Christmas is Coming! I used to go all out with decorating, take all the pictures down off my walls and hang up my large collection of Christmas quilts. It would take me three days to decorate the house between the tree and all the quilt hangings. Well, my days of wanting to spend three days decorating are done. I have given away most of my quilts to a non quilting friend who was just thrilled and loves them (I think she left them up well into spring the first year she had them). But I still have a few of my favorite ones. The above and below quilts are small table cloths, I just really like how contrasty they are.
This next quilt I call Wonky Christmas Trees. It is a pattern from the Buggy Barn folks and it is one of those fun quilts where you stack the three colors of fabrics and then rotate the top fabric, then the top 2 fabrics, then 3, etc etc giving it is very scrappy look. This quilt has a flannel back and is a great cuddly quilt usually thrown on the couch. 
The following Santa quilt is on my front door, I like this quilt because of it's size, perfect for a door.
The next quilt, Trees and Stars, is the first Christmas quilt I ever made. It is about 18 years old. The pattern was in a book by Sally Schneider about pieced borders. This was just a fun quilt to piece, it hangs on my dining room wall which is at the front of my house. I love seeing it thru my dining room windows when I drive home from work in these winter evenings when it already dark and the lights are on in the house, it always gives me a warm feeling.
The final quilt I take out for Christmas is the first quilt I ever made. It is over 20 years old now, the pattern is broken star. I completely hand pieced and hand quilted this quilt. This was made in the days before rotary cutters and I can remember drawing each diamond with a template I had made from some of my husband's sandpaper glued to one side of a piece of cardboard. I very boldly entered it in my local quilt guild's annual show and it won a blue ribbon in the 1st quilt category.
Christmas is coming, the first Sunday in Advent is here. I wish you all a happy holiday season and a blessed Christmas.
Happy Stitching All,
Cheri
To keep the border as densely quilted as the body of the quilt and because the border fabric is dark and would not show any quilting I just quilted some wavy, watery lines. 
quilts that were in the show. The echo quilting was just outstanding, I think it is one of the hardest types of quilting.
I also tend to migrate to the more traditional quilts
and I spotted this one way across the convention floor and liked the colors. On closer inspection I was astounded to see all these little pieced log
cabin squares, probably about 1/4 inch logs. 
called True Cut by the Grace quilting frames company. There was an electric model and a model that just required running your rotary cutter against the sharpening stones that were set in a wood block.
The Roxanne's glue people also had a new container for their glue that I use all the time in applique, it is a sort of accordion bottle and a new cap for the needle that keeps it air tight and is not suppose to need cleaning of the needle dispenser.
best of show quilt by Sharon Shamber showing her amazing quilting and applique.
This is her third best of show at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. What a talented quilter she is. 
The pictures I tried to take to show this are
all close ups, not the quilt as a whole but that feeling
of being absorbed into these colors.
I happened to catch Nancy sitting by her quilt and answering questions about the quilt and her quilt making process.
I have Pat's (and her sister Sue Nichols) book, Raw Edge Applique, and use their methods when I machine applique, I was happy she won a major award at the show using this technique.
applique and I loved the owl face fabric she managed to find for her quilt.
the fun and sewing!
Some even got their entire quilt tops completed - the over achievers.
I will end with showing you Pam's beautiful log cabin made with Kaffe Fassett's fabrics.
I feel real 
I also have been prepping a couple blocks for 
I have discovered a great method for stems when doing blanket stitch applique. Instead of tracing the shape of each stem individually onto the fusible, I iron a rectangle of the fusible material onto the back of the stem fabric on the bias. 
Then I rotary cut 1/4 inch strips off the fused stem fabric as I need them, remove the back paper and lay it on the fabric.
Because it is cut on the bias I can bend it as needed on the pattern. Easy