On the 10th Day of Christmas

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

10 Lords A-Leaping

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the Ten Commandments are represented by the ten lords a-leaping.

For this design, I picked the Boy's Nonsense block.  This block and I go way back -- I used it in one of my quilts for my second book, A Russian Journey in Quilts.  I'm going to call this one "Mischief."

On the 9th Day of Christmas

On the 9th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

9 Ladies Dancing

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, nine ladies dancing represent "nine fruits of the holy spirit."

I really love how graphic this design turned out!  There are 9 Fruit Basket blocks, but careful block arrangement and color manipulation created this wonderful secondary design element.  The star in the center and the checkerboard border really complete this quilt.  I'm calling this one "Star Basket" of course!

On the 8th Day of Christmas

On the 8th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

8 Maids A-Milking

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, eight maids a-milking stands for eight beautitudes.

Although I don't normally think of white, red, and black as holiday colors, I chose them for this quilt because of the contrast (and simply because I love that combination).  The block is called Buckeye Beauty and I really enjoyed playing around with the arrangement because these blocks created a lot of interesting secondary designs.

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.