Holiday Quilting

I finished three quilts before Thanksgiving. The first was a bargello pattern. This one went together very fast; I added a pieced border for more interest. These were fabrics that my niece selected from my bin of 2-1/2 inch strips when we went up to Tennessee for a visit last August.



I call this one 'Videogames' because it reminds me of the Pac-Man screen. This herringbone pattern came from the book Modern Quilt Magic by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. It looks a little like a log cabin pattern, but the construction was different. It went together like a puzzle with partial seams, building down and back up to the side in columns.



This is the second time I've made this pattern from Making Quilts by Kathy Doughty (I gave away the other quilt). I like the energy and balance of the pattern.



I decided not to start any more new quilts this year, so I've been focusing on working on a few unfinished projects. This string diamond quilt was started a few years back. It was inspired by patterns in Kaffe Fassett's Simple shapes, Spectacular Quilts.



I finished the quilt top, but wasn't satisfied with it, so rather than quilting it, I put it away. I wanted the large diamond shapes to be more defined, but I didn't want to rip the quilt top apart to add borders to them. I finally decided to applique thin purple strips on top to define the diamonds without deconstructing the quilt. I pieced a backing for this quilt, but it won't get basted until next year. There isn't enough floor space in the living room for basting with the Christmas tree up, and I really haven't even begun to consider how I want to quilt it.