Resistance is FUTILE!!

HA! I did it!! I get a cookie now!! I've been cackling and giggling for a half hour now- my DB is getting frightened.

The letter fabric is a dark green metallic, and the background is a blue sky with clouds kinda thing. I've run into a problem, though- I've run out of the background, and it was a fat quarter so who knows where it came from. Any ideas?

Jenclair - Still Trying

Although I have no real idea of how this will work out, I've made a couple more letters. Everyone else is so adventurous that the contagion is spreading, and I wish I had more time to experiment! As it is, I make a daily goal of a letter or two and get on to my other projects. Today, "B" and "e" are the on the agenda.I've been surprised at how much the blue fabric (that has sat unwanted for so long) has grown on me and wish there were more of the white on white fabric. A trip to Joann's tomorrow to use my coupons should help with that problem.

I really think I must have missed a lot by not taking the previous class. Even though I'm checking Tonya's tips on making letters, I think the class activity itself must have been quite informative. At any rate, I'm enjoying this process!

Spock Santa Hand

Katie, I sketched a Spock live long and prosper hand. This gets the different lengths of the fingers. It's easy to put in a wrist, just add triangles down at the base of the palm. Unfortunately I got a line in the sketch wrong - ignore the one above the cuff.

Does this make sense?
Have fun piecing it - I'm really looking forward to seeing this project of yours in fabric.

Kimberly-Intro

Hi! I finally got a chance to get started. Sorry it's taken me a while to get going here. Well, I guess I should say a bit about myself. My name is Kimberly, I live in NY (small city outside of Syracuse, not the big city!) I have quilted for about 12 years, but that makes it sound like I am a better quilter than I really am. I found Tonya's tutorials through Bonnie at Quiltville.com and wanted to try her letters. When she did her Halloween tutorials I tried some of those too and had a lot of fun. I still want to do some more, but since we're now into the Winter/Christmas scene I thought this would be fun to do now and then I'll get back to my Halloween stuff and hopefully finish it for next year. As far as what I want to do here, I am thinking the words-Let it Snow with some snowflakes and maybe a house , maybe some trees. I found some cute snowman fabric so I might try to incorporate that too, but not sure how yet. I'm just going to play around a bit I think, and then try to figure how to put it all together when I get a few more elements done. I love what everyone has done so far-it's very inspirational to see it all. Thanks so much, Tonya for doing this class!

McIrish Annie - here's my plan!

Well, I know that lots of you have already started constructing blocks and letters but I have another project that I have to finish before I can start cutting and sewing anything for this winter class.

But here is my idea! I usually just take pencils and draw a picture of how I want something to look and then worry about the construction aspects later. I'm quite an artist Huh??? This may not get done for Christmas but I hope to get a start on the letters and some of the wonky houses and trees over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm not married to the wording so that may change but I like the layout alot.

You guys are really burning it up out there! It made me feel guilty enuf to pull out my pencils and paper and get this scratched out.

Rose Marie from Canada

Hello to all …. I’m late introducing myself here! First off, married 30 yrs., am retired, mid-50’s and home is in a suburb of Toronto. Craft wise for my career, I worked in craft heaven (store similar to Michael’s) as a purchaser/inventory control manager. So …. I am used to having everything under control …. that is until now! :o)

My theme is winter and this is what I’ve done so far. Blue and white will be my predominant colours. Those letters are hard! The first letter I started with was the W. What was I thinking? Should have started with the I first. Anyway, my first W ended up in the garbage after parts were removed to add to the R. Waste not.

There will be snow people and they will be appliquéd on using a buttonhole stitch. Felt is being used and I am stuffing them to give a 3-D effect. And, since I’m from Canada, there will be an igloo. There will be letters running along the remaining three borders and more trees.

This may be all the photos for a while as it looks like my camera just went on the fritz. Here is hoping that it is just the camera card that is the problem.

I have tried to leave comments on your blogs, but keep getting an error message from Blogger. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Have a great day, eh!

Katie in NJ/PA

So, technology and I don't get along, and I don't own a scanner. I do, however, own a camera phone and know how to text. This is the best pic I could manage of my sketch. Anyone have any ideas how to do the hand better? Trekkies will know how it's supposed to look... :)

Next decision from Lynda in England

I didn't put anything about me on my first post. I live in Leicestershire in the middle of England, have two children in their twenties and teach part-time. DS lives in London, so I have taken over his bedroom as my sewing room - note to self: he'll be coming home for Christmas so will need to be able to find his bed. Start clearing up now!

I have put chimneys on my houses and sewn them together into strips.

I'm happier with them now. I tried some white fabric underneath them for snow but it looked very stark. Unfortunately I don't have any more of the snowflake fabric I've used for the sky, so I think I'll dye some fabric in the microwave today to use for snow and possible background for the letters. Wonder if my boss will let me have tomorrow off to get on with them?

Recipe for Katie - sorry it is off-topic

Apologies to everyone in advance!! this is for Katie of Tao of Katie.

Hi Katie

Thanks for visiting my blog. You have your settings as no-reply so that when you leave a comment I can't email you back directly.

This is my hot cross buns recipe. I now use a bread maker to knead the dough (using the dough function so it stops at the right time) and then I take it out after the first rising and shape it into buns

tsp = teaspoon (5 ml)
tbsp - tablespoon (20 ml)

200ml milk
100ml boiling water
3 tsp Surebake yeast (a dried yeast with improvers in it)
3 cups white flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1 cup dried fruit
2 tsp mixed spice

I throw all this in the bread maker and when it has finished its thing shape it into 24 buns which I put in the pan to rise as per the picture. When they have "rizzed"enough I pipe a cross on them made from 2 tbsp cornflour, 2 tbsp white flour 1/4 tsp baking powder, pinch salt, 2 tbsp milk (approx) all mixed together. I bake them at 220 degrees Celsius for 10 min and then 180 degrees for another 5 min. After taking them out of the oven I glaze them with a mixture of 1 tbsp sugar dissolved in t tbsp boiling water.

Yummy!

Erika -Brainstorming

Hello, all! I'm really excited about joining this class. I don't get much time to quilt, but I intend to get something done. I don't have an image in my head yet, but I have made a list of ideas. Here it is.

• baby Jesus
• manger
• angels
• shepherds
• star
• friends and family
• FOOD

I've always wanted to make an advent quilt, but I'm not sure how to make that happen with this project. I also don't want to fall into my personal trap of biting off more that I can chew.

I'm really inspired by the work that has already been posted. I guess I better get sketching!
I'm over in the sidebar (MommaQuilts). It's a new blog, so there isn't much there yet.

I'm Here, Too!

I got seriously behind. I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm Carol from Minnesota. I have tried several quilts using Tonya's method, and I don't think I'll ever really master this genre, but it's fun trying. Tonya is a great inspiration!

For my wallhanging I want to do something about music. It is a very important part of Christmas for me. I have a rough sketch I made in about 30 seconds, and I have been mulling over the idea since I drew. So far, nothing in fabric yet. (I failed when trying to upload the sketch.. maybe next time.)

Heidi, I LOVE your elk! And the person who is doing the direction pole to towns named like Christmas? What a great idea!!!

Maybe I'll work on my idea a little later today, after a nap. (I have a cold which has drained my energy.)

P.S. My blog is Giraffe Dreams... link is over there on the right.

Failed at the first hurdle!

I was so excited when I saw this class posted! I have tried one or to of Tonya's ideas before, and welcomed the idea of creating a personal Christmas hanging. I thought deeply about what Christmas means to me.

It means - family getting together

- meeting up with friends

- parties

- presents and all the other stuff of course

- lots of cooking (and eating)

- lots of drinking

- relaxing and catching up with people.

I'm not religious, but I love this time of goodwill and love.

My first thoughts were to make a merry Christmas quilt with different drinks on it, but decided to focus on the togetherness side of Christmas. So far, so good.

However, I forgot that the quilt needs to be improvisational, and made some lovely houses - I did draw them myself on an 8 inch piece of paper, but they look rather traditional! I wanted the quirkiness to come from the different people at the windows and other elements I plan to add later. (Honest!)

Here are the houses with different people (and creatures) at the windows and doors, waiting for their chimney pots. I want to add some snow in front of the houses to make an album quilt, and get all the visitors to our house over the Christmas period to sign their names. I'm also planning to do some words. 'Goodwill to all men' is the current favourite.

Now I'm off to cook the tea and think about chimneys.

Katie in NJ/PA

I'm trying not to squeal with excitement. This is a HUGE step in my quilting world, and I'm so honored to be invited to participate with all of you much more experienced quilters.

I'm 27, a combat veteran, and I'm VERY silly. I usually think outside the box, EXCEPT for my quilts. I'm a great copyer, not great with colour, and I tend to like more traditional patterns. I joined this group to get me to think outside the (nine-patch, no triangles, straight lines) box. Like I said, I'm a copyer, so when Tonya posted her Santa Alien, I loved it, but I had to tweak it. I suppose owning every season of The Next Generation on DVD makes me a Trekkie (and late-night debates about whether a character from the holodeck and a starfleet officer could have children and all the logistics therein), and I really must be, because when I saw it I mentally removed an eye and changed the skin colour, et voila, Vulcan. Santa Spock. That's my idea for this winter class, and we'll see just how far I can throw my templates, rulers, and Borg-like quest for perfection.

aside: My blog is linked in the sidebar, but only recently are there craft posts and very few of them at that. The rest is insight into my life. If you have the time and inclination, I welcome readers. I have strong, currently unpopular opinions. You've been warned... :)

I'm a miser...

I had an hour today and I convinced my son that we needed some craft time. He worked on dismantling his chair with the socket wrench, I made this.
It was such fun...I think that I should read the tutorials again and maybe print them out...because there was much throwing away and seam tearing. I think that I also might make mine somewhat ambi-seasonal because I just love this word and this material and think that it would look nice in the craft room all the time.

Is it easier to do smaller letters when you are more of a pro?? and Why am I such a fabric miser? :)

Kristin- some of our ideas

I didn't have the time last weekend to plan the quilt like I thought I would, but I did make some mental notes of ideas. My 14 year old daughter had the idea to use these 5 inch squares as baubles on a tree. I also want to use a Santa drawing my son did last year. We were also talking about what words to put on it and Chloe thinks we should have Merry Christmas in several languages around the borders. I would like to make some funky houses with these fabics as well. My mental picture of this thing keeps changing, but hopefully I'll have time for some sewing next weekend and can get to work on the letters! I love all the inspiration here. It's great to see all the wonderful ideas and photos.

Fitzy - I think I've GOT IT!

I've gotten my inspiration, and have begun my project for this Winter Class! I'm so exicted! Excited AND relieved that I can actually piect these letters. They're definately not exactly as cool as Tonya's, I'm SO anal, I am struggling to achieve her "sass". Thank goodness there is no Quilt Police lurking here.

So...my idea is...to make a Striped Sign pole with all the city signs on it that will point the direction of the city and say 250 miles, etc. So the first one is Noel, MO (Missouri) and the next is Christmas, MI(Michigan). I am naming holiday cities in states either my dh or I have lived in. The quilt will be tall and skinny-ish, but perfect for it's hanging place.

I'd love for your input on how to get my letters more sassy!

Tracey - I dreamed up a plan

Literally. I guess that quilting is seriously embedded in my deepest thoughts, because I frequently dream of quilts, some my best ideas have come to me in my dreams. Last night, I dreamed about the project for this class, so now I think I have an idea!

I have some ofthis snowman fabric left over from a slew of pillowcases I made last year. And in my dream, I pictured this fabric in the center of wonky churn dash blocks, surrounded by the words "Dashing thru the snow" and some of Tonya's snowflakes.

So I think I might do that.

Heidi: First Elk

So this is my first attempt, though it's far from being perfect, I'm quite happy with it :-)
I'm planning to make another smaller one in red with the same lime as background. This lady-elk will tilt her head to the other side and it's her, who broke his heart last christmas
But I'm not quite sure about the red, should I use another color ?
And I don't like my letters, I will redo them.
Probably I'll have to wait till next sunday to continue, but I'll check the blog :-)
Heidi

P.S. I browsed through the blogs. So many beautiful quilts there !!!

Gillian joins in

Hi there from Australia.

Christmas for me is --

• summer holidays
• family
• festival
• gifts
• joy
• party time
• fun and sharing
• a time to be generous
  

So, my first thoughts have turned towards a small wall hanging that features a few Christmas stockings hanging cheerfully.

Check out my quilts on flickr.

Do I need another project? No! But you all are doing new and interesting things and I want to join in.

Gillian
School of St Jude

Hi from Diane

While scrounging through my solids for red and green scraps, I unearthed these blocks that I made for a quilt last year. Is it still politically incorrect to combine the letters “H” and “O”? If not, I might use them in a project along with trees and houses.

Apparently, I’m quite susceptible to the powers of suggestion, because I can’t get Tonya’s image of a BUG out of my head! It’s an idea I never would have thought of on my own. Here’s a rough sketch (sorry, I can’t draw).