Cynthia Helton sent photos of this quilt that her mom, Shirley Ray Hatley Alford, started in 1995. Shirley passed away in July, 2007. Cynthia, thank you for sharing her quilt with us, I know you all must treasure it.
I remember Shirley! She was in my North Pole class at Sharon’s Quilt Depot way back in 1995 when the book, A Sampling of Santas, was new. Shirley was a lovely woman and I have a smile on my face when I remember her.
This is excerpted from the very well-written documentation patch:
Shirley hand appliqued the blocks and machine pieced them together. As her health began to decline due to breast cancer, Shirley invited Corinne Lageose to finish the hand quilting. Carolyn MIller sewed on the outer binding by hand. And Shirley’s daughter, Cynthia Rae Alford Helton sewed on the red berry buttons and other embellishments. This quilt was lovingly finished by Cynthia while sitting at the bedside of Shirley in July, 2007. This is Shirley’s Masterpiece!
If you are interested in the pattern, A Sampling of Santas is included in our ebook, A Slice of Christmas.
I just had to share this with you. I know you will get a kick out of it!!
So to backup…tonight is our quilt club meeting and we are having a hands-on demo, how-to EPP project. We will be somehow making ❤️ Hearts!! What paper shape it is, beats me. EPP is new to me, but I picked up a little kit and made a “Dilly” bag. It’s super cute. Hexagons. I think I may be hooked. Another skill, right?
Anyway, everyone that attends the meeting will get a little packet (to make a ❤️??) and if we want to participate in a gift exchange we can, but it has to have a ❤️ on it. I want to join in but it had to be quick and easy. (Because I just got home from Florida). I also wanted it to be useful but not another mug-rug.
Enter the chicken pincushion from your last post. I love pincushions, can’t have too many of them (unlike mug-rugs😝)!! So I decided to give it a shot and put a ❤️ on her/his chest. Turned out so darn cute.
I may have to make one for myself. For sure if my friend Chris Peterson doesn’t get it tonight in the drawing. She loves chickens, has her sewing room decorated with chickens. She made a rooster quilt. And I think she has a metal nesting box outside that she displays plants/flower pots on her patio. She’s a MN farm girl just like most of us and proud of it. Lives in town, so this is next best thing.
But wait! There’s more!
Yay!! Chris got the chicken and she loved it. It will go with her menagerie of chickens 🐓. 😝
Another funny (jokes-on-me thing) that happened while I was assembling the chicken was I sewed up the wrong side 😑 (across from the beak, same side as beak 🤷♀️??). They are small, so hard to see what side is what (can I think of any more excuses🤔), mine were 3” squares. Nice size.
In any case, when I unfurled the chicken, the tail ended up under her chin (beak) and instead of a tail it looked chicken legs!!😝😂
There you go, a new twist on the pattern. Add 2 strips of wool with a knot at each end for funny legs/feet!! Could be cute or weird!! Maybe I’ll try one for real for myself. (Or my sister in Atlanta, she’s a chicken person. She wants the real chickens to feed/water clean up after!! Not me. I’m done with that; pincushions are better!!)
So that’s my chicken report.
I will make a couple more for friends Jackie & Vicky for our retreat “up Nort” as they say.
Happy stitches to you,
Joan
Many thanks to you, Joan, for sharing the story of your chicken! And may you, too, have many happy stitches!
Two weeks ago Ann Blasdel took a class with me, through the Austin Area Quilt Guild, and she has totally finished her quilt! It’s beautiful! Well done, Ann, and thank you for sharing your quilt with us!
You can find the Spring Bling class with my other classes on Creative Spark. In the online class, MJ Kinman teaches the gem medallion and I teach the machine applique. When either of us teaches this class to a guild, only one of us is on the zoom answering questions for all the techniques in the class. Students get unlimited access to all the videos, hers and mine.
Ann said: “The videos were very clear and presented in a very organized way. Really nice to be able to follow them.”
Thank you again, Ann, and congrats on the fast finish and beautiful quilt!
Carmen Nordback’s Aunt Millie’s Garden quiltI was in the Minnesota Quilters Show this past week where it received first place in the Appliqué Small category. Of course it won first place! I love the whole quilt and especially the border background treatment.
Carmen says “I reduced the size of the bocks from 14” to 10” so it was smaller than the original pattern. It was so much fun to make! Thanks again for all you do to create such fabulous designs.”
Thank you, Carmen, for sharing your beautiful quilt with us! It is a joy to behold :-).
Mary Goyeau sent me these photos of her May Basket quilt for show and tell. Mary had never done applique before! I gave a presentation to Great Lakes Heritage Quilters last year, and that got her interested in appliqué. Well done, Mary!
Thank you, Mary, for sharing your quilt and for letting me know that my presentation inspired you :-). Your applique looks good and your quilting stitches are lovely. I hope you continue to enjoy hand applique and quilting. It brings a special kind of happiness to your life.
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