Feels Like Christmas!

People think it never gets cold in southern California, but I live in the High Desert at about 2700 foot elevation, where it can get below freezing most nights in the winter. So I braved the mall yesterday afternoon in search of glove and scarf sets for some of my friends who live locally and fling themselves out in the early morning hours to get a head start on that 10,000 steps we're all supposed to be taking every day to keep our hearts healthy.

It made my heart happy to see all the decorations and to see people shopping again! There were a lot of people in the mall, some with bags and some without, but it was comforting to see the crowds and listen to the excited talk as shoppers looked over the merchandise and made their decisions. The prices were also very good; lots of things on sale.

When I got home, I made a cup of tea and rummaged through my stack of quilts to find the Christmas quilt that I like to have on my bed during the holidays. It's always toward the bottom of the pile because it's too big to carry around with me on my travels. I usually take it if I am able to drive to a guild or shop, but it's way too heavy to ship.

Of course, it's pink! The first fabric chosen was the poinsettia print and then everything else was picked to go with it. My friend, Renee Artim, pieced this quilt and gave it to me as a holiday gift in 2000. Renee and I worked together for about 3 years; she did all of the pinning up of quilt tops that I quilted for customers. She would also do bindings, put on borders -- whatever our customers at Batts in the Attic needed that wasn't the actual quilting.

Here's a close-up of one of the snowball blocks; they are quilted identically with a poinsettia inside of a feathered wreath. Both were done using the trapunto by machine technique. The feather is sewn with a soft white rayon thread, the poinsettia with a pink rayon thread.

The border was also sewn with a pink rayon thread for both the trapunto feather work and the background stippling.

Hate to leave this a teaser, but the quilt is too big to open and get a full shot -- it is 90" x 104". Since we will be gone over the holidays, I'm debating whether to put it on the bed or to leave it where it is, draped over a stair rail so that we can see it from downstairs.

It's beginning to look like Christmas around here!