Tuesday, April 24, 2012

And the year comes to an end....

And, finally, here are the last three months of wallhangings.  Previous posts on these monthly wallhangings by Nancy Halvorsen are here, here, and here.
The October wallhanging of "be forgiving" has a bit of history.  My niece-the-quilter had a dog that was really a family dog and loved by all of us.  One day, while visiting, Baxter's treat didn't set well with him and he managed to find relief in one of my favorite pair of blue shoes.  It's definitely a bit of a family joke and this wallhanging was made with Baxter in mind.  He was brownish with terrier in him and the shoe is obviously blue.  His nose was a button that had to be specially ordered and the buttons for the tabs are from my grandmother's button jar.  RIP, Baxter.
November would obviously have a Thanksgiving theme and I love the harvest bounty theme and the oak leaves as wings -- not to mention the crooked halo.  The "berries" are more antique buttons that needed a good scrubbing!  I like her....
I love the message of "joy" for December.  This santa's beard is slightly padded with cotton batting for a bit of depth.  His suit and hat were actually scraps that I saved from years ago when my niece-the-quilter had created a strata from a number of red fabrics in my stash.  She was making a stocking for her boyfriend and when you make a stocking with fabrics at an angle, you have to make a pretty big piece of "fabric".  So, obviously, Aunt Jan saved the bits - knowing there would be a time to use them.  And, magically, here it was years later and was going to be on her mom's wall every December.  I like the scrappiness of his hat and suit and LOVE that it was done by a young woman who was not yet a quilter....but certainly is now!

I've said this before and I'll close this series of posts with it.  I love these but there are only a handful of people that I would have done this for.  My sister is obviously one!  The quilt out of these blocks is darling and would have been a bit easier as I had to resize some of these to make them around 15" x 18" (+/-).  Her instructions are easy to follow and I'd definitely do another one of her quilts at some point.

I hope there are special people in your life that you enjoy sharing your art with!  Jan

1 comment:

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

What great wall hangings! Cute story to go with the Be Forgiving wallhanging!