'Lookie What I Got!"

For those that thought I gave MY Secret pal a nice gift... LOOK AT THIS!!!!   Have you ever seen a more stunning 30's quilt?  The black background beautifully showcases every single 30's print.

I think this is a stunning setting as well.  My key learning on this Christmas.... sometimes it really DOES pay to advertise.  Years back at a UFO retreat... friend Hilary was making this pattern for herself.  I was sooooo impressed with it, I know I commented something like "Gosh, I'd love to have a quilt like that... actually I may have said "THAT" quilt."     I received a copy of THAT quilt...I'm so happy and thankful.

 Now, back to wrapping gifts.   Merry Christmas all.  Stay Warm....!

Parties Have Begun

The once a year Christmas Party for the Wanabe Quilters  friendship group (originated in 1989) was today in the beautiful home of Laurie Lyon (Laurie in red on left) in Anaheim Hills.  What FUN!!!

First arrival of members brought food.  Phyllis Reddish (on the right) carried in ( with help) a HEAVY bag of homemade peanut brittle destined to be gifted to individual members.  WOW.... I must hide this from my hubby... He loves Phyllis' brittle.

Then it was appetizer time.  Phyllis brought 2.... first shrimp with a hot pepper. Hot and nummy! Great car, eh?

and  a gang of Strawberry Santas.. too cute!

A few of the early eaters!!!! L-R Hilary Field, Carol Culbert, Karon Cornell, Carol Pankow, Carol Lundquist, Laurie Lyon, Janmarie Halliday.  Early arrivers get the most appetizers... ha ha. 

Karon's incredible cheesecakes were camera shy... guess they were in the fridge already. 

I forgot to photo the dining food... duh!...but check out this cake.

And of great importance to me ... my secret pal HILARY FIELD from England...LOVED her Father Christmas.

My Favorite Holiday Appetizer

 Lots of party prepping going on today... I'm making my favorite Holiday Goat Cheese Log appetizer. It's soooo yummy and just as easy as it is yummy! What could be better?... well maybe 007 calling me for lunch, but hey... I have a better chance of winning the super lotto ( I don't even play.)
Here's a photo overview. I'll put the real recipe below.

First Goat Cheese, Cream Cheese, and coarse grind or fresh cracked black pepper... in a bowl to be mixed together.

In a pie plate... chopped dried cranberries, chopped fresh rosemary, chopped fresh italian flat leaf parsley.

Cheese mixed and rolled into a log, then rolled in the cranberry mixture, and placed on a nice serving plate.

At serving time surround with crackers of choice, I LOVE both these cracker crisps... The Raisin Rosemary Crisp came from Trader Joes, the Cranberry Crisp  by Open Nature at Vons Grocery.  The party is tomorrow.. I can't wait and BY THE WAY.... a holiday mimosa in a classy champagne glass tops off a brunch appetizer round.

Holiday Goat Cheese Appetizer Log

1  Chevre Goat Cheese Log ( 10.5 oz )
1  Package of softened Cream Cheese ( I used 8 oz .. though
    you can use as little as 3 oz with a creamy goat cheese like Chevre)
1/2 teaspoon cracked or coarse grind black pepper
     In medium bowl mix these cheeses and pepper,  roll into 1 or 2 cheese logs.

1 cup dried cranberries... chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh italian (flat leaf) parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
      In a pie plate , mix ingredients in preparation for rolling the cheese log.

      Roll cheese log in cranberry mixture and Serve with crackers of your choice.... 
In is unlikely there will be any left at the end of the party... but if so... lucky you to have at home!!!
Have a great holiday weekend everyone.  ;-)

Little House for HIS House

The race to Christmas Day has begun.  This simple quilt ( pieced by members of our Wanabe Quilters Friendship Group) is targeted for gifting to a homeless young boy at His (our Father in heaven) House in Placentia, Ca.   Life has been so crazy, I hadn't been on my long arm for months.... so this was a good warm up. His House is a transitional living home helping individuals and families get a new start. Philanthropy Chair Janmarie Halliday for the Placentia, Ca based North Cities Quilt Guild will present this to a young man once binding is complete.

It's a crazy busy time but spending time at this was a wonderful calming experience knowing it would go where needed.  Early Merry Christmas all!

Dang... Not Previously Shown

Well Rats... a couple important things I failed to post... eg
How I finished off  the curved lines from the dark background as I got down to the lower quarter entering the white show. I turned the final curve of the line 'downfall' into a directional meander some of which entered in the completely white snow area. Not too much I hope... just enough to tie the two areas together.

I also failed to show the much earlier quilting of the edge of the coat.  I chose the most simple continuos line I could think of to start at the bottom outer edge... and climb slowly to the opposite end of the fur. You can click on a photo for closeup.

The final thing I do before binding and adding a sleeve and back label is sign my name. I use a 40 wt thread.... mark a water soluble blue marker line on the quilt top..... quilt each name forward.. then backtracked for better definition.  I picked this up from Ruth McDowell.  It works well for me. .

There you have it... but for the bit of keystoneing in my photography... here you can see the final quilt.  I think I may need to create a class for this piece... one that allows students to add there own special memories on the great coat!!!   Whaddaya think? 

Quilting The Border Fabric

I chose to just secure both edges of the stopper, then use the elegant pattern on the gold satin to guide my quilting.  I've placed some plain fabric in view for reference. Here I merely chose to outline secure some parts of the design using the Superior Gold Thread ( Highlights #728).  There's no pattern decisions here but for what to free motion outline stitch. .. eg long S curves , petal-like curves coming off floral-like images, etc... Anything that allowed me to keep a continuos line going without too much backtracking. 

 I love this  Superior Gold #728 thread as I said previous it is a friendly/forgiving alternative to a true metallic.  I need to order more after this quilt.

One can get a close-up look by clicking on the photo to get a better idea how little quilt line work is done in comparison to complex fabric pattern.  This was pretty simple work though time consuming...about 4 hours for all 4 border areas.  It makes the quilt special though so it is very much worth the time.

Making My Mark

I seldom mark quilts but as I thought about the background where snow and snowflakes are falling... I wanted to keep it simple and suggest a graceful downfall ... so spaced graceful curvy vertical lines going from the top of the quilt to the bottom snow seemed a good plan.  Because this is a distance and I would surely get confused where things where already as I worked... I did some thin chalk markings top to bottom with some curves passing behind or through other elements...like large snowflakes... or snow drops. I LOVE that Sewline skinny chalk pencil.

 This is kind of funny actually.. this is the most simple looking quilting but had a good bit of start / stop time.