All of the prints, except for the red center prints are from Windham Fabrics The Brick House line.  The solid black is also from Windham, but it’s from the Gee’s Bend line.  The red and black print that is at the heart of some of the blocks is something special my mom picked up at the Museum of the Fur Trade’s shop.  It’s a reproduction of one of the five fabrics that William Clark took with him as presents for the Indian tribes he met on the Lewis and Clark expedition.

I love this quilt – the color, pattern, prints, the wool quilting, the whole thing, love love love!

I chain pieced the log cabin blocks.

Chain piecing sped up the process since there were so many blocks.  The pattern is Straight Furrows, from the book, The Classic American Quilt Collection – Log Cabin.  Yes, the price on that link was right!  I paid a dollar plus shipping for my copy of the book.

Here’s the back of the quilt.  It’s pieced with large sections of the fabrics that I used on the front.

I quilted it in a diagonal pattern through the heart of each block.  I used aurifil 12 wt wool in ivory.  It wasn’t trouble free because the thread split on me a few times, but I found if I lengthened the stitches, used a 90/14 quilting needle, and kept a steady speed I had much better luck.

I love the fuzzy look of the wool thread in this quilt.

It adds a sort of homespun feel to the project.

I know some people would probably want to avoid that, but I say enjoy what you are making.  I like fabric – modern, reproduction, print, solid, whatever – I love all of it!

It’s just knit in the round on with big needles.  After all this time, I don’t remember what size needles I used.  I think maybe 15, I do remember I used the whole skein.

I’m sure it will feel more like winter soon enough, and when it does, I’ll be ready with this new cowl.

I also finished this tunic over Thanksgiving break.  It’s the schoolhouse tunic pattern.

Mine is made out of a fine wale corduroy.  I did the shoulders with a french seam to give it a more finished look and did some extra top stitching along the waist.

I also finished this honeycomb quilt a couple of weeks ago.  It was so long ago that you can see all the fold lines.

here’s the back

The kids start their winter break today.  We are all getting ready for a fun weekend.  This picture was taken this past Tuesday, this lack of snow is very un-Iowa.

I brought this pillow, which is a knock off of a Pottery Barn pillow that isn’t listed on their site so you will just have to take my word that it looked a little bit like this.

This one is made with a khaki cotton that has a linen look that’s on a 12 inch pillow form.  The poinsettia is just a bunch of petals cut out of ivory felt and stitched down with linen floss.  I used buttonhole twist thread to stitch the jingle bells.

Today I’m doing my best to finish up some presents and getting started on this years teacher gifts – hope the oven is ready.

recipe

I usually hang ornaments from  all the windows, but this year I wanted to do something different.

This year every thing gets a bow -

frames…

doorways…

stairways…

sconces…

plates…

even plates, sconces, and frames…

and when the ribbon is gone, put a garland on it…

The kids were up bright and early and ready to put on the first decoration.  Seriously, cj was up at 5 am.  He came downstairs dressed for the day, asking about getting the house ready for Christmas.  They both love peeking at the days ahead to see what ornament is next.  All the while lulu reminding cj that they have to wait for each day before the ornament goes on the tree.

Their tree will be filled before we know it.

The little stars have that 50′s feel that I adore and the little white dishes reminded me of my favorite fire king refrigerator dishes.  I didn’t really know what I would do with it, but while standing at the cutting table I knew I came up with a plan for kitchen curtains so I could see the fabric every day.

I love the ease of curtain clips, but don’t like the  look of the clips so I stitched a band to the back of the header so the clips aren’t as visible.

I also slipped some header tape in the top so the top holds it’s shape.

On these curtains the header tape was just stitched and the bottom.  It should have been tucked into the sides, but I forgot.  oops…don’t tell my mom.