Christmas Quilts

I was surprised and thrilled to be contacted by Virginia Oglesbee through this website. She told me that she had a copy of my book, Christmas Patchwork Projects, originally published in 1986 by Sterling Publishers. Here is the Christmas quilt I made to feature in that book (with Jack posing proudly in front of it).

Virginia told me that two of her friends had made quilts using the patterns in my book, and I asked her to send some photos. This gorgeous quilt was made by Fran Szabo.

And here is Fran in the photo below. Fran hand quilted the whole quilt and embellished some of the blocks with embroidery. The dog is black, as they have a black Labrador. She personalized the quilt in many other ways too. It hangs in her living room at Christmas time and if you drive past her house, you can see it from the street. I love the extra narrow green border she added and the poinsettia basket, which wasn't included in my quilt.

The next one is by Catherine Lewis. Her quilt guild had a friendship quilt block exchange and she chose my patterns and supplied the fabrics for the blocks with instructions for completion, so in essence, this one is a group effort. She said she wished she had put the names of the makers on the blocks. Catherine told me, "My quilt was made about 1990 and was a friendship exchange.  Various members of our quilt guild made blocks for me when it was my turn with fabric I provided.  I was a novice quilter and borrowed your book from a friend who helped me plan the quilt.  I had it machine quilted so that I could have it done in time for Christmas."

I am looking at my own quilt as I type this, and am so pleased to see that these ladies did exactly what I had hoped quilters would do when they bought my book: choose their favourite designs and interpret them in their own fabrics and colours rather than copying exactly what I had done. This makes the quilts uniquely their own. I am bursting with pride to see these wonderful pieces. If anyone else has made a Christmas quilt or any other project using my book, please contact me! I'd love to see it.

Oh, and Virginia tells me: "So now I guess I am going to have to make one also as I have acquired the book (on eBay). Maybe we will start a Christmas quilt revival!" Thanks, Virginia, and I look forward to seeing YOUR quilt!