Two of my favorite words: merry and joy. And that was my Christmas wish - that it might be merry and filled with joy. Sometimes, honestly, it wasn't that merry for me due to high expectations and limited time and energy resources. But I'll talk about that in another post. Most of the time, Christmas was wonderful, and of course I was filled with joy at having family here including a newly-married son and (darling) daughter-in-law.
This is the little wall hanging that I started last year, nearly finished this year, and hopefully will have quilted and embellished by next year. Yes, I'm on the three-year plan when it comes to some projects.
When I started my quilt in the fall of 2011, I didn't even know who designed it - it was just a mystery quilt at the new quilt shop in town. I had fun with the mystery quilt concept - you get a section of the quilt in kit form once per week for four to six weeks. As you finish each section, you return to the shop to pick up the next section/kit. You also don't know what the quilt will look like until the final "reveal" - this happens on the day that you pick up the last kit. It's always fun to see how the sections go together and how the borders and binding finish it.
During the past few months, I've had the privilege of working for Kim Christopherson of Kimberbell Designs - the quilt and pattern designer of this and other darling quilts. Above is her finished quilt with the ornaments, bows and tags decorating it. It was displayed at My Girlfriends Quilt Shoppe throughout December with the pattern available for purchase. If you love it, you can also get a downloadable PDF version of the pattern through Kim's website You Can Make This.com.
Pretty soon my quilt will look like hers - in the meantime, I'm just enjoying seeing it hanging on the wall above my wonderful blue chest in my back entryway - at least for another week.
