It's Christmas in July! (+ A Giveaway Announcement)

60x60 inches of machine pieced goodness

Finishing a big project seems to spur me on to crossing other things off my list, it's just addictive once you get a taste of that satisfaction. It is perhaps the most pleasant part of being the kind of person who starts a lot too many things at once—you also get to finish a lot of things at once and the giddiness that causes is more than enough to keep me adding things back onto the list. Yup, it's a vicious cycle!

I finished this quilt top when I got back from Michigan and—gasp!—it's actually a quilt that I will be keeping to use in our very own home. I wanted to have something special to put out around the holidays each year that would become something of an heirloom. Yes, it's a bit loud. But, as I've mentioned before, this fabric instantly reminded me of the childhood classic "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and all the crazy colors the animators used to depict Whoville. It is, therefore, our "Whoville Quilt" and keeps alive all those memories of childhood christmases. I definitely like the idae of snuggling up under all of that!

I have this draped across the couch in my studio now as I'm not quite sure how I want to finish it. I *think* I want to add a 2 inch white border all the way around and bind it in the red snowflake fabric. On the back, I'd like to repeat the LeMoyne Start block (aka my poinsettia/christmas star) and a block with embroidery noting when it was made and all that good info. As a nerdy museum person, I love finding any bit of information attached to a textile that's been handed down so I think incorporating that with embroidery is something I'd like to keep up on all my quilts in one way or another.

P.S. I have an announcement about the giveaway my last post! I want to give more people the chance to enter so I am extending the deadline until tomorrow at noon. Please enter and pass the word along and I will announce the winner tomorrow afternoon. Good luck!

Whoville quilt progress..at last!

Ok, I couldn't stay away any longer because I couldn't wait to share this with folks that I knew could get just as excited about it as I am! I have a few personal projects that I am bouncing between this week (as soon as i have a bit of time to myself I tend to get visions of grandeur and put way too much on my plate..) but this one is definitely the one I am most thrilled to see the progress of.

It took me forever to draw out a quilt design that I thought worked but I am very happy with how this one is coming to life and how it takes advantage of the all the colors in this fabric collection (Michael Miller: Christmas Spice) and the various size/scale of the patterns themselves.

lemoyne star quiltblock

In particular, I've been a bit giddy about finishing up the first LeMoyne star! I picked it because the star design fit with the central star on the Whoville christmas tree as they all sing around it and with the Christmas theme in general. But as an added bonus, I like how the alternating red and green make it look a bit like an abstracted poinsettia!

I am waiting on a bit more of this fabric to arrive since I didn't have quite as much as I needed with just the fat quarters and seem to have snagged up some just in time as it is getting harder and harder to find on the ole internets. In the meantime, I'm going to get to work on a few other things that I hope to share here as well in the days ahead and the next time you see this, it will be a finished quilt top!