Lynn Carson Harris: December 2015

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December 2015

December 30, 2015

Advent Tree - a collaborative effort

I've been eager to share this project with you!

Both of my grown sons always enjoyed counting down the days to Christmas on the advent tree I made when they were small. They would fight over who got to take turns putting the ornament up each day. As the sole child at home now, lucky Miss P gets to hang an ornament on the tree for 24 days! She and I decided that now that D and his new wife have their own place, they should have their own countdown tree.

P came up with the original design. She improv pieced the green tree parts all on her own.

The star tree topper in her original design ended up being a fancy button.

I built the background pieces from my neutral scraps

and put all of the parts together to make the quilt top.

The background is quilted in a breezy design and the tree quilting resembles needles or branches.

P and I worked together to make the ornaments. P made a couple of really cute beaded ornaments, aren't they great?

We also included a 2015 penny, the year of their wedding.

We didn't quite get 24 ornaments made before Christmas but we have almost a year to make the last few.

It was quite a pleasure to work with my daughter on this gift. She did a wonderful job on the design and sewing and had great fun choosing all of the buttons!
I know D and M will enjoy using this in their home next year.

Now I want to make a new tree to update the one we have been using for more than twenty years.

Posted at 08:16 AM in Needle and Thread | Permalink | Comments (6)

December 28, 2015

Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Circular Reasoning

This quilt, Circular Reasoning, uses the same idea for varied value placement as Bow Ties that I shared earlier. I chose to use a solid red for the circular pieces and solid black for the "crossing" segments. The other parts of the block vary in light medium or dark fabrics.

The variation in value placement results in a high energy quilt and keeps your eye moving.

When building the blocks I first tried a more scrappy look with a different fabric in each area of the block. I tried fabrics that read the same from a distance instead of repeating the same fabrics as I did in the finished quilt. Even with the consistent black and red there was a bit too much going on.

I like that here, with the same fabric repeated symmetrically in the block, you can see each block as its own unit.

I'd like to try this design again but keep the diagonal cross lines as a constant fabric instead of the circles.

Finished size: 60'' x 75''

The pattern and directions for Circular Reasoning can be found in chapter two of my book.

You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.

I can't compete with Amazon's low prices, but if you want to save a little and purchase from Amazon, please click here. This is an affiliate link and clicking through to purchase will allow me to earn a few extra pennies.

You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.

Posted at 08:02 AM in Every Last Piece | Permalink | Comments (3)

December 10, 2015

Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Bow Ties

Bow Ties is a quilt I finished in 1993. It is a true scrap quilt and is made with the scraps from many of my old 4-H sewing projects.

I was inspired by an antique bow ties quilt I had seen in a magazine. I love the way the placement of light and dark fabrics varied in each block and wanted to create the same energy in my own quilt.

I am glad that I took the time to make the block the traditional way with the set in seams. The square set on an angle in the center of the block really looks like a knot in the bow, especially with stripe, plaid, or checked fabrics.

This quilt is a real trip down memory lane for me. I'm having a bit of a 1970s flashback here.

My grandmother hand quilted this quilt and I gave it to my oldest son for Christmas back in 1993. I'm secretly glad that he hasn't taken it to his apartment.

Finished size 71'' by 100''.

Bow Ties can be found in the gallery section of my book.

You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.

You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.

Posted at 07:22 AM in Every Last Piece, Needle and Thread | Permalink | Comments (5)

December 09, 2015

Wordless Wednesday

Posted at 08:49 AM in Needle and Thread | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 08, 2015

On the Design Wall

Here's another in my series of 16'' quilts.

As you know, most of the quilts I've made are bed size quilts but I've found that working smaller is a great way to try out ideas without commiting to a large project.

Here's a previous post about the mini on the right.

What's on your design wall?

Posted at 10:49 AM in Needle and Thread | Permalink | Comments (2)

December 05, 2015

Modern Elegance

Miss P and I have enjoyed coloring together since she was quite small. Even in preschool, P prefered the "fancy" style coloring books and pointy colored pencils. The last couple of years we haven't spent as much time coloring as we did when she was smaller.

We jumped at the chance to review fabric designer, Amanda Murphy's, new adult coloring book, Modern Elegance.

Amanda sent us the digital version of the book. We looked through it and printed off a few of our favorite pages, broke out the big girl prismacolor pencils, and had some quality together time.

The designs in the book are line drawings of some of her fabric designs. You can look at this post on the Benartex website and see the coloring pages paired with the corresponding fabric design. How cool is that?