Throwback Thursday: Santa Wreath

This post is inspired by Julie at Julie's Quilts and Costumes.  Her Throwback Thursday post for today features a gorgeous Log Cabin quilt with alternate blocks featuring Santa figures.  Julie made her quilt for her husband, who has a large collection of Santa figures and memorabilia.  

As it happens, my Dear Husband also collects Santa figures.  His birthday is in December, Christmas is his favorite holiday, and somehow the collection started and grew and grew.  When I saw a quilt kit using the Santa panel in 2006, I knew I had to make the quilt for my husband.  The quilt kit was on offer at Bright Hopes Quilting - a favorite stop when I traveled across Lake Pontchartrain to visit friends.

The Santa blocks are arranged to form a wreath with a center star.  I liked the simple, but effective arrangement and I knew I could finish the piecing quickly (although not in time for Christmas that year).

 

The Santa panels were framed in a purple metallic print.

 

I sent the finished top to my friend Annie Kusilek for quilting.  The main quilting theme is snowflakes, but there are swirls and holly and stipple quilting as well.  

 Annie does all her FMQ on a treadle sewing machine.  Yes - you can do amazing FMQ using an antique or vintage machine and people-power!

 

I didn't really notice this until I was taking pictures at lunchtime, but the center red star is reflected again in the center gold "star".  

And now the quilt is hung on display for the Christmas season; if only the rest of my holiday decorating was so easy!

 

Throwback Thursdays: T-shirt Quilts

 

I made my first t-shirt quilt in 1996.  It was something of a collaborative effort, as a group of online friends donated t-shirts and the finished quilt was raffled off as a fund-raiser.  This is the quilt top before quilting.  I'm amused to see I used a multi-color, pieced inner border - a technique I'm still using today!

 

This quilt also traveled to Key West, Florida with our group and the lucky winner got to take it home.  I don't remember what group received the money raised by the raffle.  For a closer look at the t-shirts, click on the picture.

 

I so enjoyed the t-shirt quilt process - I made another one almost immediately!  This one features an assortment of Caribbean Soul Jimmy Buffett t-shirts.  

 

I pieced together some of the smaller designs to make a block that would fit in with the other, larger t-shirt designs.

  

One of my favorite Caribbean Soul designs - I don't have to worry about the t-shirt being worn to shreds, it will always be a part of my quilt!  You can't see it real well, but the background fabric was an early batik featuring multi-colored fish.

 

I also used the pocket designs as border cornerstones. 

 

Five years ago, I dug into the collectible t-shirt bin to make a quilt for our camp.  Most of these shirts are from the mid-1990s and commemorate music and road trips between Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

 

Another favorite shirt, from Mi Tierra's Restaurant in San Antonio, Texas.

(Ha!  I just looked at their website and they still have the same t-shirt!)

 

It seems using the pocket designs for cornerstones is one of my signature techniques!

I still have a LARGE basket full of already cut t-shirt fronts & backs, plus drawers full of my kids' t-shirts.   I need to get busy and make more t-shirt quilts!!

 

 

 

 

 

TBT: First Quilt Show

In my early years as a quilter, I was lucky to be a member of a supportive quilt group, the Pensacola Quilter's Guild.  The guild was relatively small, but had a wonderful cross-section of quilters - from new quilters like me to professionals who taught classes all over the country and authored quilt books.  The guild put on a judged show every two years, and as a new quilter I was encouraged to enter a quilt "for the experience of it!". 

 

I had been working on a quilt from Variations on Irish Chain Quilts by Betty Jo Shiell.  I decided to finish the quilt and enter it in the upcoming show, scheduled for March, 1991. 

 

I remember working feverishly to finish the hand quilting in the white center blocks in time for the quilt drop-off date!

As so often happens with quilts hanging in quilt shows - the picture doesn't do the quilt justice.  The pink and green print was soft and feminine, perfect for a baby girl's crib quilt.  I used both machine and hand quilting on the project, but I do remember the judge criticized my quilt for not having enough quilting in the border.  I knew that - I had just run out of time to do any more quilting!  Still, I received a third place ribbon - because there were only two quilts entered in that category!

The quilt was gifted to a baby girl, the new daughter of some good friends.  I still have the ribbon, as well as the program from the show.  It was a treat to leaf through the program and remember quilters and their quilts from "back in the day" - and reminiscing is all part of the fun on Throwback Thursday!

BTW, if you enjoy reminiscing about your personal quilt history - consider creating a TBT post and linking up via Diane's blog, Butterfly Threads!