On the 7th Day of Christmas

On the 7th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

7 Swans A-Swimming

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, seven swans a-swimming represents the "seven gifts of the Holy Spirit."




For this quilt, I chose the Seven Stars block which is another name for the Seven Sisters block.   To further the concept of seven, I only used seven blocks in the design.  I am calling this one "49 Stars."

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

Six Geese A-Laying

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15,the "six geese a-laying" represents the 6 days of Creation.


There are a lot of Flying Geese variations so I chose one that had 6 geese in the design.  I really like the movement in this design which is increased by coloring the flying geese from light to dark and repeating that concept throughout the quilt.  I also added green's compliment -- red (how well do you know your color wheel?) to further enhance the design.

I call this quilt "Geese in a Row."

On the 5th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

Five Golden Rings

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, five golden rings represents the Pentateuch, or the first five books in the Bible -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

I can remember as a kid singing the 12 Days of Christmas and when we got to the "5 golden rings" part, we'd yell it instead of singing it.  So, I wanted this quilt to really stand out.  What's more striking than a black and gold quilt?

The center block is actually a Celtic design, but it was perfect for this design.  I call this one "5 Celtic Rings," as a nod to my Irish heritage as well as the song.

On the 4th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

Four Calling Birds

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the four Calling Birds stand for the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The block in this quilt is called Four Little Birds and was published in 1928 by Ladies Art Company.  I was really drawn to the graceful curves in these four birds.  I named this quilt "Swoop" because to me it looks like all four birds are swooping down to grab the same tiny morsel.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

Three French Hens

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the three French Hens represent FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE.

This quilt block is appropriately named Hen and Her Chicks.  It appeared in Kansas City Star in 1947.  I chose a red and white colorway for this design so there was a lot of contrast and the blocks stood out.  I especially like how alternating the placement of the reds and white makes the quilt almost pulsate.

I call this quilt "9 Chicks."

On the 2nd Day of Christmas......

My True Love gave to me...

Two Turtle Doves

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the two turtle doves represent the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

I call this quilt design Doves in Flight. I was not quite sure how to represent a "turtledove" exactly (an image of a turtle with wings kept coming to mind) so I focused on the Dove as a symbol of peace for this design.

I chose 2 shades of purple paired with solid white.  I decided on this particular Dove block (see below) because of the many different layout options.

This is a close up of a single Dove block, which actually features 4 Drunkard's Path units.  This particular Dove block pattern is attributed to Kansas City Star.

On the 1st Day of Christmas.......

My True Love gave to me...

  A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15,  "both 'my true love' and the partridge in a pear tree represent Jesus — the partridge because it’s a bird that will sacrifice its life to save its children."

I call this quilt design Birds and Pears.  I love how it has a modern feel to it even though it is in traditional Christmas colors.

The 12 Days of Christmas

For the Last couple of years, I've done a series of special holiday posts to share with you. 

Start HERE for my 2016 Playing Around with Christmas Songs

and

Start HERE for my 2017 12 Days of Christmas Gifts

For 2018, I thought I'd revisit the 12 Days of Christmas and design quilts to represent EACH day.

Did you know that the 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 25th and ends on January 5th?

Check out this great article written by Pat Johnson for the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15 for a great explanation of what the song really represents.  This was a real surprise to me so I wanted to share it with you this holiday season.

But before I forget --

to you and yours

Fall Quilt Market in Review Part 2

Isn't it typical that Quilt Market was a month ago and I'm still working on blogging about it?  LOL!

On Saturday and Sunday of Market, the show floor was open as was the quilt display.  If you've never been to Market, it's hard to describe what the show floor looks like.

Here are a couple photos taken through the porthole windows on the second floor:

The show floor is MASSIVE!  Filled with every quilt goody known to humankind.  Thank goodness the aisles are numbered or else you might get lost.  There were 22 aisles and each aisle is divided in half with a central wide aisle running through.  The show floor is so overwhelming but in a good way!

Since I didn't have any appointments or meetings scheduled, I was free to wander to my heart's content.  Which I did.  Of course, I checked in with many friends and met a lot of new friends too.  I stopped at C&T Publishing, Villa Rosa, and others just to say hi.

At C&T, I actually made an appointment to sit down and talk to the acquisitions editor, Roxanne, so that I could pitch a couple of book ideas to her.  Really, I didn't go to Market to pitch a new book idea, but I went prepared just in case.  (Well, hey, I was a Girl Scout, you know.)

Anyway, here are some things I saw on the Show Floor that I found photo-worthy:

Saturday was an exhausting day!  Then Saturday night, I went with my shop owner friend Shirley to the Moda dinner, which is always a good time.

On Sunday, I had the chance to check out the quilt display which by the way is in the other half of the first floor of the conference center!  I am sad to say that I only made it through about 3/4 of the quilt displays, but WOW -- the displays were amazing.....incredible......even breath-taking!

Here are a few teasers for you:

One of my absolute favorite things to do at Market is to participate in book signings.  I really love to meet authors and it's fun to help them celebrate their books.  Here's my favorite photo from the book signings I was lucky enough to attend -- can you guess who????

Eleanor is doing great!  She looked wonderful and was so very gracious.  I am thrilled for her that she's celebrating her 40th anniversary for Quilt in a Day.  Did you know that they updated her first book, Make a Quilt in a Day Log Cabin?  Click HERE to get your own copy!

Stay tuned for some book reviews for the books I discovered at Market.

To revisit Part 1 of my Fall Quilt Market in Review posts, click HERE.

Fall Quilt Market in Review Part 1

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasurable opportunity to attend Fall Quilt Market in Houston, Texas.  I gave this trip to myself as a gift for getting through all of the medical issues over the last year and a half.

I went to Market with the main intention of enjoying myself, but I had decided if any opportunities presented themselves, I wouldn't say no.

If you've never been able to attend Quilt Market -- it's a trade show for professionals in quilting -- I'd like to share some of my experiences with you.  So read on..........

 A view of Downtown Houston.

 I flew into Houston from the Pittsburgh airport with a couple of friends.  I always find that traveling with someone else makes everything run more smoothly.  Anyway, we arrived on Thursday, got settled into the hotel, and headed for the conference center which was about a block away.  I had to pick up my badge and drop of some quilts to the Villa Rosa Designs booth.  Then it was off to our favorite grocery store, Phoenicia, that is way more than a grocery store.  We stocked up on goodies -- actually essentials like Turkish Delight and Macarons........ and then headed back to the hotel.  After a fun Happy Hour at the hotel, we grabbed a taxi and headed to Burger Theory for a late dinner -- burgers and fries .....what could be better?

Friday was a long and exhausting day!  It was Schoolhouse day from 10 am - 6 pm.  Schoolhouse is a series of 30 minute or 15 minute workshops/lectures.  There were 14 different sections and within each section you have to choose one out of a list.  Programs can range from introducing new books, fabric, patterns, rulers, etc. to how-to and everything you could possibly think of.  Of course, I ended up running back and forth between classrooms which were located on opposite ends.  I would make a mad dash (me and hundreds of other people) and usually made it by the beginning of the program.

I went to a lot of interesting programs and made sure to catch the Villa Rosa Schoolhouse program.  Of course, I wanted to see my quilts!  These quilts are my latest Villa Rosa projects.  You can find all 10 of my designs HERE.

 Blueberry Cobbler.

Bits and Pieces.

Salt Water Taffy.

.

After that long long day of running my legs off and stuffing my head full of information, we ended up at my favorite Houston restaurant -- Guadalajara.

After we stuffed ourselves at Guadalajara, we walked back to the hotel and discovered a cool festival in the park near the conference center -- it was a celebration of the Day of the Dead.  We browsed the artisan booths and enjoyed the festivities.

My absolute favorite thing was the living statue.  Have you ever seen that before?  The young girl was amazing!  She did not even move during each of her poses and held each one for several minutes.  At first I didn't even know it was a real person until she moved!

Below, are some more photos from the Day of the Dead festival.

Then it was back to the hotel to get some rest because the next day, Saturday was the first day of the trade show part of Quilt Market.

To read more about my Quilt Market experience, please check out my next post HERE.