Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Quilted Christmas tree

Funny story...a quilting contest and a fabric shop was the sponser. The
rules stated it had to be a 30 x 30 inch square...had to be made with
the 5 fabrics in the contest pack and 2 of your own. You could use front
and back of the fabric...which gives 5 fabrics the look of 10.

Long story short, I found out about the contest late, and after ordering
the contest fabric was only gonna have 30 days left for submission. So
while waiting for fabrics to arrive I started sketching out ideas. Knew
what I was gonna sew when fabrics arrived. But the colors were like
boring...fortunately all the other entrants were stuck with the same
boring. I knew working the colors were not gonna be key...it was gonna
be technique. So I threw out a few ideas and decided to go simpler. I
ordered more of the green and gray...the rest of the required
colors...didn't need extra.

And I made the quilt you see in the pic. Everything I ever learned in
origami and 3d folding ...translated that to the cloth. Submitted that
to the contest. I wasn't expecting to win or anything...I just wanted to
enter. I figured it would be home by Christmas...no big whoop...and
would serve as our tree. Our big tree was in a storage unit across town,
so no one wanted to go digging it out.

Well...it took honorable mention and was displayed, in the store that
sponsored the contest, for a year. But for Christmas...no tree. So the
kids made a tree out of construction paper...and taped it in a corner
touching both walls...so it would have an "under" and that was the tree
for that year.

When my contest quilt was returned the next fall, I had nearly forgot
about it and we had bought a mini tree. So mom hung the quilt on the
valance over the divan table. Said "small gifts can go here" haha to
which we all giggled and said "ya, right."

Well here we are, 5 Christmas seasons later, went to get the Christmas
stuff out and that's when I realized...the Christmas quilt is still
hanging there...we haven't taken it down in all this time.

The quilt is all cotton, poly batting, silk thread, 30 x 30 inch square.
The ornaments are 3d, the star, the tree pot, gifts, etc. At some point
there will be lights added...I seen these cute multicolored
buttons...look like Christmas lights. The quilted "garland"
sections...gonna go over that with this wonderful silver thread I found.
This year ...when it's time to sew on a new ornament...I'm gonna take
the time to check the existing ornaments and gifts to see if they need
any maintenance.

Anyway...here are the pics.
~Lakaya~
http://purplebutterfly-peepla.blogspot.com
~ http://AptitudesUnlimited.artfire.com ~
:: http://peepla.etsy.com ::

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