O'Brien Christmas Original

As promised, here are pictures of my third Christmas quilt - a small wall hanging. It was fun to make this because it was an 'original' design and took on a life of its own once I started. 

The design began with one flower blossom, not even a poinsettia. I had purchased some very cheap applique shapes at Tuesday Morning (won't make this mistake again!). I liked the shape of the flower and thought it looked a little like a poinsettia, so I started making more of them in the Christmas red fabric. 

I used a large plate to make the round shape for the wreath. Found the reindeer as part of a Santa/reindeer/sleigh pattern and liked the position and the striking contrast of colors. Found the leaves, inner blossoms and stars online, so that made the job really easy. Sent it off for quilting and was stunned at the expense, so as I noted in my previous post, I must learn to free motion quilt. 

After the piece was quilted, I embellished it with green iron-on crystals for the center of the flowers, the red collar and horn "ornaments" for the reindeer. I had found some snowflake buttons which I used for the center of the stars, then added a gold crystal on top of the button. 

It is very simple, but DH really likes it, which makes me happy, of course!

I was, however, very disappointed, that the fabric frayed so much when it was quilted. I learned my lesson about using a stabilizer when doing applique. Won't make this mistake again! 

I'm starting on a whimsical art quilt depicting our neighborhood. I'm excited to see how it turns out. 

Onward into my sewing room and . . . 

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Christmas Quilting

Despite some marginally chaotic activity this year, I did manage to produce three Christmas theme quilt tops. 

The top picture is an adorable quilt I saw in a magazine and just had to make it. Because the center is just one large panel, it was easy to make fairly quickly. The holly leaves at the corners are applique with red buttons for the berries. Really sweet. I liked the silhouette images as well as the red, black and white color way. Different for a Christmas theme.


The second quilt (below left) is a Thimbleberries "Holiday Stars" pattern. I've blogged about this one before so I won't repeat everything again, but will note that there were what seemed to be millions of small pieces comprising the blocks. 


The time taken making this was well worth the effort. This may be the first top I have made where practically every seam matches, points are precise and strips that are supposed to be vertical or horizontal are straight. This is amazing given the complexity of the top. I took my time; I started working on it in late September. The picture does not do this quilt justice. The colors are very rich and beautiful. This is the best quilt I've made since I began this hobby in September 2008. At the risk of boasting, I am quite proud of it. 


The last top I made is an O'Brien original. I will post a picture later, when I have the proper lighting. It's just a little wall hanging, but I did develop the idea, find images online for the templates and did the embellishing with crystals and buttons. I spent entirely too much money having this one quilted and won't do this again.


I am completely committed to learn how to do free motion quilting so I can quilt some of these smaller tops I make. Given the economy and what's going on here at O'Brien Manor (with DH's health situation), I need to economize wherever I can. Between these three Christmas quilts, I spent about $300 having them quilted. Yikes, that's a lot of money!!! I am taking an online free motion quilting workshop which I hope will help me learn this skill.


I have a couple of quilting goals for 2012 besides learning how to free motion quilt. I want to continue to direct my time to making art quilts. I would also like to learn how to do foundation piecing, something I've not done yet. There is a great project I found in a magazine that I'm going to tackle to learn this.


In early 2012, my friend, Mary, and I are launching our business, Paws4Purpose. I will be blogging more about this as we get closer to our "go live" date. Hoping to eek out some $$$ from this little effort, but mostly it's about helping protect pets. The picture below is of Mary (right) with Breezy and me with our adorable, wonderful BoBo (aka 'Boris'). I love this picture because of the way Boris is looking at Breezy. It's so, so cute.

Wishing you, Dear Readers, a wonderful, love-filled Christmas and New Year. 

Onward The O'Brien family goes into 2012 with hope, optimism and faith.