I had the pleasure of quilting these two delightful tree skirts for Eileen.
Eileen actually made the first one for herself! Quilters always seem to be last on their lists so I love it when they tell me one is for them. The pattern is from McCall's Quilting Nov/Dec 2019 and it called Little Red Truck. We decided to use freehand "3 and Es" for the background and ditch stitching around the truck.
The trucks will be getting black buttons for wheels. Eileen marked the centre circle and where she was going to cut the opening before she sent the top so I was able to stitch lines in those areas to give her a nice clean edge for binding.
The second tree skirt was published in Quiltmaker Nov/Dec 2019 and is called Bear-y Christmas. I give Eileen extra credit for getting this one together. Eileen and I were attending the same retreat when she was working on this one. She was toiling away when she came to realize that half of the paper piecing templates were printed in reverse so the blocks couldn't go together without a lot of extra work and remaking. She had the support of many quilty friends so we talked through the simplest solutions (besides chucking the whole thing in the garbage). Eileen reversed the templates by tracing them on the back of the paper while holding them up against a window. (Eileen emailed Quiltmaker about the error, but to date there are no corrections on their website.)
This tree skirt is a gift for special family members who reside in Nunavut . We dedicated to use Quilter's Dream Puff batting, and I love the loft that it gives the bear. I was originally planning on stitching around the scarf, but didn't want the bears to look like they were being strangled so I changed my plan while it was on the frame.
I love being able to add personal touches to quilting projects for my clients. Eileen and I decided to add an Inukshuk in between the bears. This was modeled after the Inukshuk that appears on the Nunavut flag.
This is going to make one pretty special gift don't you think?
The Inukshuk, showing the way, the bears stand out so well with that batting, and what a delightful gift with a special meaning.
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