2010 quilts by Colleen - What a busy quilting year!!!

Christmas 2010 quilts

 Black and White quilt for youngest daughter Kayla, 27, the first Christmas she wasn't at home. Superman fleece throw is for Super Kraig, her husband.

 Cody Dale, oldest grandson with his football t shirt quilt. Senior 2011

 Grandson, Christian also a high school senior 2011, not here when we took pics.

Jason , my great nephew graduated high school in 2010. His Granny, my sister Janeen and I made his t shirt quilt. We used lots of hunting and wildlife t shirts and included some artsy blocks using Indians because his high school's mascot for an Indian chief.

Mimi is ready for a brief rest from all the sewing and quilting. Lots of new project ideas for 2011!

Happy New Year

Colleen

Christmas tree skirt

This Christmas tree skirt is an early gift for my daughter Kayla and her husband Kraig. They won't be home for Christmas this year. We will miss them both but they won't be alone. Kraig's family will be visiting in 2 groups and their church family is awesome.

The pattern was for a table topper in a recent quilting magazine, sorry don't remember which one. Only 1 pattern piece and a lot of fun to make. I just split it and cut a circle in the middle and continued the binding and made ties. She loves these colors, all the colors of her decorations!
Happy Quilting
Merry Christmas,
Colleen

Merry Christmas " Holiday Decor " tour

Quilt Along progress

I am participating  in Thread Head's Quilt Along. This is so much fun! Finally I have caught up with Block #6 and have made several connecting blocks. Joanne is a wonderful teacher! I am making this quilt for an auction fundraiser for Stitching Memories Quilt Guild, for our Holiday Festival in Sept 2011.
We are joining our local Western Heritage Festival that same weekend and the auction will be held at their venue. We are hoping to have at least a dozen quilts to auction. A silent auction for smaller items will be held at our Festival, I am planning to finish the wool handbag with pansies  for that auction and maybe a table cloth too.
Joining the quilt guild has brought so many opportunities for service! There are pics of the raffle quilt "I'll Be Home For Christmas" on my blog. It is my original design and we are hoping to raise lots of $$$ so we can bring in more programs. Next year we are having Marsha McCloskey -  Feathered Star and Becky Goldsmith -  Whirlygig workshops. What an exciting opportunity to meet and learn from these Quilting  Stars!!!

What's on my design wall this week

Our oldest grandson Cody Dale #55 graduates this year. As you can see, Cody is the third generation to play football for the Duncan Demons!!! His Dad and PaPaw are wearing their original jerseys for this pic. I am making my first tshirt quilt with his football shirts, golf too. There are also shirts are from his middle school and some special keepsakes from a trip to Australia with the People To People program. That was quite an honor for him although it was hard to think about him being all the way around the world for over 2 weeks when he was only 13 yrs old.
Cody Dale is one of the sweetest most loving boys I have ever known, next to his Dad of course! This is a very special year for all of us!

Christmas Stocking Challenge

Our Quilt Guild had a Christmas Stocking Challenge at our meeting last night. Lots of beautiful stockings, sorry I did not take my camera. My wool applique original design won 2nd place in the applique division, I was so excited! We had judges come in and no one knew who made which stocking. To my surprise I won the Viewers Choice vote from our members! That means so much to me and look at the fabulous ribbons!!! The grand prize was a Thimbleberries Scrapbook! The perfect thing for pics of my quilts!!!

I plan to hang the stocking inside a wreath. All the plaid woolens are reclaimed, some actually from wool  scraps left from coats I made my girls over 20 years ago.

Cornerstone Early Head Start quilts

 The Cornerstone Quilters class started in July, we sewed through the hot summer months and into early fall. My beginner quilting class had 14 members from age 85 down to 12, actually 3 young teens! 3 members other than myself had quilting experience so lots of beginners, mother /daugther and grandmother/ granddaughter couples. Actually Abbey had both grandmothers in the class!!! and a very special GREAT Aunt, my sister, Janeen - LUCKY GIRL!!! I taught one block each class and we surrounded center panels with each members blocks. My first time to teach a quilting class. I wrote instructions and precut all the pieces to save time. We met 3 Mondays and 1 Saturday a month. The Saturday classes were intense teaching rotary cutting, squaring blocks, construction and layering. Also we brought our lunches and food and fellowship and lots of laughs! I machine quilted and bound all the quilts. We chose a bright primary color palette without knowing what the Head Start program would be providing for the play areas. These fabrics worked out perfect for all the equipment. You can't miss my granddaughter Abbey, age 12 in the flower bounce!

 The floor quilt for the infant area was made with our left over blocks from all the quilts!

 The murals were painted by high school art classes. Also no color planning with the quilts! God's hand again!!!

 Our first quilt with 4 patch and double 4 patch has all the names embroidered in the solid squares with a heart machine quilted around each name, Our logo in the center square. All the ladies enjoyed finding their names.

This week our church quilting group "Cornerstone Quilters" celebrated the Open House for Early Head Start. The quilts our group made will decorate the building and warm up the surroundings for 8 children and infants under 3 yrs. old. We had an enthusiatic crowd and refreshments provided by the ladies of First Presbyterian Church. Here are a few pics, I missed one special quilt, The Hot Air Balloons, so I am including an unfinished pic. It hangs on the wall at the entrance.
This project was quite a quilting success, many new friends were made and there were several precious ladies vying for TEACHERS PET. My sister Janeen won that contest, as always, my life in enriched when we work on something together.
Thank you, GOD for this outreach mission opportunity !
Colleen