Q62 – Christmas Quilt – Moon Racer

Evening,

Moon Racer is our final and fifth quilt of our PJs and Packages Series.

This quilt incorporates all of the fabrics I introduced in My Quip – Christmas is Coming – PJs & Packages on August 2. A further discussion of the initiation and development of this original quilt is posted in My Quip – Fuyudori and Moon Racer on August 3. And here is the final product.

The dimensions of Moon Racer are – Length – 73” (185.4 cms) by Width – 62” (157.5 cms). We used everyone of the fabrics in this quilt that we used in all of the previous four PJs and Packages quilts. The backing is a golden-beige variegated fabric and the quilting is a star pattern.

And is there a story to Moon Racer? Sort of. As Fuyudori is a Japanese word used for describing migratory birds, I was also thinking of Christmas and Santa Claus and Rudolf and flight patterns… all on a Christmas Eve. I heard, what I thought was “King Moon Racer” in the song “The Island of Misfit Toys”… and I pictured Santa Claus in his sleigh silhouetted in front of the moon racing to get all his deliveries completed. You know where I’m going. Actually King Moon Racer is a winged lion who travels the globe each night searching for unwanted toys.

The following are images of close ups and the backing.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please get in touch with me at our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Je tu remercie Madame Marie, pour l'utilisation de ton boudoir.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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Q61 – Christmas Quilt – Christmas Packages II

Time left

Morning,

Number four quilt is Christmas Packages II. Christmas Packages II is the exact same original design as Christmas Packages I.

And the difference is? The fabrics. Christmas Packages II is constructed with the green PJ toy fabric, a deep red plaid material, and a café-au-lait backing. Again it is a geometric design using 6- and 3-inch squares. The quilting is done in a scalloped pattern with off-white thread.

The dimensions of Christmas Packages II are – Width – 59 ½” (151.1 cms) by Length – 70 ½” (179.1 cms).

The following are images of close ups and the backing.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please get in touch with me at our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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Q60 – Christmas Quilt – Christmas Packages I

Afternoon,

Number three quilt, Christmas Packages I of our PJs & Packages Series is completed. My apologies for taking some time getting back online. A number of our readers have been asking if we had given up making quilts. My PC was just returned from the shop, and by-the-by there is far too much fabric in this house that all needs to be made into quilts.

The idea of Christmas Packages I, as well as Christmas Packages II, is based on playing with and manipulating 3-inch and 6-inch squares. The intent was to use the PJs and Packages fabric as mentioned in My Quip.

Using my Corel X5 software I just started moving the two size squares around until graphically I came up with something that I thought may work. It does and it did. So began the construction of Christmas Packages I. And then the “Aha!” moment… The concept for Christmas Packages II came into focus. I describe Christmas Packages II more fully in my next Posting.

As you can see from the images there are only three fabrics used in Christmas Packages I; the blue PJ toy material, the beige-y Christmas plaid fabric and a sort–of cream-mottled backing. The dimensions of Christmas Packages I are: Length – 70 1/2” (179.1 cms) and Width – 58 ½” (148.6 cms). Our quilting is a simple criss-cross design of a cream/beige colored thread. The colors are of a subtle Christmas.

Here are some images of close ups and the backing. Thanks to Marie for allowing us to use her studio for the photos.

Stay tuned for Christmas Packages II and Moon Racer. Check out earlier My Quips for additional information. All fabric used in the PJs and Packages Series was obtained from Fabric.com.

Just a quick note – we’ve begun our new series, OP Noel.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please get in touch with me at our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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Q59 – Christmas Quilt – Isle of The Misfit Toys

Evening,

Here’s the second quilt, Isle of The Misfit Toys, of our PJs & Packages Series. (Photo: © Classic Media)

Once again this is an original design, sort-of. It is based, and a variation on the tried and true quilt block, Whirlwind.

And why, Isle of The Misfit Toys? Obviously, Rudolph, but when cutting the squares of the PJ fabric some of the toys suffered a wee bit of incidental amputations. (See my July 27 Quip.) The composition of the overall quilt provides that instance of completion and satisfaction.

Our Isle of The Misfit Toys, second in the PJs & Packages Series has the dimensions: Length – 79” (200.7 cms); Width – 71 ½” (181.6 cms).

And here are some close-ups and images of the backing.

Stay tuned for Christmas Packages I, Christmas Packages II, and Moon Racer. Check out earlier My Quips for additional information. All fabric used in the PJs and Packages Series was obtained from Fabric.com.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please get in touch with me at our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Enjoy,

Jim

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Q58 – Christmas Quilt – PJs & Packages

Only 132 days ‘til Christmas…

Morning,

It is August. The countdown has begun. Only 132 days, 14 hours, and 40 minutes ‘til Christmas… but who’s counting. I am. You are.

As promised, today we are presenting the first of our 2010 Christmas Quilts, our PJs & Packages Series. And sure enough, number one quilt of this series is titled PJs & Packages. The fabrics remind me somewhat of Christmas pajamas, as well as the paper wrappings strewn all around the living room.

The dimensions of PJs and Packages are: Width – 59 ½” (151 cms); Length – 70 ½” (179 cms). This is an original quilt and the idea, looking at it from above, is a geometric rendition of a two-dimensional decorated Christmas tree. My idea must have originated from looking at too many Google 2D maps.

Here are the close-ups of the front and back. Please note that colors in the images may vary online.

Stay tuned for the Isle of The Misfit Toys, Christmas Packages I, Christmas Packages II, and Moon Racer. Check out earlier My Quips for additional information. All fabric used in the PJs and Packages Series was obtained from Fabric.com.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please get in touch with me at our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

And thank you, Marie.

Enjoy,

Jim

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My Quip – Quilts In Progress – Fuyudori and Moon Racer

Afternoon,

I was asked how do we, that is Andy and I, work on a quilt without getting in each other’s way. And believe it or not there is a very simple response. We seem to work at two different ends of the spectrum. Both ends appear to complement each other.

For an example our next quilt, the fifth one of the PJs & Packages Series began from two different directions. One direction stems from the choice of fabrics. You can see samples of those fabrics for our PJs & Packages Series in My Quip, yesterday.

Four ideas, that is, four quilts were and are being worked on. Two are done and two are at the stage of being “sandwiched”. The fifth began with an idea from Kumiko Sudo’s book East Quilts West which was published in 1993.

In my review of Kumiko Sudo’s book there is a block pattern named Fuyudori – Migratory Birds of which I thought would be a good possibility for the foundation block of a quilt. I reconstructed the block and tweaked and calibrated the expected dimensions. I created the new quilt specifications using my reconstructed Fuyudori block and the PJs & Packages fabric. I entered the reconstructed block pattern into Electric Quilt; EQ7. The patterns were completed. I then printed out the patterns and templates for Andy to begin the construction.

In the meantime, after listening to the Rudolf The Reindeer, The Island of Misfit Toys video, (see My Quip Posting), I chanced upon the phrase “King Moon Racer”. Voila, the title of the next quilt of the PJs & Packages Series, Moon Racer.

Having cut out all the pieces, Andy began the construction part of the blocks. Each block should be 16-inch square; 40.64 centimeters square.

And then the issue. It appears that one part is off by 1/8th of an inch… 0.3175 centimeters. That’s one hell of a fraction to be off; in most cases it could be ignored. But understand that’s eight one-eighth of an inch off, or one whole inch for each block. That is one hell of an error.

Andy was very calm about it. I was blasting the software. I then examined Kumiko Sudo’s Fuyudori’s pattern against our own. Whereas I had tried to match points to points, her pattern was not at all set at point-to-point. I felt like taking some sort of flight pattern with some noisy migratory birds.

And then Andy fixed the block… Each of the offending pieces has been shaved, that is, cut by 1/8th of an inch. The fix works. Construction on Moon Racer continues.

Stay tuned. I will Posting the quilts of our PJs & Packages Series shortly.

Enjoy.

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My Quip - Quilts in Progress - Christmas Is Coming - PJs & Packages

Afternoon,

Well it is August 2nd. The stores have had their Christmas-in-July sales. Check out our Christmas Quilts here at Quilts SB and at Quilts SB Etsy. I have added a new Christmas Quilt Section at the Quilts SB Site. Find the Christmas Quilts upper link in the right-hand corner of the Quilts SB Etsy Site.

And that gets me now to announcing our first 2010 Christmas series – PJs & Packages.

The above inserted image is a depiction of the seven main fabrics we are using in the creation and construction of the PJ & Packages quilts. When I first decided to use these fabrics I really questioned myself that I could come up with some good designs. I think you may be surprised. I am.

The toys and plaid fabrics are from the Jolly Ol Saint Nick collection by Susan Winget through Benartex, The holly on black background is A Call to Joy by Danhui Nai from Wilmington Prints. The holly on red background, my apologies, I cannot find anything excepting a 100% cotton pattern #.15924. Both holly fabrics were used in some previous quilts, Christmas Holly & Coins, Noel Green Coins, and Noel Red Coins.

Stay-tuned and watch out for the first of our PJ & Packages Quilts.

Enjoy,

Jim

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