Christmas Wallhanging 2010

One night as I was trying to get Greta to sleep I was watching a sewing show and the guest was talking about 'raggedy reverse applique'. It looked like such a fun easy technique that I started brainstorming patterns I could do. It was a few weeks before Halloween, and I thought it would be really cute to make some Halloween blocks, but then I realized realistically I was not going to get anything done till Christmas.

 At work we have a lady's gift exchange, last year I gave away a stars wall hanging(I will post that one too) and it was a hit, so I thought I would do this for this years exchange. It was a success as well.

 It was so easy and quick to make, which is good since I didn't have time to start sewing till two days before the party. I had drawn up the patterns over the past few weeks, as usual reinventing the wheel every time I do a quilt.

 My favorite is the Christmas tree.

 I like the holly too, but I shouldn't have used black as the top color, it isn't enough contrast.

The method is really fun and easy. You stack 3 color blocks on top of each other then sew around the design you have chosen then cut out the layers to reveal the color you want to see.

I think it will be fun to do a whole lap quilt, I have a whole bunch of ideas!!!

Thanks Naketa and Jessica!

This is a quilt that was given to me for my wedding by two of my best friends and former roommates. Neither of them have quilted before and I think they did an incredible job on their first quilt. They even hand quilted every block. It is great to have wonderful friends who will spend a whole semester making you a quilt. I love the quilt and I love Naketa and Jessica for making it!

Andrew's quilt

Here is the beautiful flying geese quilt I made Andrew for Christmas this year. My mom kept telling me that I must really love this guy because it only took me three or four days to put it together. That is a new record for me. Usually it takes me months to finish a quilt top. It was still not completely finished by christmas, but that is ok. I'm so excited for it to be all quilted. I hope that Andrew loves this quilt as much as I do. I think it turned out so great!

close-up view
The whole thing

Harrison's I-Spy

This is Harrison's I-Spy quilt. I gave it to him Christmas 2007.

This quilt started from an idea I got from my mom. She had been collecting I-Spy materials, (Fabric with a picture of something in it. This quilt has Bees, Fish, Flowers, Shoes, Aliens...) for quite a while. In her ward she taught a quilting class and had a block exchange. Each person makes X many blocks that all look the same then you get together and exchange all of them and each person has enough different blocks to make a quilt. It is a very easy block so I decided to do it in my ward as well. I didn't have as good a turnout as my mom so there are two of most of the blocks in the quilt, and I think I had to use some from my mom's stash but it turned out really cute.

Once I got all the blocks I had to make the sashing so it was big enough for a twin size quilt. Once again starting from scratch and inventing a pattern. I used a four patch in the corners with two bars around each block.

The fabric I used for my blocks was Bees because Noah's sister's name is Brooke, but they call her "Aunt Bee" and I wanted to make her son a quilt. She is also a school teacher and I found a really cute fabric with bees and apples! So really this quilt is more for her then for her son Harrison.

The things I learned making this quilt are, that not everyone sews as well as I do. A twin size mattress is twice as long as it is wide. And once again I am not very good at random!

Like I said my mom has made a few of these quilts, so here is one she made for her nephew Eli. and I will have to take a picture of the one she made for Holden.