This winter class inspired me to start my own blog

Hello: After months of being a blog voyeur, I've finally started my own called Scraps and Strings. I've posted more about this quilt there, and I'd welcome your visits to my new home in the blogosphere. I'm hoping to share more of my attempts at liberated quiltmaking over there. Thanks for the visual feasts on your blogs, and for your kind comments on my winter class project.

It seems my quilt was a weather forecast!

Hello out there from Winnipeg, a place where the snow is actually as described above, and we're in the deep freeze temperature-wise. My winter quilt is completed and up on the wall and I'm just a bit sorry it's all done. I had lots of fun working on it, and I really liked quilting those freehand fans. I'm going to quilt them into my next project too. Thanks Tonya for hosting the class and being so gracious with your comments. I'm having fun with making letters, and I think I'm developing a style or a font. And for the rest of you, there's lots of winter left in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, so if your project is still in progress, you've got at least three months more by my calendar.

I'm off to a quilting retreat at the end of the month, and I'm taking this quilt for show and tell and I'm going to direct everyone over to this blog so they can see how great you're all doing.
FYI: this quilt is about 37 inches wide by 28 or so and fits nicely on the wall above my fireplace./Brenda

I'm a Fan of this Project

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments on my earlier posts. I'm making progress with quilting the free hand fans, although they are not terribly uniform in size or shape. I'm telling myself they resemble snowbanks. Here is the pinned quilt not quite half quilted.

I will concede one point to the quilt police -- if you trim or graduate seam allowances, its easier to quilt. I'm not a fan of stab stitching, so I'm not going to quilt over the letters. Next time I would be more careful with multiple layers.

That said, it's been a great project. I'm hoping another week at it will get it to the binding stage, and then up on the wall for the holidays.

Brenda from snowy Winnipeg

Brenda's Top

Hi: It's Brenda from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with my completed quilt top inspired by the first verse of the carol Good King Wencelas.
I do have to mention that though we have a reputation for being incredibly cold here, we've still hovering around the freezing mark with very little snow so far. I used up scraps for this project, which is why there are several blues and darks. I found a piece of a Hoffman Painted Desert print that looks like northern lights to me, which we see in the Northern Hemisphere on clear nights, both winter and summer. I took Tonya's free-pieced philosophy to heart, so there are many seams because I added a bit more fabric to make it work out. ( I'm still slightly afraid of the quilt police --will they think I can't measure?). I've had fun making this, and if I had more weeks until Christmas, I might even try a few more carol-themed quilts. Maybe next year. So I'm about to sandwich it and want to start quilting, but I'm wondering what to do. How would Tonya's free form fans look on this? What should I be quilting with? thread or perle cotton? I'm slightly nervous about all the layers from the seam allowances too.

I've enjoyed following everyone's progress on this blog. It's a great treat to log on and see what you're all working on.

Tonya and Brenda Sew Trees

Brenda is participating in the class, but doesn't have a blog. Here is her marvelous work in progress:


She explains: "This is Brenda from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Our winters are usually cold and snowy, so my winter quilt focuses on snow. My inspirations for this project were your free-pieced trees and the line from the Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas: When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even."

She's doing great, isn't she. I love the word "deep" how it dips in the middle and wonderful trees - especially that little on on the right. Love the mix of fabrics for the background - looks like sunlight glinting off of snow.

Now we go from peaceful to bright. This is where I am on my Christmas quilt. I need to do trunks on trees today and then start moving things around, decide if I need more of anything, less of anything...