Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Carolina Christmas

Merry Christmas, Snow and Wind-Up for the Weekend Quilting


Merry Christmas!


A blizzard was predicted so instead of venturing out to my mom’s and brother’s for Christmas, my husband and I stayed home and called our families today. Looking out the front window the roads don’t seem too bad, but then I watched the weather report and last night’s storm is supposedly going to whip around and get us again.


We are considering ourselves snowed in (we could get out if we had to, but are choosing not to get out on the roads), I’m working on a couple of quilts. The pink, yellow, lavender and butterflies is Raising Cane, a Dorothy Young mystery. This is up through step 8 which is the last step posted so far. I have no idea where this is going and can’t wait to see the finished quilt.

The pink on the bottom right are my ‘bonus HST’. The dark fabric is what I’m using as my leader/ender project. They are for Oklahoma Backroads, a Bonnie Hunter quilt. I’ve got the 4-patches made and I’m 1/4 of the way through the ‘picket fence’ pieces.

Since I’m waiting on clues, I can either baste the music quilt together and start quilting it, or go back to Carolina Christmas. I finally decided that I really want to finish Carolina Christmas with the bright white instead of off white. So, I bought 6 yards of a bright white on white. I think it’s more than I need for this quilt, but since I only have the two pieces I’m saving for my redwork snowmen, I could use some WOW in my stash. I’d like to get both Carolina Christmas and Raising Cane to the top stage, so I’m leaning toward more piecing.

Tamara at tamara quilts is starting a Wind-up for the Weekend Mr. Linky to see what everyone is planing on working on over the weekend. I’m going to play along – of course it will be interesting to see what actually gets done because I’m a great one to plan one thing and do something else entirely.

Carolina Christmas – On Temporary Hold


Ok — I peeked at Clue # 3 even though I haven’t finished sewing Clue # 2. Boy am I glad I did.

Since I’m using “clear” pinks and blues, I opted for a bright white on white for the background. Thinking I needed 2 yards, I pulled everything from my boxes and just barely had enough. I thought I was going to have to cut into my snowflakes and snowmen that I’m saving for my redwork snowmen quilt. One or two strips each would still leave me enough, so I was OK with that.

However, it turns out we need more than 2 yards of background fabric, so I have to make a decision.

1 – use the creamy off white moving forward
2 – back track and remake some of Part 1 and Part 2 using the new creamy off white so there will be some bright white on white to use in the rest of the parts
3 – get over it and go buy some more bright white on white to finish the quilt (I still don’t have enough using all of the snowflake and snowmen fabrics)
4 – toss in the towel and use what I’ve made for something else.

I’m stubborn so #4 isn’t an option. In fact last night and DH and were discussing my options, that was nixed right away. #3 really isn’t an option since I want this to be from my stash and I don’t want to buy any more fabric this year. So that leaves #1 and #2.

Until I see the quilt put together I won’t know which way I want to go. In the end who knows what I’ll end up doing. But I have learned something. I need to focus on gathering some ‘shirting’ type fabrics — light backgrounds with bits and pieces of color.

Can’t wait to see Bonnie’s finished quilt.

What’s On My Design Wall? – 11/30


Judy said she cheated since her picture was from Sunday. The SBS Blue & Brown swap blocks may be on the wall, but they are not what I’m currently working on.

I’m working on Carolina Christmas. Part 1 is complete and I’m half way through and I’m now cutting the large “green” triangles. (My gold is green and my green is blue. My red will be pink).

Carolina Christmas – Part 1

Part 1 of Carolina Christmas was finished this evening. As I’ve checked out the pictures of what others are doing, I’m drawn to those that have scrappy backgrounds with tiny prints. This year my goal was to gather black prints – tone on tone, or prints on black backgrounds since I virtually wiped out my blacks when I made Orange Crush. I think next year, I’ll be looking for tiny prints on light colored backgrounds. Either that or start haunting the thrift stores for shirts. I simply need to remind myself that even if I have to pay “full price”, it’s still cheaper than a FQ at the LQS.

Now off to work on Part 2.