Not your average tree farm - Christmas Quilt Show 2010

Well, who couldn't love this? A bloggerland show of all quilts Christmasy, just in time to put us in the holiday sewing spirit. So bring on the hot cocoa and 42 foot high stack of catalogs in the mailbox, it's time for Christmas! Thanks to http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/ for hosting this great show.

My entry into the Christmas Quilt Show could have taken many forms as I love to make and design Christmas quilts. My very first quilt ever would qualify for entry in that it was a Christmas quilt, but you really have to meet that specimen in person to experience the full joy that it's beauty can bring. (Read, OMG. It's a first quilt in every manner possible, right down to the huge wrinkle in the backing shown off by the contrasting thread used for "quilting" it.) So that one was out.

I also have a wonderful row robin I did within my guild that is Christmas themed. It is amazing, and I love that so many of my friends worked on it, but alas, I have no photo of it, and I am too lazy to go find it, hang it up, take a photo of it, upload said photo, etc and do fear that even if I felt like doing so, my daughter would wake from her nap before I was done and our little time together here would be cut short. So again, that one is out.

Funky Tree Farm

EvaPaige Quilt Designs

The quilt I have chosen to share is one of my very favorite original designs. It came about as an experiment in using up some green scraps; I wanted to see if I could make a mini crazy quilt out of them by foundation piecing them to a square of muslin and then cutting out shapes to then use as applique. It turns out I could, because I apparently was exceedingly talented. (Not really, but I like to think so now and then. Good for the ego, after all.) I cut lots of different triangle shapes out of the foundation pieced greens, stacked them up to look like trees, and I was in love with the possibilities.

Since I love the look of applique on a pieced background, I set the tree shapes onto a background that was simply strip pieced from two tone on tone fabrics in similar, but not matching, creamy beiges. Then it was time to play. Metallic threads in some fun stitches along the seams of the "crazy quilting" added to the effect and sort of made it look like the trees were sent direct from 1964 featuring the classic fuzzy silver garland of that era. Some iron-on jewels to replicate the multicolored glass balls my mother bought at Woolworths for 49 cents per box of 12 in 1972 and which each year we hung on the tree even as at least one or two would meet their worldly demise by falling on the floor and being stepped on completed the effect.

"Funky Tree Farm" was so named with the help of my daughters, who at the time I designed this runner were 2, 6, and 6. One of the older ones, and I honestly forget who (or so I tell them), said to me "Those trees look just like Uncle Gordon's trees!", referring to my uncle, whom you may have figured out is named Gordon, and his Christmas tree farm in Strafford NH. (High Meadow Tree Farm, if you are in the general vicinity. Beautiful trees, gorgeous handmade wreaths, etc. /end advertisement.) Gordon and his wife Carolyn take much pride in their perfectly groomed and symmetrical trees, so I was sure they would so not appreciate her comment that these funky little wonders looked at all like their actual trees, but I liked her concept.

I love this little quilt and it is one of the very few sample quilts from my pattern line that I actually use in my home, and on the TABLE no less. With food. And children. And a husband who no lie knocked an entire bottle of red wine onto it last Christmas. After I was done freaking out and selling all his gifts on ebay, I soaked it in Oxyclean and will say that the only bad thing that happened was a few of the jewels fell off. Much like in the old days with the Woolworth's glass balls. It was all very fitting. Will I use it again this year? Yes. Will I remove it from the table when we are drinking red wine? H_ _ _ yeah.

Thanks so much for visiting! Remember, every comment here on my post and at www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/christmas-quilt-show is entered into the drawing for all the prizes! I'd love to hear what you think of this design, my blog, whether or not you also had boxes of glass ornaments that were treasured from year to year - whatever!