Blogger's Quilt Festival

Have you checked out The Blogger's Quilt Festival?  Everyone is linking up their favorite quilts.  It's amazing to see what everyone is doing.

I wanted to share the quilt that got me started quilting.  This is also the special quilt that I've mentioned recently.  In the fall of 2009, I got an idea to make an advent calendar for my kids.  I wanted to make a Christmas tree with antique buttons sewn on to hold small ornaments.  Each day the kids would get to hang a new ornament on the tree.  I had made quilts with my mom, but never sewn on my own before.  I started exploring the local quilt shops and fell in love with the Figgy Pudding line from Moda.  I didn't buy any, because I didn't yet know what I wanted to do.  I came back after Christmas and they were almost sold out!  There was only a honey bun and a few 3/4 yard cuts lefts.  I bought what they had and came home to figure out how to make it work.  While I was thinking, I made a simple throw for our living room to get some practice.  Eventually, working on our dining table I put this design together.

I took it to my quilter to ask how she thought I should finish it because I was thinking about adding pockets for the ornaments.  My quilter loved it and asked if I had thought about selling the pattern.  this was my second quilt and my first original pattern, so of course I had never thought about selling the pattern.

I'll always be fond of this quilt and this pattern because it changed the way I think about myself.  I'm a quilter and proud of it!

I quilted the sky background horizontally and the tree mostly vertically.  I love the little trees print.  I also  love the nontraditional colors for Christmas, pale aqua and olive.

You might notice that there are no buttons.  Yeah, I still haven't gotten around to doing the advent calendar part.