Bramble Blooms and Christmas Stockings

 I have a tentative lay out for my Bramble Blooms center panel. I am so unsure! This is so out of my comfort zone of following a pattern. I am looking for some feedback What do you think? I added the bird ( a sparrow) for the scriptures Matthew 10:29-31 and Luke 12:6-7. 

Everything just pinned in place for now.

Now that I finished the Christmas stockings for my grandson and his family I can spend some time catching up on my applique projects.

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

Bramble Blooms and Other News

Big news around here! My husband got hearing aids! What a difference! He is "profoundly" deaf in his right ear according to the audiologist and almost as bad in his left. It is so much easier to communicate with each other now and the TV isn't up to 50 on the sound. Life is so much better!

Other news, my husband purchased me an electric chainsaw. Now I can trim up firewood myself, if it will not fit into the wood stove. I have wanted one for quite awhile. 

Another type of rotary cutter!

My first wood I cut all on my own! Three pieces that were too large for the stove so I sawed them in half. Hubby was there to help me for my first time running it.

I am trying to keep up with everyone that has joined with Audrey's QAL Bramble Blooms. I think there are 25 of us so far. It is going to be so fun to see everyone's creations. You can read more about it on Audrey's blog HERE

I am working on my floral centerpiece, I looked through a lot of my applique books for ideas, on line, Pinterest., so many ideas out there. I also looked through Audrey's blog posts, at many of her quilts for inspiration. Her creativity astounds me! Her quilts are just so wonderful. 

 Then I read Jeanne's blog Schottosche-A Creative Journal and she is naming her three quilts in the series Morning, Noon, and Night. Here is a  LINK to her blog. That got me thinking! My quilts will be Faith, Hope, and Love. That helped narrow down the choices for the flowers. I looked up flowers and their meanings, there are a lot of different opinions on this subject, but chose what I liked.  For my first quilt "Faith" I have chosen the Lily of the Field and the mustard plant. The Lily referencing Matthew 6: 25-34 and the mustard plant referencing Matthew 17:20. 

I  have no idea of Audrey's plan, but I will be adding words to this quilt, I know she does that quite often on her quilts. There will be a birds too. I am going to free cut the applique shapes as Audrey explained  in her post. I think it will be fun to try this new technique.

My sketch, my applique may not be exactly like this, I plan to free cut the applique pieces. That is something new for me. I may change the bird and its position.

Center panel sewn. It is 25" x 25" which gives me room to play with the applique pieces, I can trim it down later.

Fabrics for the applique

And there was some of this going on too. No grass to mow this time of year but plenty of snow to blow!

Happy Quilting, Rebecca