Vintage Holiday Quilt Along Party!

I can hardly believe that we've arrived at the end of the Vintage Holiday Quilt Along! I want to thank Camille for allowing us to use her beautiful pattern, and the Fat Quarter Shop for providing us with some wonderful prizes along the way. Most of all, I want to thank all of you for your excitement and encouragement as we've worked on these quilts together. This has been such a great experience, and I've loved sewing along with you!

Our party begins today and ends at midnight PST on Thursday night. If you've made a finished product using the blocks from the pattern -- quilt, table runners, tree skirt, etc. -- add it to the link-up below! I'll post our two winners on Friday. The gorgeous fat quarter bundles you see above are being donated by the fine folks at the Fat Quarter Shop. I do love that Vintage Modern collection!

And if you're itching to join another sew along now that we've finished this one, come back to visit tomorrow. I'll have all the details and two giveaways waiting for you...

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 10: Binding

First, I want to thank you all for your sweet words about yesterday's post. You have given me so much encouragement, and I'm so grateful. Thank you, my friends.

Next I want to say -- hallelujah, it's done!! I have never taken so long to finish a quilt before, and seeing this one complete gave me such a thrill.

I bound it in a red print which adds a nice little burst of color all the way around the quilt and matches perfectly with the red flowers in the blue print I used for the border on the front.

Since my little Bear has been needing a new quilt for her larger bed, I decided to offer this one to her if she was interested. She was absolutely overjoyed. In fact, I could hardly carry the quilt to her bed this evening because she was walking along next to me trying to gather it in her arms and give it kisses. I honestly don't know if anyone loves my quilts more than my daughters do.

So here we are at the final week! Wrap up those quilts and get ready to link up your big finish some time between next Monday and Friday. The wonderful people at Fat Quarter Shop have given me two beautiful fat quarter bundles of Vintage Modern to give away to two of you who link up. You won't want to miss out!

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday and the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 9: Quilting

I had to laugh last Friday afternoon when I looked up from stacking my quilt layers on the kitchen floor in preparation for basting. My three daughters had dragged their chairs and pillows over near the edge of the carpet, each having decided that watching me was going to be far more entertaining than seeing another episode of Peep and the Big Wide World. When I asked if they were sure they wouldn't rather watch their show instead, Bunny insisted, "But Mommy, we like watching you!"

In spite of the audience that was riveted to my every move, I was able to get the quilt basted fairly quickly and move on to the quilting. I'm still loving the wavy stitch on my Brother right now, and since I have yet to make a quilt for our family using that quilting style, this seemed like a good time to do it.

I absolutely love the way this looks like streamers falling down the surface of the quilt. This is by far the easiest quilting technique I've tried yet. Some time I need to play around with the other stitch settings on my machine for more possibilities.

I can't wait to see how you all decide to quilt yours. Be sure to share pictures as soon as they're done!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 8: Quilt Back

The wind was not my friend this afternoon as I tried to take photos of my Vintage Holiday quilt back, but hopefully you can still get a feel for how it looks. The top picture was taken in the bright light of our back yard, while the other two are from the shade of our front lawn (I finally surrendered when the quilt blew down off the clothespins and halfway across the patio), so you'll see a little variety in the colors. You'll notice that the edges aren't exactly squared up on the backing yet. I never fuss too much about the edges of a quilt backing since they're always a little large to leave room for any shifting during quilting. Everything will be tidied up later during the binding process.

I had so much fun piecing together a large scrappy ornament for the back of this quilt. In fact when it was done, I was awfully tempted to set it aside for a pillow cover instead.  I may just have to make another one of these in the next month or two for a pillow to go along with the quilt. For the rest of the backing I kept pulling various prints that I had in my fabric closet until I had a layout that I liked. It's bright and cheerful, and I'm happy to know that the back of the quilt will be just as festive as the front.

This week I'll start on my quilting, and I think I'll probably go ahead with the vertical wavy lines that I used on my grandmother's version of this quilt. I loved the way it turned out on hers, and it's a fairly forgiving style of quilting for me. With all the work I've put into this quilt, I'd hate to ruin it now!

It's great to see all the lovely quilt tops showing up in the Flickr group, and I'm happy to see that people are still joining up this far along in the QAL -- the more the merrier, I say.  Remember, you still have a few weeks left before we have the final link up next month and those great random prize drawings!

Vintage Holiday Lap Quilt

Hallelujah, it's done! Thanks to my darling husband who entertained the girls for almost an hour after dinner while I finished hand stitching the binding upstairs in our room, the Vintage Holiday lap quilt is ready for delivery. It was a lot of fun to make a version of this quilt that is so different from the one I'm making for the QAL, and now that I've completed this project, I'll be starting on the backing for my own quilt tomorrow.

When my grandmother asked me to make this quilt for her, she had only two requests: Christmas themed fabric and a green border on the front. I made sure to add both. Because this was a lap quilt, I dropped the number of ornaments from twelve to just nine and eliminated the inside grid of sashing as well. It gives the quilt a simpler look and makes it the perfect size for a lap quilt.

I love the retro prints in the Dear Mr. Claus collection by Cosmo Cricket -- you would think that they were truly vintage if you didn't know better. My layer cake was enough to make all the ornaments and part of the backing with plenty left over for other projects. I also used a green snowflake print for the border and backing, one of the stylized red and green ornament prints for the rest of the backing, and a red striped print for the binding that looks just like it belongs on a candy cane.

For the quilting, I returned to the wavy stitch on my sewing machine that worked so well for last month's baby quilt, only this time I sewed rows across the entire face of the quilt. I love the way it makes me think of ric-rac, garlands, and icicles...

I cannot wait to deliver this to my grandmother tomorrow. She's been one of my biggest cheerleaders since I started sewing and has often insisted on funding my fabric purchases so that I could afford to make the projects you see on this blog. Though she has no computer and very poor eyesight, she uses a magnifying glass to study the details on my sewing projects in the pictures I send her, and she's been so excited to hear about the QAL and all of you who are taking part in it. It has given me so much pleasure to make this quilt for her.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Linking up to TGIFF.

Almost

My Vintage Holiday lap quilt is almost finished. It just needs a border, backing, quilting, and binding. Okay, maybe "almost" is a strong word... At any rate, I'm hoping to have pictures tomorrow since we're delivering it to my grandmother on Friday.

So many wonderful things happening in the blogging sphere right now that I can hardly keep up. But here's a sampling...

Rachel of Stitched in Color has A Skill Assignment for us -- such a great post. I can't wait to steal a few minutes of quiet time this weekend to journal about this one myself.

Amy of During Quiet Time is sharing a free pattern for her new Indie Bag. The bag is darling, and I'm still dying to get my hands on some prints from this gorgeous fabric line which is so perfect for fall.

Kelsey of Kelsey Sews wants us all to do the Hustle -- well, sort of. She's organizing the 100 Day Hustle to help us get all our projects done before the first of the new year. I'm excited to be doing a blog post for the event next month, but mostly I'm just paralyzed at the thought that there are only 100 days left in 2012...

If you love English paper piecing, photography, and color palettes, then you must check out Laura's Travelling Pic-Stitch Blog Hop at Quokka Quilts. I've just started working on my stop on the hop for the first week of October, and this looks like it's going to be a fun project.

If you like color palettes but prefer quilts, Dana is holding a Quilt Challenge Throwdown at the Old Red Barn Co. Prizes abound in all of the above events, so be sure to take a peek.

And now with all that in mind, I need to go work on a very long to-do list... 

Happy Wednesday. :)

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 7: Quilt Top

It was wonderful to finally sew these quilt blocks together into a finished top.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use the blue flowered print as my outside border, but I had debated what color to use for the inside grid. It came down to this multicolored print (which looks grey from a distance) or a variation on a red stripe. When I auditioned the red print, it was just too much red -- all the other colors seemed to drain away. I like the way my final choice allows all the colors to shine. I'm saving the red print for my binding, which I think will be a nice frame around the entire quilt.

Here is my new and improved Block 11 after last week's minor debacle. I'm so glad I caught that mistake before I sewed the blocks together!

I'm excited to start work on the quilt back this week. My plan is to pull together all the leftover pieces from making the blocks and use them to make one or two giant scrappy ornaments on the back. We'll see how it goes. First I need to finish my grandmother's Vintage Holiday lap quilt. I'm hoping to have an update on that one tomorrow, so stay tuned!

The Elephant in the Room

The Cheeky Imposter

Last night I was looking through all the amazing blocks and quilt tops in the Vintage Holiday Flickr group, and I kept seeing this one block that didn't look familiar.  "Gosh," I thought, "I don't remember making that one."

That would be because I didn't.

And because quilters are the nicest people in the world, you were all too sweet to say, "Gee, Heidi, you kind of made the wrong block for number eleven there..."

So tomorrow I will be making an actual block number eleven and finishing my quilt top. And my world will make sense again...

Another Vintage Holiday

As I mentioned in my last post, my grandmother has asked me to make her a lap quilt version of the Vintage Holiday quilt using Christmas fabrics. I immediately got online and bought a layer cake of Dear Mr. Claus by Cosmo Cricket. The prints are charmingly retro, as so many of their collections are. This time I'm only making nine blocks instead of the original twelve so that it will be the perfect size for Grandma to use when she's relaxing in her chair at home.

This time I decided to be a lot more organized as I attacked my cutting and sorting, placing the pieces for each block in a numbered plastic bag so that I could sew them up all at once.

It makes the process so much easier to do things this way, and I really need to do it more often. Tomorrow I plan to finish up the blocks with the edging and possibly start on the rest of her quilt top since I'm trying to get this done in time to be delivered on Friday. And then, of course, I need to work on my own quilt top as well...

The days are full, but it's a (mostly) happy kind of chaos. Hope your day is happy too. :)

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 6: Blocks 11 & 12

It was wonderful to finish the last two blocks this afternoon! I was oh so tempted to keep going and start putting the quilt top together, but I figured that it was probably more important to get dinner on the table for my hungry family. Priorities, right?

Block 11

It's amazing to me how the simplest things can become difficult when you're so close to the finish line. Does this ever happen to any of you? Block 11 is a pretty straightforward design, but it gave me endless trouble today. For some reason it took me forever to decide which fabrics to use on this one. Then I had almost finished sewing the whole block together when I suddenly realized that the print was crooked on one of the turquoise end pieces. I debated fixing it, but I knew it would forever haunt me if I didn't, so I pulled the seams apart and replaced it. Of course, then the other end piece looked a tad off to me as well, so I had to pull that one out and exchange it too. Unfortunately, I had trouble getting my seams exactly right when I put it back together and had to rip them out and resew at least twice. It's a good reminder to me to double check these things while I'm still at the design stage of the process and before the sewing machine is actually turned on.

Block 12

On the other hand, Block 12 -- which I figured would be the more time consuming of the two this week -- took me all of fifteen minutes to plan and sew, and I absolutely loved it as soon as I saw it there on the table. Funny how these things work out sometimes...

There was no way on earth that all twelve of these blocks were going to mind their manners and sit quietly for a photo shoot outside with the wind that was blowing tonight, so this picture had to be taken indoors. It makes me infinitely happy to see all the blocks together at last, and I can't wait to finish the quilt top this week. I noticed that a few of you must have been just as eager this week, as I'm seeing quite a few completed quilt tops starting to pop up in the flickr group. They look so amazing!

My grandmother doesn't have a computer, but she's been excitedly following the progress of this quilt through pictures that I send her. Now she's decided that she needs a Vintage Holiday lap quilt for herself, so I started working on one for her last week. I'll have some photos of my progress there for you tomorrow, so be sure to come back and take a look!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 5: Blocks 9 & 10

Only one more week of blocks left to go after this one -- I can hardly believe it! Our local Joann's has a wonderful selection of Denyse Schmidt fabrics, and I was delighted to see that they were carrying her new Richmond collection last week. I had to buy at least one print -- the rust colored fabric with the flowers and scroll work -- to use in one of my blocks this week, and I ended up adding it to block 9. For block 10, I tried to once again tie in a few more Christmas colors. I spend probably twice as much time each week choosing the fabrics as I do actually sewing the blocks together. In any project, I always believe that the pattern is a foundation to build on -- it's the fabrics and colors that make the piece come alive. Here are the close-ups...

Block 9

Block 10

I'd tell you what colors I'm leaning toward to finish the last two blocks, but heaven knows I'll probably change my mind ten times before next weekend, so we'll let it go for now. I'm also starting to think about what colors I want to use for the sashing, border, and binding. I'd like to use red or green for at least one of those and possibly a grey print too. Options, options...

Here are all my blocks so far, and you wouldn't believe how long it took me to set this photo up. There's a good strong breeze blowing through our backyard every evening, so laying the blocks down means chasing them from one end of the lot to the other. This was the best idea I could come up with tonight...not perfect, but at least you can get an idea of what everything looks like. It will be lovely to have all these sewn together in two weeks. I can't wait!

I'm so happy to hear how much you're all enjoying this QAL. We're definitely going to have to do another one of these after this one!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 4: Blocks 7 & 8

Things have been so busy at my house lately with so many activities, errands, and sewing deadlines that it seems like Sunday has officially become "Sew Like a Mad Woman Day." My husband, bless his heart, always gives me a few hours in the late afternoon to work on projects. I'm usually able to get my Vintage Holiday blocks done before dark falls, but this week I just couldn't make it happen. I hope you'll forgive me the indoor pictures taken on our kitchen floor -- it was the best I could do tonight.

Block 7

Block 8

Block 7 is arguably my favorite block so far -- I just love the way this one turned out. It's a perfect one for fussy cutting, and I loved being able to showcase one of those pretty bouquets from Flea Market Fancy. I've also started saving those four little triangle pairs that you snip off the edges of each ornament block for a later project. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I love the idea of using the scraps from this quilt to make something else.

It's probably just as well that I had to take my photos indoors this week because I don't know how I would have held all these blocks down outdoors in the breeze tonight. I'm absolutely loving all the color in this quilt. Every week it's a fun new challenge to see where I want to go with it...

Linking up with the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 3: Blocks 5 & 6

We're halfway through the quilt blocks this week, and I'm having to restrain myself from forging ahead to finish them all by the next post. I can't tell you how much I enjoy making these blocks. I went a little bit more with the Christmas vibe this week in the prints I chose. I'm trying to balance as I go along, keeping all the blocks in mind as I make the next one so that they'll fit well together. Here are the close-ups:

Block #5

Block #6

And here are all the blocks we've made so far:

It sounds like you're all having a great time working on your blocks too. I love seeing your pictures in the Flickr group. Stop by if you have the chance and leave some nice comments!

It seems like it's always feast or famine around here where sewing is concerned. I was able to get more done this weekend than I had expected, so come back tomorrow to see what else I've been working on...

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 2: Blocks 3 & 4

Thanks to all of you who encouraged me last week through my lack of sewing time. Thanks to my sweet husband, I was able to spend a few hours with my sewing machine this afternoon -- heaven! Not only did I finish this week's QAL blocks, but I also got started on another project which I hope to show you later this week. But for now, here are the stars of the hour...

Block 3

Block 4

 I just can't tell you how much I enjoy putting these blocks together. So simple yet so fun. And the variety in our flickr group is fantastic -- everyone is turning out great stuff. Some of you incredible people are even doing more than one quilt at the same time! Be sure to stop by and check out the awesomeness...

Here are all my blocks together. I can't wait to add more!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up.

Vintage Holiday QAL Week 1: Blocks 1 & 2

I'm so excited to finally welcome you to start of the Vintage Holiday Quilt Along! Since several of you have mentioned that this is your first QAL, I figured that it would be good to lay down a few ground rules before we get started...

1. No guilt allowed. We all have life going on every day: deadlines, illnesses, and children who don't let us sleep at night (that would be me). If you can't keep up with the weekly pace, don't worry about it. Do what you can when you can. We'll all still be here when you're ready to join us.

2. Please share. If you haven't joined the flickr group yet, do it as soon as possible (just ask if you're new to that and need help). It's a great way to get ideas and be encouraged. When you have the time to drop by, leave nice comments for others to read -- they mean more than you know.

3. Forget perfection. If you try to get every cut and seam in this quilt perfect, you will not only suck all the joy out of the project, but you will drive yourself (and probably several people around you) crazy. Do your best and let it go.

Every Monday I'll be posting my version of the assignment for that week. If you have any questions, you can email me at hjstaples@gmail.com, leave a comment on any post at Fabric Mutt, or leave a comment on the questions discussion thread in the flickr group. We're here to help!

When I decided to use my hoard of Denyse Schmidt prints, I realized that this quilt wasn't going to look quite as Christmassy as I had originally planned. Yet when I sat down to cut the fabric this weekend, I loved the way things started coming together. Our family Christmas decorations are a mix of old and new, lots of little things with personal meaning and definitely leaning toward the vintage side of things. I think this quilt is going be right at home with us.

We're doing blocks one and two this week, and here they are...

Block One

Block Two

I warn you, these blocks are addictive. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. It's incredible to me how adding the grey ornament top and white sashing along the edge just transforms them. I love that the blocks are fairly simple to put together and that they have so much room for creativity. We're all going to end up with such unique versions of this quilt.

I'm so happy to be doing this quilt along with all of you!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.