Christmas cartoon countdown 12-15-18

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Christmas Cartoon Countdown 12-14-18

(Love the bunny slippers!)

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Cartoons leading up to Christmas 12-13-18

Posting a cartoon a night until Christmas Day.  You may have seen some of these in previous years.   I always need a giggle or an outright laugh this time of year.  For some strange reason carrot nose jokes always crack me up. 

There will be two posts some evenings, one cartoon and one "normal" one!

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Wordless Wednesday - Palo Verde tree 12-12-18

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Christmas trees 12-11-18

This morning was the Christmas meeting of the Surfside Quilters Guild.  Many of the ladies wore their Christmas finery, including me!   Even though I don't celebrate Christmas anymore, I enjoy seeing the Christmas decorations and the special quilts, cushions, table runners, etc., that the members have created.  I have particularly enjoy the Christmas trees associated with the holiday.  And I do sometimes hang a Christmas quilt in my house. 

Such a simple idea, but very festive.  You could whip one of these up tomorrow!

Barbara Seidel  2012

Susan Adams looked at a picture and came up with her own design.   2012

This is not a Christmas tree quilt, but it is so colorful and "Christmasy" I do hang it during the season.  It was made by Nikki Wheeler of the International Twelve by Twelve group. 

 Dec 2012

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A very early Ruth B. McDowell quilt 1982 12-09-18

This quilt appeared in Ruth's first book "Symmetry".  Beside the fact that I always like Ruth's work, it is blue and yellow, my favorite color combination.  I added it to TCQC in 2002.  I have used her symmetry techniques in several quilts and greatly enjoyed the process.  The book is sometimes available secondhand online or in secondhand bookshops. 

"Lightning Strike"  1982  Ruth B. McDowell  44"W x 78.5"L

Cotton fabrics, batting, and thread.  Machine pieced and quilted. 

I see the quilting pattern as an early version of Ruth's distinctive "Baptist Fan" quilting that she has used extensively throughout her career.  Del 

Quoting from Ruth's book "Symmetry":    "The patterned fabrics used in this quilt have a very significant impact on carrying out the lightning theme.  The large scale drapery print used in the outer border, containing as it does hints of yellows, pinks, and browns, along with gray and blue, works to carry the colors of the pieced blocks into the border.   An inner border of bands of colors, butted rather than mitered at the corners, and varying top to bottom, was suggested to me by studying the borders on oriental scroll paintings. 

Quilting:  A free motion pattern of arcs and clouds, done by eye without previous marking, was stitched in a continuous line across the whole surface with black thread.  It reinforces for me the turmoil of a thunderstorm. " 

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