(Amazon image)

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How About an Irish Chain Quilt for St. Patrick’s Day?

 
May this be a special day for you. 

We have been enjoying Valentine’s Day flowers, cards and candy.  This was a fun day at school yesterday with the Valentine parties.  Today the children in our household are enjoying it, too.

Have you been busy making any quilting and patchwork decorations for Valentine’s Day celebrations?

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Happy Valentine’s Day from Quilting & Patchwork

Flowers for Valentine Teas

What Are You Planning for Valentine’s Day?

Perhaps your quilting group is getting together and will exchange quilting/fabric art ideas.  Have you made some quilted Valentine’s Day decorations (hearts and flowers) to share?

My daughter and her fiber art friends planned their gathering last week and organized their latest Round Robin venture.  Each year they partipate in something different.  (I’ll tell you more about this in another post.)

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Are You Planning a Quilters’ Valentine’s Day Tea?

Why not create a fabric postcard or piece of fabric art that depicts a valentiine’s journey from you to a recipient?  It could incorporate many aspects of the day or the actual trip made by the card as it travels by land and/or by air.

What kind of valentine fabric art projects do you create? 

(Century Novelty image at Amazon)

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A Valentine’s Journey – In Quilting & Writing

Mother had been a school teacher and held parties for her students.  Even though she was no longer taught after we four children were born (school districts were very reluctant to hire married teachers, particularly ones with children, in those days), she introduced us to many of the activities she’d enjoyed with her students.  She also cooked special foods for Valentine’s Day, midst her busy day of mom and farm wife duties.

• Mother decorated a cake with white frosting and red hearts.  When we were old enough, sister and I did this.
• She helped us children decorate a mail box for our cards.
• We had a family fun time making and addressing valentines for family members.  When we were in school we had exchanges there, too.
• Mother planned a special night meal for Valentine’s Day, with the cake and fruit for dessert.  There was only our family…four children, Mother, Father and the hired man…but we had a joyous time.
• We made decorations to hang around the kitchen (the warmest room in our farmhouse during winter), and name cards for each place setting.

I continued this when our daughter was small and now we have Valentine’s Day celebrations with the grandchildren.

What do you do for Valentine’s Day at your house?

(Amazon image)

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Valentine’s Day Parties for Quilters & Kids

• Becoming involved in new projects
• Workshops you’d like to attend
• Workshops you’d like to teach
• Trying an online workshop for the first time
• Venturing into a new type of fabric art
• Traveling to visit a quilting museum or quilt show
• Starting a quilting blog (if you don’t have one)
• Set up a store at Etsy for selling your work

Do you have anything in mind that I haven’t mentioned?

(PartyCheap.com image)

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Happy New Year’s from Mary Emma at Quilting & Patchwork

However, when you come indoors, or live in snow free climes, you might sit and quilt, as I did with my grandmother, or my daughter and granddaughter do.  My daughter often sat beside me as I sewed quilts for customers and would practice stitching her pieces together.  (Now she’s become an expert fabric artist and designer.)

What projects might you undertake?

• Potholders
• Patchwork toys
• Yo-yo designs
• Mixed media or fabric collages
• Inchies
• ATCs
• Fabric postcards
• Full size quilts
• Fabric gifts of various kinds

What types of quilting projects do you work on with youngsters?

(Amazon image)

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Are You Quilting With Your Youngsters During Vacation?

 She seemed to enjoy this gift, even though she had Alzheimer’s and resided in a nursing home.  She would finger the pattern and pieces and comment, “Pretty.”

 My mother-in-law asked Beth to make her a small quilt to hang on her wall.  Beth used the Ohio Star pattern because Mum grew up in that state, even though she’d spent the last 60 years of her life in New Hampshire.

Do you make quilted and fabric art gifts for the people in your life?  Share with us what you made this year (unless the person you’ve made it for reads Quilting and Patchwork, too!).

(Amazon image)

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Handmade Quilts & Fabric Art for Gifts

You may want to check them out at:

Felting

Felt Beads, Caramel Corn and a Christmas Tree

(Incidentally, we have a larger than usual Christmas tree this year, but it fits well in our living room with cathedral ceiling and looks lovely.)

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More Felted Balls

Check these interesting items out at Beth’s Meandering Threads blog.  There she gives links to tutorials on other blogs.  Right now, the balls she shows on her blog are unadorned, but in lovely colors.  However, you can add all kinds of embellishments on them.

If you’ve tried this technique, let us know what you’ve made.

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Making Felted Christmas Ornaments