Hometown Christmas Project!

Several years ago, I won the Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas books and bought the kit to make the quilt. That same year, while on a vacation my husband and I took up to Oregon, we ventured across the river into Washington, and there in Vancouver we saw the quilt made up and hanging. Boy, was that a thing of beauty, or what?! I wanted nothing more than to drive home and make it! But things happened. For one thing, I got the flu. On vacation. The REAL flu--the kind where you think you'd feel better if you were just dead and figure that might not be too far off because you can't breathe real well anyway. Then there was my local guild's quilt show and several other projects to get finished. Then there was Christmas. And another Christmas. And another. You get the idea!

So, flash forward a few years, and the other day Vicky mentioned that she'd been going through her small, tiny bit of stash and found the Hometown Christmas kit. I don't know if you've been following Vicky lately (no, I don't mean in a stalking sort of way) but she's been getting into the block of the month groove. I think that finding she already had one right there without having to exercise her fingers, poking in an order on her keyboard in the middle of the night, was probably kind of fun! In any event, Vicky decided she was going to start this project, and I asked if I could join in. When I wrote about it on my blog about a week ago, Sharon asked if she could play along too. Well of course you can, Ms. Sharon! So, now there are three of us. Does anyone else want to join us? We'd love to have you!

The books are written so you complete a section at a time, rather than a block. A section is usually a large block with a couple smaller blocks or, in some cases, it might be just a larger, longer block. Our plan is to complete a section by the 15th of each month and another section by the end of the month. We think we should have the quilt done in about six months.

If the quilt interests you and you don't already have a kit and/or books, you might check out eBay. Having the books (there are four) is really key because you can use stash fabric or buy new--you don't have to track down the original kit. Or fake it! If you are good with block design, you may be able to design your own blocks similar to the ones you see us working on with your own twists. I'll post photos of what each section is supposed to look like before we begin that section. The quilt is a queen size, by the way--most of the larger Thimbleberries quilts are. There are appliqued holly leaves around one border, but there are two versions--one with the applique and one without--so you can chose the one that most appeals to you.

I'm going to set up a links area in my sidebar that lists the blogs of the gals working on this project. I also have some other friends who don't have blogs but who want to work on it as well, and I may post some photos of their sections as we go. Please let me know if you want to try this project, so I can add your blog to my sidebar. We'll get started on this at the beginning of September, so the first section will be completed by September 15th. I do hope you'll join us, but even if you can't, please visit us and watch our progess--I know we'll LOVE the encouragement!