Dear Santa

Oh no, not another wonky houses quilt. Yes it is, and too late, you've already looked at it. Mwa ha ha ha. This is about the last one. Really. This is Dear Santa, made in August thru December of 2001.

I really liked the curvy stripe fabric, plus a snowman fabric that I thought would be part of the border too, but simply looked awful and didn't. I cut the fabric so that the stripes all ran up and down in the borders.

The free-pieced letters say "Dear Santa, we've been good" and the quilting in the red areas says "hint, hint."

This next house shows you a detail of the presents fabric that surrounds the words.

Trees are even easier to make than houses.

I'm showing this next one to encourage ya'all to just draw something out and quilt it. I think people sometimes have a tendency to say "oh, I can't draw" and not even try. Well look at this sleigh being pulled by one reindeer. That's a stick figure reindeer alright, but you knew what it was, right? You just have to TRY and practise a few times. Draw it on paper until you get comfortable and then use something temporary to draw on the fabric.

here are words quilted in with all six strands of embroidery floss so that they're thicker and bolder.

I've gotten a lot of quilting done on Noel - I'm all the way into the border. I'd have gotten more done today except that I had to read a book for awhile so that Pokey could lie on my lap. I'm trying to plow through Sandra Mackey's "The Iranians" - a country and people I'm fascinated by, but this is a bit more detail than I need. Sixth century poetry, bleck.

Did I tell ya'all that we watched a couple more of our Christmas movies on Saturday? "Desk Set" - the best movie Tracey and Hepburn ever made together - the two of them are so magnetic and funny. The ability of the 1957 computer to directly answer questions is a laugh. Can't even really do that now. The other film was "Catch Me If You Can" - one of Steven Spielberg's best (nothing too treacly and sweet) plus some of the funnest retro credits ever.