HOLIDAY PREPARATIONS CONTINUE

Here in Arkansas we are in the middle of full-on harvest season. Yesterday the highway was full of combines and grain trucks, and I saw my first cotton field that had been sprayed to open the bolls. Things got off to a late start, so it's a mad dash to get everything in before we get a tropical storm or some other untoward event. 

But in my quilt studio it is holiday season. I don't do a lot with fall, although I have some ideas you will see in due time. But Christmas is a huge deal. And it makes me ridiculously happy that I got this top done early enough that it may even be quilted before 2017 is over. 

I bought this as a kit several years ago when I was visiting a friend who was fortunate enough to live in a town with a lovely small quilt shop. I don't often work with kits, but this appealed to me and it wasn't frightfully expensive, so I bought it. The title is Holiday Frost and the fabrics are by Henry Glass; I don't often know that kind of stuff, but since it was a kit I do. The shop had made a couple of substitutions from the fabrics specified in the pattern but they all work together nicely.

The panels with the large ornaments are appliqued. I argued with myself for a while about how I wanted to do them, and finally decided on needle-turn applique by hand. It's been a while since I've done it and my technique is a little rusty still, but I enjoyed remembering the little tricks I've learned along the way. Finishing the applique took the most time, of course; once that was done the rest of the quilt went together very quickly. 

Now it will get set aside until I find the right backing fabric. I'm not entirely sure how I will quilt it of course, but I have ideas. I have a wild and crazy idea that I may get to use and display this quilt this year. We'll see if that actually happens.