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Friday, December 10, 2010

Climbing on ladders

It’s time to hang up the Christmas quilts and I need a hand for a couple that go up quite high.  If I’m doing it by myself I usually drag one of the dining chairs out, climb up and totter around, fearing that I will fall.  Robin is here to help me this time.  Being a bloke, he brought his step ladder in from the garage, and  I have to admit that it made life much easier.   Most of my Christmas quilts are old friends, which have been around a while.  Christmas Stars was made in 1992, machine pieced and hand quilted.
DSCF2294 Christmas Stars
My crazy patched Christmas Tree is very special as it was made by my daughter Nicky many years ago.  She doesn’t do quilting so it is doubly precious.  I love the little presents along the bottom all tied up with ribbons, and the gold lurex star.  Sadly it isn’t dated with the year it was made, and is the first and last quilted item she has made.
DSCF2295 Crazy Patch Christmas Tree
Christmas baubles tied up with a large red bow decorate a newer quilt, sent to me last year from my pen friend Diane from Oregon.  She has done a wonderful job with her machine quilting using gold thread.  And getting it’s first Christmas outing this year is my Selvedge Christmas Tree quilt, (see earlier posting for a picture).
DSCF4911 Christmas Bauble quilt
A few years ago I read a good tip about decorating for Christmas.  It said to stitch items the same size as existing wall hangings, photos and pictures, then they are sure to fit in the space available.  I love to do stitcheries, and made these Christmas ones to replace a couple of photos.  They are hand quilted, and completed in 2006.
DSCF2298 Christmas stitcheries
My three red felt hearts were made as the Christmas replacement for three pretty little paintings of native flowers.
DSCF2296 Felt Christmas Hearts
These are some of my Christmas things hanging on the walls.  I love to get them out each year, and have a Christmas table runner on top of my sewing cabinet.  I even swap the washday wall hanging in the laundry with a Christmas Log Cabin quilt. 

2 comments:

FlourishingPalms said...

Everything looks so warm and homey. Your stitcheries and hand-quilted items... all made with love, it's obvious! Thank you for sharing, especially with someone like me who isn't decorating at all! Our two children won't be home for Christmas this year.

Frances Leate said...

Handmade and stitched quilts make Christmas extra special so enjoy your old friends. Every year when I hang mine I get quite nostalgic. Happy stitching!