Design Wall Monday: Jingle Pieced Block No. 8 Completed

Jingle Pieced Block No. 8

I finally managed to finish another pieced block for my Jingle BOM project, designed by Erin Russek of One Piece at a Time.  Don't you just love how I fussy-cut the Christmas tree for the center square?  So did I -- until I remembered that the blocks are going to be set on point, like this:

Glad I Worked So Hard to Achieve a Perfectly Crooked Tree...

Ah, c'est la vie, n'est ce pas?  I did enough frog-stitching (rip it!  rip it!) with this block already to get nice points on all my triangles.  I hereby name this block The Leaning Tree of Christmas.

Meanwhile, I spent about a thousand hours stitching down the bias stems on the large center medallion applique for this project over the past couple of weeks.  Now the stems are done, and I glue-basted my center poinsettia petals in place so I can start stitching those down RIGHT NOW while I read The Hobbit with Lars.  Hopefully he's brushing his teeth while I'm typing this.

We're pretty much set for Christmas Eve tomorrow.  It's my dad's birthday, so my parents will be coming over to our house for a birthday/Christmas Eve dinner before we all head out to church.  The rouladen is made and ready to bake for dinner, the birthday pineapple upside-down cake ingredients are ready to go, and those stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Santa's elves have a sense of humor and put the boys on the Nice list despite their shenanigans.

I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times because I'm thrilled to have FINISHED SOMETHING today, even if my tree did end up crooked!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Book Review: Quilting Wide Open Spaces by Judi Madsen

Available from Amazon here

Quilting Wide-Open Spaces by Madsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have drool all over my computer keyboard, and it is all Judi Madsen's fault. I have been following her blog, Green Fairy Quilts, for about a year now, and I continue to be mesmerized by her approach to machine quilting -- her uncanny ability to create the perfect quilting designs to complement any style of pieced or appliqued quilt that comes her way. I tell myself that, one day when my piecing and applique skills get good enough, maybe I could hire Judi to work her magic on one of my own quilts, but in the meantime I am delighted to finally have been able to purchase this book. Judi walks readers through her creative and technical process with clarity and a fresh, conversational voice, like she's standing right next to your sewing machine, cheering you on. Her enthusiasm and warm personality comes across on every page -- a breath of fresh air. When she breaks down her spectacular quilting step-by-step, anything seems possible -- and I haven't even looked at the additional resources on the included CD yet. I usually don't make the projects in quilting books, just use them as references, but the "wide open spaces" concept is very appealing to me. I spent hours practicing free-motion quilting on fat quarter "practice" quilt sandwiches throughout most of last year, and have nothing to show for that but a pile of samples. Judi's projects are a logical next step in the quilting journey, moving on to simple pieced quilt tops with plenty of "wide open spaces" just waiting for quilty goodness. To whet your appetite, check out Judi's blog post here where she shows sneak peaks of some of the projects in this book. 

I hope Judi writes more books in the future. I would especially love to see a book with before and after photos of her quilts, or possibly several identical quilt tops with totally different quilting designs. Often when viewing a finished quilt with absolutely spectacular quilting, perfectly suited to the quilt, those quilting designs seem like the only possible quilting. I think it's hard for many beginners, myself included, to envision the different quilting possibilities when we're staring at the wilderness of a freshly-finished quilt top and trying to decide what to do with it.

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