Finally, Finally

At last it's here! My love of letters and letter forms has finally gotten me into print. Well yes, it's in someone else's book, but there's my name, and there's my Four Letter Words quilt in a genuine book, Word Play Quilts, by the fabulous UnRuly Quilter herself, Tonya Ricucci.






What a Christmas gift!

The genesis of my involvement with Tonya and her book was way back in mid-2008, when I took part in a letter-y challenge issued by Tonya on her blog. She sent sets of pieced LOVE blocks out to participants and we had to do something with them. My something became very big and out of control. I started piecing letters and words and could barely contain myself.




This quilt was also a great excuse to cut into those letter print fabrics I'd been hoarding collecting for years.



The result was Four Letter Words, which has appeared on this blog a number of times now, and was such fun to make, it just about poured out of me.




When Tonya began work on her book, she asked if my quilt could be a part of it, and so in January of 2010, I swallowed hard and mailed Four Letter Words off into the great beyond.

It was gone for 10 and a half months.

In the last year this quilt has been to places I've never been--to the Washington State offices of Martingale Publishing, and to this past fall's Houston Quilt market. And look--it's being held here by the gorgeous Tonya herself.


I've never set foot in Washington State or and my only acquaintance with Texas is several stressful hours at the Houston airport. Clearly this quilt has way more of a life than I do.

But Tonya's book! it's WONDERFUL!

I'm beyond delighted to have been a part of this project.


When I started my wordy quilt, I printed out all Tonya's tutorials that had been housed at the Quiltville site and set them up in a loose-leaf binder.

The binder can now be retired. The book includes all the great how-tos and tons of pictures of the applications of free-pieced lettering. Such a great technique--those of us who are not applique people now have an easy and fun way to add some wordy goodness to our quilts. Word Play Quilts will be a great reference for my next word quilt. And there will be a next one.

Such fun!

A Present Unmasked

My main Christmas project gift has now been received by its designated recipients, so it's safe to blog about it: an Irish Chain Christmas tree skirt. Blogging about process is all well and good, but unfortunately, I couldn't share the process of this piece without spilling the beans!



You know how it is--anything for your kids. My own tree has been without a proper skirt for...oh, a decade or so. But when my daughter said she'd love a tree skirt, good ol' Mom swung into action. A heavy-duty country look wasn't what was wanted, so I used solid red and white to give the traditional Irish Chain a sharper edge for an urban apartment and its somewhat spare look.

Spare decor = not a single transferware plate hanging on a wall anywhere. And what's with that, anyway? What kind of a house is that? Not Mom's house, obviously. LOL

Anyway, I pieced the top in a fast weekend; it was a breeze to put together. This is the pattern I used.

The quilting took a few evenings--just a squiggly meander, done on my Bernina with red 40 wt. rayon.


I considered a red and white striped binding but didn't have enough of any of the ten or so red striped fabrics in my stash. So I stayed with the solids. The backing is a fun holiday print.



It seemed to need a closure of some kind, and I just happened to have one or two cute vintage-y red buttons on hand.


And other family members seem to approve.


So the tree skirt is happy now in its new home. But y'know--spare look or not, it would blend in very well with my houseful of antiques and more traditional furnishings. I may be making a couple more of these.