!! Only the big 4 patch blocks are left.
I am getting very excited to see what this looks like. Compared to a lot of the blogs out there, it's not very "Christmassy" but this project has been so much fun!!

Until next time,

Karen