My Mother's Christmas Wreath

I am off to Texas tonight, to spend American Thanksgiving with my Aunt June, and my cousin Kenny and his family.  And I am taking this with me.

Although I do not celebrate Christmas, everyone on my mother's side does.  If you have been reading my blog, you may know that my mother was a quilter, and she left a number of projects incomplete when she passed suddenly in 2008.  Her husband, David, has sent me boxes and boxes of her crafting and sewing supplies.  It makes me feel close to her to use her rulers and cutters, and especially to finish her projects.  I have finished a few of them for her.  This time last year, I finished off this Christmas quilt and sent it to David, so he could wrap up in another quilt she had made.  This year, I finished this little wall quilt/table topper to give to my aunt, my mother's elder sister.

This wreath comes from a mystery project in the fall issues of Quiltmaker in 2000.  In one of the boxes that David sent, I found the three issues of the magazine with the clues and a whole whack of Christmas fabric. My mother had pieced the spiky border and the quarter-square triangles that make up the body of the wreath.  All I had to do was make the blocks with the bow and assemble it all together.  Thanks to all the heavy lifting my mother did, I was able do everything in one day.  The bow has a kind of 3-D vibe going on - it had some fancy assembly that makes it kind of poof out (in a good way).

There were a couple of snags along the way.  First, I think my mother and I differ on what constitutes 1/4" - our blocks didn't line up perfectly all the time.  And I couldn't find, in any of the boxes that David sent, any more of the red-and-green-sprigged-on-white background that Mom used for the spiky border.  There was some other red-sprigged white, although it wasn't the same stark white.  So I used that, and I'm hoping that it doesn't look too odd. You can see the different fabrics in the photo below:

 I quilted the heck out of it to try to draw the eye away from the different fabrics.  I am having second thoughts about the decision to use this red, green and white variegated thread, but it's too late now.
 
I sewed a sleeve on the back so it can be hung, and I made this label using a technique that I have seen on someone's blog.  I can't recall whose, and I apologize if it is yours - let me know if it is and I'll link to you.  But basically, all you do is type it out in Word using a font you like, and print it out on regular paper. Then iron a piece of fabric cut to size to freezer paper to stabilize the fabric during the tracing process, and, using a light box (or window in the sunshine), trace using a Pigma pen.  Since I expect this will be hung and not washed, I just pinked the edges and sewed it to the backing using embroidery cotton and a running stitch.

I think my aunt will appreciate this little quilt in memory of her sister.  It makes me so happy to turn one of her WIPs into a finished product, and to sew a label on it that commemorates our collaborative work together.
P.S.  We will be in the Dallas area - if you have a line on any good LQS north of the city, please let me know!