154. Christmas in the City

 At the end of 2014, I started working on Tula Pink's City Sampler, which has 100 blocks.

My idea was to start in the upper left corner with very low volume blocks with just a touch of red.

Gradually add more red to the blocks.

Then red and white blocks with a touch of green.

Decrease the amount of white and have mostly red and some green. (Oops, where did that thread come from?)

And then work in the opposite way to the lower right hand corner. Mostly green with some red.

Gradually add some white, while working mostly with green.

Eliminate the red.

And end up with very low volume white and green blocks.

You know how you have a vision but you are never quite sure if the reality will match it your expectations? In this case, I'm thrilled with the results.

Even the back--I used up some of my favorite Christmas prints.

And added a peppermint stripe binding.

You may be familiar with the fact that I photograph nearly all of my quilts in front of our little shed in the backyard. But Mark and I took this quilt out for a fun photo op. 

One morning I was headed out of the house and walked past the dining room. Everything seemed just right to snap a quick picture. For some reason, this photo got some major traction on Instagram that year. 

It was reposted on the instagram feed of Make Modern Magazine and ended up with nearly 6,000 "likes"!! So I repost it every year. Haha. 

After seeing Christmas in the City, another quilter made her version using patchwork squares rather than pieced blocks. It's a much faster way to achieve the same idea and it's so very pretty.

It seemed the perfect quilt to photograph with the Christmas red classic car. It was in my calendar, Quilts and Classics 2021, for the month of December.

Details:

Pattern: City Sampler by Tula Pink

Size: 60" x 60"

Blocks: 100 scrappy 6" blocks

Pieced by: Me.

Machine quilted by: Darby Myers

78. December Divas

At first I really liked the Christmas Divas fabric by Lorelei, but after it was completed, it had kind of lost its magic for me. I'm not even sure what happened to this quilt.

Title: December Divas

Date Completed: November 2007

Size: 48" x 55"

Quilted by: Chris Schneider
 

70. Christmas Presence

 

I added cute buttons at the intersections of the blocks.

Title: Christmas Presence

Pattern: Charm Parade

Date Completed: November 2006

Size: 52" x 62"

Quilted by Chris Schneider

Gifted to: Tracy Neufeld 

69. Christmas Ornaments

I love the border print on this quilt. What I don't quite like is the glob of dark colors in the center where the brown, burgundy and green overlap. 

Title: Christmas Ornaments

Pattern by: ?

Date Completed: 2006

Size: 60" x 70"

Quilted by: Liana Brigham

Gifted to: Judy Kulekjian
 

68. Retro Christmas

Title: Retro Christmas

Pattern: Just Can't Cut It

Size: 52" x 63"

Completed: October 2006
 

67. Santa Christmas

 Title: Santa Christmas

Pattern: Just Can't Cut It

Size: 52" x 62"

Completed September 2006

36. Prairie Christmas Tree Skirt

Tree skirt for Aaron and Christa, Christmas 2001. First time doing quilt-as-you-go, strips sewed onto batting and backing at the same time.

Title: Prairie Christmas
Designed by: Pam Weege and Alicia Wilhoit
Date Started: October 2001
Date Completed: December 2001
Quilted by: Me

29. Stars in the Woods

Dotty Warkentine and I took this class at Quilter's Paradise. Her quilt was for her grandson, not Christmas.

Title: Stars in the Woods
Pattern by: Unknown; class taught by Carolyn McCray
Date Completed: December 2000
Quilted by: Cyndi McGunigle

Gifted to: Rhonda Dueck 

27/28. Small Christmas Projects

For Aaron and Christa's first Christmas, we collected lots of decorations, candles, etc., and I made two handmade items--the advent calendar and the table runner. The advent calendar was always a very special part of Christmas for Aaron.

I collected buttons over a period of a couple of years--all by Ivy Cottage Buttons--only available at quilt shows--no phone orders or online orders.

Title: Christmas

Pattern by: Nativity Advent Calendar (designer unknown), table runner by Terry Atkinson

Date Started: Fall 2000

Date Completed: November 2000

Quilted by: Me

11. Stardust

First Christmas quilt! I chose lots of fabric with gold metallic.

The dark green fabric on the back is gold-stamped green taffeta from a friend's bridesmaid dress.

Title: Stardust
Pattern by: Gail Abeloe
Date Completed: December 1998
Quilted by: Machine pieced and machine quilted by me

Gifted to: Norma Froehmer