A 101 years ago one of my best friends taught me to quilt. Her grandmother quilted, as did her mother, as did she. I admired all of their handiwork as well as those countless women I never knew, but either lovingly touched their quilts or bought their quilts to keep my young family warm.
At the time I was living in the Midwest in a somewhat country environment and surrounded by Amish communities. I took every chance I could get to venture out to fall weekend festivals and obscure antique shops 'just looking' for quilts.
When I decided I wanted to try sewing one myself, I labored over the calico choices in the fabric store ~ literally labored as I was expecting my second child! With primary colored calico selections, 'Garden Green' green for the sashing, fluffy white batting and thread and needles, I was prepared for my first quilting lesson. I had also decided upon the relatively simple nine patch pattern and the size of a baby quilt.
I completed it all by hand; it blanketed my youngest and it has moved with me and is now safely stored, but readily available as needed for any visiting baby grand. (I tried a few additional quilts, with varied success.)
Needless to say, I was delighted when Stampin' Up! introduced the Quilted Christmas Suite. It is the first suite shown in your Holiday Catalog, and it was the very first holiday item I purchased!
DSP and ink for fabric ~ framelits for templates ~ paper trimmer for scissors ~ snail for thread...
Choosing the pattern is simple, but the 'fabrics,' well that's still a little labor intensive, only because I love it all. But, I can have it all! With all of the items in the suite, I can stitch, quilt and even applique.
I particularly like this sweet and joyful font!
As always, I look to the many talented demonstrators and crafters online and in my cyber communities, my upline and downline and the catalog for inspiration and a starting point. The combination of talented artists and SU materials always equals success.
I have many more Christmas cards to make with this suite, but the incredible beauty of this suite is that it does not have to be ~ should not be ~ limited to Christmas! I used it for Thanksgiving:
And I copied a design that I thought was interesting and not particularly holidayish:
Can you see that needle and thread? Created with die cuts and the coordinating framelits.
This is just too much fun!!
Although you can use this suite of products all year long, the products are only available through the end of this year!! Join the fun and we can create a virtual quilting bee!
