Christmas

Nativity paper-pieced quilt – part five

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In just a few short weeks, seven very busy ladies, from our Prayer Quilt Ministry, finished piecing the top of our Nativity Quilt for St. Martha Catholic Church’s Parish Festival. When completely finished the quilt will be auctioned on October 3.

My last assignment was a section for one of the angels at the top of the quilt. I have to admit I’m getting pretty good at paper-piecing!

Thanks to our fearless leader, Noreen, for taking all the many sections of the quilt and sewing them together. It turned out stunning! Our seven ladies collectively sewed 833 pieces of fabric which took 170 long hours. And that is just for sewing the top together. Noreen then pulled all the little pieces of paper from the back of the quilt!

But folks … we are not done yet! Next comes basting the backing, batting and top together and quilting the top! Stay tuned for further progress … and pray for us!

Nativity paper-pieced quilt – part four

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Our nativity quilt sections are coming together nicely. One more week and we should have the quilt top totally finished. Lots more to do after that!

Today we laid out the finished sections to get a sense of what our final quilt will look like! There are still a few sections left to piece. I am loving this quilt!

The lovely Clara holds the holy family, which she pieced along with Noreen! Some of the fabric pieces are very small. Check out Joseph’s mouth. The holy family is my favorite section of the quilt. I just love the colors of the fabric and the design.

My assignment this week … the angel. Wish me luck!

Nativity paper-pieced quilt – part three

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This week we had a few fellow paper-piece members out on vacation. The rest of us brought in our sections of the paper-pieced Nativity quilt so we could share our progress. My assignment was a part of a camel. Helaine, Lynn, Liz and myself love show-and-tell … especially when it is related to quilting! Still lots of work to do but at least we are in the home stretch with an end in sight to all the teeny tiny fabric madness that is the world of paper-piecing!

It is all for a great cause for our St. Martha Catholic Church parish festival which is being held October 3, 2015.

Nativity paper-pieced quilt – part two

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Looks like all the paper-piece ladies at St. Martha’s Prayer Quilt Ministry survived week two of our Nativity quilt project! A couple of the ladies are on vacation this week so only a few were available to bring in their finished assignments. How awesome is the cat and the donkey?

This week my assignment was to put together a Shepherd. Liz had the other half which included the Shepherd’s staff. My part of the Shepherd came together much easier than last week’s Kneeling King. And I did not utter one swear word! I swear! But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out if a Shepherd was really going to appear until all the many little fabric pieces were assembled.

Our fearless leader, Noreen, even had time to put together week three’s assignment. I don’t know how she does it! I got a camel. From the looks of the fabric key … a very bright-colored camel.

Nativity paper-pieced quilt – part one

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Our Prayer Quilt Ministry is getting ready again for the St. Martha’s Catholic Church parish festival. This year it will be held on Saturday, October 3. Along with lots of crafty items for sale, our group has just started working on a special surprise for the silent auction.

The conception of the project began when Lynn brought to Noreen, our resident “Fabric Whisperer,” an intricate paper-pieced quilt pattern called, Advent Nativity, on the Paper Panache website. It is a stunning quilt! But it would be a HUGE project for just one person. I could almost see the wheels turning inside Noreen’s head at the possibilities. It wasn’t long before she was organizing a group of us to make the quilt. Certainly seven pairs of hands could pull this quilt together. With Noreen at the helm there was Sally, Liz, Helaine, Lynn, Clara and myself volunteering for the assignment. No small task, Noreen enlarged the quilt by 190% and put together the quilt sections with fabric pieces into zip lock bags. When finished, the quilt will be 60 inches wide. I don’t recall the length.

Last week, seven of us took home instructions and fabric pieces for a small section of the quilt. I was given the Kneeling King. It had been five years since I’d tackled a paper-pieced project, so I was a little nervous. I have to confess, in the privacy of my sewing room last week, I said a bad word a few times after ripping out the same two small fabric pieces three times.

On Wednesday, everyone brought their paper-pieced assignments in and laid them out. There were lots of confessions of frustration, but you couldn’t tell by wonderful results. I was very impressed! This week will be easier!

Three more weeks of sewing assignments and then the task of sewing the small sections together. This week I was assigned a Shepherd.

Tell me what you think?

Kate Spain Christmas quilt all done!

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I LOVE Christmas fabric! I’ve been collecting fat quarters for years. So every now and then I find it healthy to pull some of those pretty fabric pieces out and actually use them in a quilt.

When I saw Kate Spain’s pattern called “Flurry,” I knew what I had to do. If the truth were told though … I really wanted the fabric line that Kate Spain used for the Flurry quilt. OK so I couldn’t find it anywhere on the Internet. Hence … my stash to the rescue!

I changed up the pattern slightly since I didn’t have her “Flurry Panel” which is found in the corners of the quilt and in strategic spots between the rows of “present” boxes.

The fabulous Kim Norton of A Busy Bobbin quilted an all-over quilt design called Holly Jolly Christmas from Urban Elementz with a butternut-colored thread from King Tut.

This quilt is destined to become a Christmas present for … wouldn’t you like to know?

Loretta’s goodbye quilt

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When someone in our “Bloom Where You Are Planted” quilt bee moves we make them a house quilt as a parting gift. It is an expression of our love for all the years we have been together. Friendship and quilting are a lot like Super Glue … a powerful bonding agent. Since I’ve been a member of the bee there have been four “house” quilts made. The last one was for Jan. I blogged about Jan’s quilt some time back. We had to mail her quilt as she sold her house so fast one day she was with us and the next … gone. We decided to use the same “house” pattern. If I remember correctly, the pattern came out of one of Loretta’s quilting books. We all loved it … and changed the colors up a bit for Loretta.


When we learned Loretta was moving. we immediately went into hyper-quilting mode. We were determined to get Loretta’s quilt finished before she left us. After assembling the top and basting the quilt, we turned it over to Tina who machine quilted it and made the awesome patch on the back. I don’t know who sewed the binding on. I was out of that loop but I have to say the quilt turned out awesome!


This week at our annual Christmas bee we presented Loretta with her quilt. I don’t think she saw the surprise coming as we also exchanged little gifts and celebrated Tina’s birthday. We are sneaky like that.

Santa Baby quilt

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I finally finished my “Santa Baby” quilt!!! I purchased the book and kit during the 2013 Quilt Festival from The Buggy Barn. Their book is entitled “Positively Crazy.” The kit made up 16 Santa blocks. When all was said and done, I choose nine for a smaller wall hanging. The original quilt with all 16 blocks is 84″ X 84″ and just too large for my purposes. I still have three finished blocks that will eventually be turned into a table runner. Three of the blocks turned out mediocre so you can imagine where they are now residing.

I have to say this was the most challenging quilt I ever made. I should have read the directions three times before starting instead of two. The basic premise is stacking 16 layers of fabric (lights and darks), ironing a template on top of the layers, and cutting the layers with a mega-large rotary cutter. It was a little challenging with so many layers and pieces. My biceps are a tad larger after the cutting process! The sewing was fun, but I had trouble with things like getting Santa’s boots to not be pointy, tree trunks a little too thin to my liking, etc.

After the top was finished, I headed over to consult with Kim Norton, owner of A Busy Bobbin. We talked about custom quilting and I totally let her take over with design and thread choices.

I love what Kim did with the quilt!


After sewing on the binding, the identifying patch on the back and the sleeve it was finally ready to hang! What do you think?

Check out Martha’s Quilters Parish Festival Booth!

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This Saturday, October 11, is St. Martha’s Catholic Church’s Parish Festival held from noon to 8 pm at the new church campus. Our very own Martha’s Quilters will have an awesome booth at the festival so come on out and support the crafty ladies with a purchase. The past few months we have been using our vast array of talents and treasures to create unique items that can be purchased for decorating, warming yourself around the fire this winter, and Christmas gift giving! How about a cute rug for your mug? While you are browsing check out our seasonal table runners, wine gift bags, adorable rolling pin covers, as well as fabric shoe bags for travelers. We also have lovely crocheted afghans and lots of one-of-a kind quilts. And don’t forget to check out our designer fabric checkbook covers and candle pads and all kinds of knitted items. Hope to see you there!

2013 … a look back

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I only managed to complete two quilts in 2013. I have loftier quilting goals for 2014! The first completed 2013 quilt was a Christmas present for one of my husband’s many, many lovely sisters. Dipping into my collection of Christmas fat quarters, I used a disappearing nine-patch pattern (future blog alert) that I learned to make at our church’s prayer quilt ministry. A real stash buster and lots of fun to make! Did I mention that Becky is one of nine sisters in the family? She lives in San Antonio and runs a soup kitchen. I finished the quilt in the nick of time … only one year late!

The other quilt went to a charity gala for The Village Learning Center (www.villagelac.org). I make one every year for them. It’s the least I can do. Among other wonderful things, the Center runs an adult day program that my special needs daughter attends. Mimi’s favorite day of the week is Tuesday when her class goes bowling! Life should be so simple.

Just so you don’t think I was a total slug in 2014, I did manage to make coordinating pillow cases, dust ruffle and a little skirt for under Mimi’s television. It goes nicely with the quilt I made for her wall in 2012 with a collection of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters. The fabric on one side of the pillow cases is blue and the other green. The pillow cases were a booger to make until I learned the “hot dog bun” method of making pillow cases from my friend Angela. Now I just gotta figure out what to do with Mimi’s curtain-less window!