Throw Back Thursday

This quilt is one that I made when my boys were 3 years old and my daughter was 4. So it must have been in 2003 when I worked on it. It is from the Piece of Cake pattern called Welcome to the North Pole. The pattern is back in print so you can get one by clicking on the link. It is a wonderful pattern that is so much fun to make. I remember that Becky (the designer) either said in the book on her blog that she encourages quilters to personalize it, and to make it their own. So I definitely did that! I hand appliqued with needle turn all of the blocks and then machine quilted them on the Bernina I had at the time. Each block is quilted differently, and it was easy enough just taking it one block at a time.

The reindeer barn was fun to do with the beads for lights, a button for the door handle and I just used striped fabric for the candy canes. This block is pretty much the same as the original in the pattern. The trees are straight, I just took the photo at an angle, oops.

The castle became a soccer stadium named after my father in law who was a professional soccer player for many years in Europe. He loved the sport so much that it only seemed appropriate. The little tower with the mitten door was named after my mother in law. She liked to knit so that was very fitting.

This photo shows my son Danny's shop with the truck for the window. He has always been fascinated by things that move fast, so he needed this shop. Kelly's doll shop was also on this block and my son David got a marble shop for his block but I don't have a close up photo of it.

The ice cream shop had to be named for my father because he loved to make homemade 'crank' ice cream for the grand kids. They loved eating it as much as he loved making it, so this really was an obvious choice. My mother got a bake shop because she always baked cookies for the kids. Again, no close up, sorry!

And the clear choice for my house was a Quilt Shop, duh! I added the star button given to me by my friend Mary Ruth, (she is a star!)  I really like the way these clear beads look like lights. My husband has a ski shop block because he is from the great white north and loves all sports that involve snow, ice or generally freezing your tush off. So that was perfect for him!

I added a special 'sleighwash' feature to the toyshop for my boys. At the time I was making this quilt I was potty training my boys. Now let me just say that my daughter was potty trained in one weekend with the use of a single bag of m&m's. My boys on the other hand, didn't work like that. After TEN months of trying to potty train them and many, many tears (all mine, none of theirs) I found a system that worked. If I bribed them with a trip to the carwash after dinner for no accidents all day long, they suddenly were able to keep their pants dry. So every night after dinner we would drive down to the local car wash where they would excitedly watch all the cars get cleaned. If no one was using the car wash, the girl that worked behind the counter would lock the door, and drive her car through so as not to disappoint the boys. Desperation calls for creativity. Hey, it worked. So we had a 'sleighwash' added to our quilt. I'm not sure, but I think it's probably a one of a kind.

Do you have any special Christmas quilts with stories? We would love to see them if you want to share a link in the comments or add a linky below. I'll be sharing more Christmas quilts throughout December so you will have a chance again if you don't have photos ready this week.

Enjoy every stitch!
Diane

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