I'm ahead of the game

or really, really behind. I prefer to think that I'm ahead; it's the glass half-full, positive spin I try to put on things. I started this quilt in 1995 (I think). The pattern name was "Snowman Collector" but I changed it; "Holiday" sounded much better to me. It was a block of the month from a LQS that has since gone out of business and was the first BOM that I ever did. Sorry about the photo quality; I really must find a better place to take photos of the larger quilts. This is one of the quilts I quilted on my domestic sewing machine. The blocks have a meander behind the applique and then I used clear thread and stitched just inside the applique. The sashings are quilting with a medium meander that pauses now and then for a mitten (that's because the backing is a mitten fabric). The blue and the red borders are meandered but the tree border is quilted with replicas of the pieced trees. I really had fun quilting this one.

I did try something new when I bound this quilt. I used Ricky Tims' technique of adding piping to the binding, but I used a rick-rak that matched that outer red border and the binding instead of piping. It turned out pretty well and I think I might try that technique again. The funny thing about his technique is that when I first started quilting I added binding (minus the piping) just his way and then I discovered Harriet Hargrave's technique of one really long binding strip and sewing off the corner that I absolutely love. I guess we go full circle don't we? What was once old is new again.