It’s Christmas Time….almost!!!

This past week my small quilting group got together to exchange gifts. I had known about this for over 2 months, but just couldn’t wrap my head around what I wanted to do.

Then, I remembered a blog post by Emma in Australia where she had machine quilted ornaments, resulting in this gorgeous quilt…..

I had been very taken with it and decided to play with something similar for my gift. I started out by free-handing some ornaments and practicing my quilting….

As it ended up, I wasn’t that happy with the resulting product so decided to make a few changes.

I got online and found drawings of lots of interesting ornaments. I cut a few out and started playing with an arrangement. I quickly found that I wasn’t happy with vertical arrangement so started playing with a horizontal one…..

I fused a thin interfacing to the fabric, traced the designs on it and started looking for appropriate threads…..

I did the first round of thread painting, only to find that there was a lot of puffiness to the piece……

SO….here is another opportunity for creativity…..I decided to Trapunto the ornaments to give them some more dimension (and to relieve the puffiness). I used two layers of a high-loft batting…..

…..and then basted it with a wool batting and started quilting. When I got ready to quilt the background, I had planned to do an overall pattern but was afraid that it would be too flat so opted for straight lines instead.

Here is the final product…..

…..with a few close-ups…..

And, excitingly, my friend Deb was the winner!!

In return, I received this wonderful Christmas pillow from Brenda……

Thanks Ladies for a FUN evening!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May we be truly Thankful for all

of our blessings!!!

Sneak preview….

My next project is for a challenge issued by my Quilt Guild. I will post more about it later, but my friend Anita dyed these beautiful fabrics for it……

….and I found this GREAT print for the backing…..

Now I cant wait to get started!!!!

I have been creating….I promise!!!

I haven’t posted in two weeks, but I have actually had time to work on various projects, but just no time to write the blog and post about them!!

My plan was to first finish up the Aussie fabric top and back. In my last POST about this project, I was struggling to get the outside border right.

When I started working again, I decided to go ahead and put the red border on the quilt. If you remember, I had debated about using a fabric that I bought in India but was still concerned that it would bleed, so I opted for another red that I had in m stash.

I started making and randomly positioning blocks around the outside of the quilt…..

…..ending up with the 1/4 circle blocks in each corner…….

I am very happy with the final product…..

and especially happy with the extended design wall that just fit the Queen size top!!

Next step was to piece the back. I had a lot of other Australian fabrics that I wanted to use for the back with the hopes that I wouldn’t have many left when it was done. They were all shapes and sizes, so it was interesting to decide exactly how to use them.

Since I knew that the top size was almost the exact same size as my design wall, I cleaned it off…….

…..and started slapping fabric chunks up…..

….sewing and adding……

…..making changes here and there……

…..until I had the wall completely covered (plus a bit of extra)…..

I will get it sandwiched so that I can quilt on it a bit at a time during the busy times of tax season.

Product Review…..Tarptent & ULA Packs

I wanted to write a separate post about some of the equipment that we used on our trip.

First are our Backpacks….. On our first Backpacking trip (on our honeymoon in 1977), we both carried frame packs that weighed MANY pounds when empty….

When we got ready to start hiking again, Michael did some research and came up with a company called ULA Equipment. The name stands for “Ultra-Light Adventure” and all of their equipment is sturdy and SUPER lightweight.

Michael chose the “Catalyst” model (weighs 3 pounds) for himself and picked the “Circuit” (weighs 2.5 pounds) model for me. Chris (the owner) was a great help as we decided which size of pack we needed and which type of straps would best fit our body type. We must have chosen wisely because I barely felt the 18 pounds that I was carrying…..

….and it is a pretty purple color!!!

We also purchased our sleeping bags from ULA and were plenty warm even though it was in the 30’s during the night.

The tent we chose was the “StratoSpire 2” from Tarpent. Once again, the owner and employees have been really helpful, patiently answering all of our questions about water-proofing and setting up the tent.

The tent only weights 2.5 pounds and EASILY sleeps two.

It was amazing how warm it stayed in the tent during the night. Between the comfort of the tent and the warmth of the sleeping bags, we actually got too hot….amazing!!!

We are also using Thermarest Sleeping pads…..

….and “Black Diamond” trekking poles. For many years we had just used a staff but have both found that having two trekking poles makes the hike much easier!!

The new equipment certainly makes the hiking experience MUCH more fun!!!!