Christmas Celebration Gift Row

There are eight blocks to make in this fourth installment of the Shabby Fabrics Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series. Gifts are made out of these fabrics. The pale blue ornaments #23, the green snowmen #25, and the wonky red gingham #29 from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda are new to this fourth row. It is always a nice surprise to see the new additions each month.

Numbers 6&14, 4&22, 23&28, and 25&29 pairs to make four gifts, then the four pair trade positions, 14&6, 22&4, 28&23, and 29&25, for the other four gifts. I cut the eight fabrics four layers at a time, to assure cleaner cuts. I label my pieces with letters. The pattern does not assign the pieces letters, but this is a habit I use that helps me keep organized. I write the letter on the pattern and then clip it to the piece with my Alphabitties and WonderClips. A letter is easier to reference than the dimensions of a piece.

First I made up the four gifts from the 6&14 and 4&22 combinations starting with the upper portion of the bow on the top of the gift. These went really quick. The cut off corners were too small for me to try to make them into pinwheels as I often do. I was only constructing the block parts with no extra freebies from the scraps. Here are the tops of four gifts.

Then I made the bulk of the gift itself using the wider fabric pieces for the wrapping paper and the narrower pieces for the ribbon. I made a group of four at a time from two pair of complimentary fabrics 6&14, 14&6, 4&22, and 22&4.

 

I repeated the process for fabrics 23&28 and 25&29, making the other four gifts

Instead of all eight gifts adjacent in a row, they were divided up into two groups of three and a central group of two. In this case I used my Alphabitties for a different purpose— to denote the letter of the completed block as specified in the pattern.

Here is the whole row assembled. It is 9½" high and 50½" long. It is long enough that my design wall is not wide enough and the row needs to wrap around the corner on the left.

I made up this row within a day of it arriving in the mail. Now I have a whole long month to wait until the next row installment comes. But I like the pacing, and the project does not become overwhelming. Besides, now I have an imposed window to make progress on all those other UFOs I have been avoiding.

Links to the previous three rows in this series are: 5/29/26 stockings, 5/30/26 trees, 5/31/26 stars.

Christmas Celebration Star Row

The first row in the Christmas Celebration Row of the Month Club at Shabby Fabrics was stars. I'd made the second row of Stockings in my post for 5/29/26 and my third row of Trees in my previous post before sewing up the stars. Now I am looking back and making the Star row.

The stars are basically four flying geese blocks around a central square. I have a Bloc-Loc tool which works well to make flying geese. The tool requires cutting the fabric a slight ¼" larger than the norm. Although I have extra fabric provided in the kit, it was not of the dimension that allowed me the luxury of oversizing without some creative positioning. That's OK. I can use my old standard method. The flying geese of the star points still yielded me enough HSTs to make two pinwheels per star for a total of twelve pinwheels.

Each row of Christmas Celebration introduces a few new fabrics from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater collection by Moda. The red/white ornament and the pale blue snowmen, marked by blue star in the following image, are new in this row of stars. None of the stripes from the stockings are repeated. I look forward for when other fabric options from the line appear. Perhaps they will be used in the upcoming rows:  4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments.

I am one half of the way through my row making (3 out of 6) and it is still fun. Yay! Next row installment has been shipped and I eagerly await its arrival in the mail any day now.

Christmas Celebration Tree Row

The third row in the Christmas Celebration Row of the Month club at Shabby Fabrics was trees. I'd made the second row of stockings first in my previous post. Upcoming rows are 4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments. After struggling with my stocking row, the trees went together fairly easily. I could assemble the four strips/level of each tree and wait to press until the adjacent neighbor was determined. Then I could alternate the seam direction for the white background. "Press to the dark side" was not always best. I do like that the trees have separating spacers between some of them to break up the rigidity of an all-in-a-row look.

I made up into pinwheels from all those triangles cut off at each level of each tree. Those six trees yielded twelve pinwheels. They are pressed but not yet trimmed to be truly square and accurate

The fabrics were again from the Emmitt and Ivy collection by Sweetwater for Moda. Only the red snowman print was a repeat from the stockings. The wonky gingham, the green snowmen, the green/white ornaments, the red evergreen sprigs, and the white evergreen springs were all new.

This so far has been a fun row-by-row monthly kit with cheery fabrics. I am enjoying assembling it. I am one third of the way there. Hmm... those pinwheels...  It remains to be seen what I will do with them.

Christmas Celebration Stocking Row

I signed up for a Christmas Celebration Row of the Month club at Shabby Fabrics. Each of six months has the pattern and fabrics for one themed row: 1) Stars, 2) Stockings, 3) Trees, 4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments. I always swear that I will not get behind when I sign up for these monthly projects and usually I do succeed. This time I had received the first three months and had not started. At a mini two-day retreat at a friend's home, I decided it was the perfect project to attack since there would be no interruptions... except of course eating, talking, and mutual project ogling. Even so, on the first day I did assemble one row. I started with Row 2, the stockings, first. Why? Maybe because Row 1 was stars which can be somewhat mundane and the Row 2 stockings just seemed a bit different and had fewer diagonal cuts.

The original design for the stocking row had the stockings alternate in which direction they faced. To me, instead of stockings, I could not unsee the letters J U U U U ᒐ. Stockings hung on a mantle all face the same direction normally, so I wanted to change the layout to mimic that tradition. 

The original design had five blocks of heel-to-heel pairs each with a width of 10½". When joined with four seams, the total width of the row is 50½". Where blue are the stocking pairs and black "|"s represent each ½" consumed in the seam:

 

10½" |  10½"| 10½"| 10½"| 10½" 

5 x 10½" - 4 x ½"per seam = 50½ "

I did some cutting and pasting of the image in PowerPoint to see how stockings all in one direction would appear. I decided I preferred that look. When I decided to face all my stockings the same way, the change involved a bit of recalculating the spacers. Ten 5"stockings joined in the same direction with nine ¼" seams sum to 45½" (10 x 5"- 4 x ½" per seam) falling short of the required row dimension of 50½" so I needed to figure out where to add the vertical divider spacers and how wide to make them to make up that 5" shortage. Until I made that decision, I proceeded with making individual stocking blocks rather than stocking pair blocks.

The original design had four places where the stocking would be toe-to-toe. With all my stockings facing the same way, I would have heel-to-toe situations, nine places if I added no spacers. Those tiny triangles to round the toes sure made pressing the seam allowances a challenge. The amount of bulk at that joint took a lot of steam and hard pounding to lie flat.

The seam pressing in general took some thought. Along the banded area in the calf of the stocking was not an issue, but at the cuff and foot areas, I had to really put on my thinking cap. I alternated directions at the cuff and at the sole and was not consistent among the blocks. Where a stocking was in the line-up determined the optimal pressing direction.

Rather than adding to either side to make up the 5" I lacked, I wanted to distribute the spacers so the stockings were in two or three groupings. The possible combinations for ten were 3-2-2-3 or 2-3-3-2 or 2-3-2-3 or 3-4-3. I chose the 3-4-3, grouping so there would be no central vertical bar. Where blue are the 5"wide stockings, red are the vertical spacers, and the black "|"s represent each ½" seam allowance, the grouping of 3 - 4 - 3 would look like: 

1½" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 2" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 2" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 1½"

10 x 5"   +  7" -  13 x ½" seam =  50½"

Following is my completed row with the two 1½" spacers on the ends and two 2" spacers distributed in the central area. Believe me, there was some creative seam allowance pressing to minimize the presence of lumps at a few of those seams.

The fabrics are the from the Emmitt and Ivy line by Sweetwater for Moda. They are mini-prints whose scale is just perfect for these blocks that measure approximately 5" x 10".  The print scale is not too teeny-tiny; the theme images of snowmen and sprigs of leaves show clearly, yet are not so big they get chopped up into oblivion. 

I look forward to catching up and making my row of Stars (#1) and my row of Trees (#3). I just got email notification that my row of Presents (#4) has already shipped.

Violin Mesh Bag

I am on a roll making these mesh project bags, pattern by Annie. This violin-themed one is for my  granddaughter who plays the violin. I found the novelty fabric on Amazon. I only got one yard but it is 59" wide. I only need a fat quarter, actually a bit more so I can fussy cut. The finished bag measures 11" x 16". Then I searched etsy for a violin patch liked the saxophone patch I sewed on her cousin's. I found one that was just narrow enough to fit on the handle by my widening the handle by a ¼". I was anxious waiting til it arrived in the mail so I could complete the bag. Little did I realize, it was coming from France and took longer than I expected. Unbeknownst to me, the order had to go through before the business started embroidering it. Plus, when it did arrive, the patch — and only the patch — was in a simple nondescript business size envelope. I almost missed it! I sewed it on the handle before folding the strap in half so the outline zig-zig stitching did not show on the back and was hidden inside the handle.

Here is the front of the bag followed by a close-up of the handle.

Here is the back of the bag followed by a view of the inside lining. The circles and colors played up the detail spotty coloration on the violin.

 

I made twelve of these bags in 2021: seven in my post for 4/9/21, four in my post for 6/6/21, and one in my post for 6/15/21. Just this year I made a Rainbow Brite themed one for my daughter seen in my post for 2/19/26 and a saxophone themed one for my granddaughter seen in my post for 4/16/26. My fifteenth is in my post for 4/16/26. This violin mesh bag is my sweet sixteenth!

This project bag is made from the Piecekeeper pattern available in bulk from byAnnie.com. Individual copies of the one-page pattern can be found for sale on Etsy. More details are available near the end of my post for 4/16/26.

My Entries to the 2026 AVQ Show

I entered four of my quilts into the Amador Valley Quilters 2026 show. In the following sections, each quilt with the text of its descriptive story card is shown along with a link for further details. To see many of the other quilts in the show check out my blog post dated 5/2/26.

1_OhDeer 41"x 40" (#32A)

Changing borders and colors from Coriander Quilts pattern #206 Deerly Loved, I fussy cut the antler fabric to center the medallions. I added black triangle pupils to bright blue eyes. A narrow blue border strip ties into the eye color. The quilted upside-down clamshells symbolize garlands. Be sure to check out the fun backing fabric. (For more details see my blog post dated 12/2/24.)

2_Spooky_Sweet 30.5"x 34.5" (#121D)

Spooky & Sweet, is from a four-week quilt-a-long project by the Fat Quarter Shop with free pdf pattern downloads. The soft colors, all solids, attracted me to this kit. The gray background played nicely with the Coral, Clementine, Pesto and Violet hues, toned down from the typical garish orange, green, and purple for Halloween. (For more details see my blog post dated 10/3/24.)

3_BinThereDoneThat 55"x 55" (#124)

Blocks I’d made from JoAnn Fabrics' 2006 Block of the Month series Spice Meadows resurfaced in one of my project bins, hence the name. These colors were popular nearly two decades ago. Striped Noah's Ark fabric as a backing makes the quilt more contemporary. The colors went well with the front. I had a generous amount of this fabric in my stash. (For more details see my blog post dated 9/14/24.)

4_ChemoChaos 48"x 48" (#51)

Quilter-blogger Karen Brown, at her website Just Get It Done Quilts, posted a technique on how to use layer cake pre-cuts to advantage with symmetry about two axes. This is my result from one layer cake with a sewing theme. The final arrangement of the blocks confused me, but I was undergoing chemotherapy at the time… hence the name Chemo Chaos. (For more details see my blog post dated 11/20/24.)

2026 AVQ Show: Quilting with Friends

Overview

On Saturday April 25, 2026 I went with my husband to the Amador Valley Quilters 2026 show, which promised a display of over 300 quilts. There were 241 uniquely numbered entries and 96 other smaller quilts gathered under communal group numbers. I took 121 photos from the individually numbered group of 241, but half those photos were of the associated labels. In this post I show a subset of those quilts I photographed, selected for a variety of reasons: ideas for future community quilts, comparisons to some themes I've made, appealing patterns that I might want to pursue, general admiration for the amount of skill and work involved, or — last, but not least — merely causing me to smile. My own quilt entries are described in a separate post following this post.

Community Quilt Ideas.

The use of jelly rolls and layer cakes gave me inspiration for community quilts to be made by small quilt group, the Cut Ups. I like the pinwheel secondary pattern of the first quilt by Lynda Smith in the lobby as we entered. I thought the end squares of the second quilt, Daylight by Nancy Hom, added interest and a commonality. The third quilt, Beautiful Christmas by Ann Narciso, inspired me to use some of my layer cakes

Community quilt at entry to show

Daylight by Nancy Hom (#134)

with Daylight pattern by Gourmet Quilter

Beautiful Christmas by Ann Narciso (#175)

with Beautifully Done pattern by Anna Fournelle

Potency of Color

Three fellow quilters — Carlen Colgett, Willi Haslam, and Mary Dexheimer —  challenged themselves to complete a Missouri Star All Star Block of the Month challenge using only the fabric in their stash. I was impressed with the different interpretations. I have a pretty big stash, but I doubt if mine is so coordinated. I enjoyed the various interpretations.

All Stars by Carlen Colgett (#64)

from Missouri Star All Stars Block of the Month

All Stars by Willi Haslam (#66)

from Missouri Star All Stars Block of the Month

All Stars by Mary Dexheimer (#65)

from Missouri Star All Stars Block of the Month

Disney Meets Secret Santa

These next two appliquéd quilts are very bold and striking. I think what impressed me a lot though, was that Lori Korch made them as Secret Santa gifts. If I had a Santa so generous with his time, material, and talent, I certainly would not keep it a secret. 

A Rose for Belle  by Lori Korch (#34)

Secret Santa gift for Melanie

Tinkerbell with Attitude by Lori Korch (#58)

Secret Santa gift for Curt

Modern Vibe

I just returned earlier this year from Quilt Con in North Carolina and reviewed my experience in my 3/7/26 blog post. I can honestly say that I liked the next three quilts by Sarah Kealy Roberts, Elizabeth Taylor, and Kathy Pedrini far more that the majority of the quilts I viewed at Quilt Con. I admit that modern is not my genre of preference, but each of these had such a happy tonality they made me smile. The quilting enhanced each, rather than detracting from the piecing. Breeze is so carefree and I am actually considering getting the pattern for Apparrotly It's a Party for myself.

Hexibore by Sarah Kealy Roberts

from online class by  Jenny Haynes (#20)

A Set of Four Doors by Elizabeth Taylor 

from improv class with Sarah Goer at PIQF (#99B)

Breeze by Patricia Lindsey (#19B)

modified pattern from Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic

Parrot Party by Kathy Pedrini
with Apparrotly It's a Party pattern by Love Sew Modern

Effectiveness of Background Color 

The next three quilts grabbed my attention because of the bold choice of background color. So often the background of quilts is white, cream, off-white, or beige with and occasional foray lately into pale gray. The charcola behind the flower blooms make them stand out. The blue behind the swans is just strong enough to represent water and not be wimpy. The equally primary elements of the green, red, and blue ladybug quilt is a balanced trio that truly is a loveliness of ladybugs.

Walk in the Park by Kathy Pedrini (#4)

with Walk in the Park pattern by Vanessa Christenson

Swan Lake by Dierdre Campbell (#155)

with Swan Island pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

A Loveliness of Ladybugs by Becca Bishop (#143)

with Coulourbug pattern by Linda Sullivan of Colourwerx

The Ghastlies

This ghoulish crew made their initial appearance on the fabric scene around 2011 and here we are still enjoying them fifteen years later. Per my post dated 6/2/20

Hawthorne Threads attributed the character inspiration to the writer/illustrator/poet Edward Gorey. He is quoted as saying, "If you're doing nonsense it has to be rather awful, because there'd be no point. I'm trying to think if there's sunny nonsense. Sunny, funny nonsense for children—oh, how boring, boring, boring."

Ghastlie Modern Maze by Michelle Garrison (#145)

Freemotion on Ghastlies and piano key quilting on black/white

These next two photos are of my forays into the Ghastlies; one a quilt, and one a set of figures. Both were fun to do. Amazing that the Ghastlies play well with both a modern interpretation and a whimsical approach.

 Ghastlies quilt (not in show) by me, Diane Chambers

 no pattern, self designed, gifted in 2014, described in my 3/17/14 blog post

Ghastlies figures stuffed by me, Diane Chambers

from a panel, see Ghastlies history in my post dated 6/2/20

Thimbleberries

Thimbleberries by Lynnette Jensen is another theme and style that has lasted the trends of time. Over 20 years ago, internationally Lynette Jensen created Thimbleberries®. It emerged as a worldwide leader in quilting, sewing, and home decorating. Thimbleberries Quilt Club, founded by designer Lynette Jensen, was a highly popular quilting program boasting over 100,000 members and 1,000+ local shops, featuring monthly, themed, high-quality fabric designs and quilt patterns. RJR Fabrics produced the fabric lines. Born in 1945, she is now 80 years old. I noted two quilts of that style in this show.

Karen Loughrige's entry Pin and Rose (#84) has the associated Thimbleberries color palette. She made it from a kit she bought at an AVQ sale. The draw of that muted color palette, not usually my favorite, is what lured me into my first Thimbleberries quilt. I like how the name Pine and Rose reflects the unique block piecing sequence.

Bridal Path (# 119) by Laurie May was designed by Lynn Wilder, not Lynnette Jensen but it sure evoked Thimbleberries memories. I found it displays the typical Thimbleberries color palette with a bit of added blue. The log cabins on a diagonal are not immediately obvious, and therefore even more delightful when discovered. My husband was the first to notice them. Both he and I thought it was a Thimbleberries.

Thimbleberries has a bit of interesting history for us. Back in 2007 I noticed a quilt  called Hometown Christmas (With All the Trimmings) in a magazine. I fell in love with the intricate and varied pieced blocks. I normally gravitate to bright colors but this quilt was calling to me and would draw me out of my comfort zone. I was going to splurge and by the kit but they were all sold out. Apparently they had been first sold in 2004. I was so disappointed but I bought a set of the four volume instructions, thinking I could pick out my own colors. But would I be brave enough to do so? Back in 2007, online shopping was nowhere near as common as it is today. Unbeknownst to me, my husband got on the phone and called quilt shops all along the west coast (post for 7/24/18), asking if they still had one of those kits.  He found one in Oregon and had it shipped to me. Here is the completed quilt and my label in it. Following is the Thimbleberries December Table Topper which was the first project where I got up the nerve to use my newly acquired HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen (post for 2/13/15).

I suspect many quilters out there own at least one book by Lynette Jensen. Do you see one you own in the next photo? I just bought what I think my be her final book, New Attitude. It takes her designs and branches out into new fabrics and color palettes.

Awesome Craftsmanship

These next two quilts stand out to me because of all the effort and precision that went into creating them. Fracture (#169) by MaryAnn Soby has an exorbitant amount of hand work. Fracture is a Dutch word which translates to mean an exact duplication on two side, a symmetry around the vertical axis. Look closely and you will see that.  Escher Christmas Tree (#11) by Rebecca Buzsaki required an extremely high level of concentration. She claims that they keep this quilt up all year long, not just at Christmas. All that effort definitely deserves maximizing the time on display.

Social Aspects

My husband attended the show with me. His shirt that he wears at every show when he goes with me certainly very popular, receiving many comments from strangers. A few even asked to take his photograph. Here is Frank, a back view of his shirt, and a view of the embroidered logo above his front pocket. Wearing this special shirt only to quilt shows with me, he wore out the first shirt. This shirt is his second one. 

I ran into many friends at this show that I had not seen in quite a while so it was fun catching up. Quilt shows can be a real social gathering, even when the topics extend beyond the quilts. I estimate about 20% of my time spent at the show was this communal gabbing in addition to quilt gazing. The scattered conversations reminded me of the Pick-a-Little song from the the musical The Music Man.

Purchases

I purchased two items at the ThimbleCreek Quilts vendor. Enjoying this show with me was my husband. Frank liked this pattern Winter Wonderland a lot, called it to my attention, and urged me to get it. I, too, liked its bold simplicity and so bought the pattern. Once home I realized it was the "A" word, i.e., appliqué !!! But, the wall hanging finishes at 45" square so those appliqué pieces are pretty large and there are not many of them. Also I have been collecting solids and can put them to good use in this pattern. Making this quilt will be good for my soul. I also bought some fine line mechanical pencils mainly because their exterior was so quilt-like looking; they will have a greater probability of staying in my sewing room.