As soon as the Christmas decorations are packed and stored, it’s time to bring out my Dutch collectibles.  I enjoy having these cheery, colorful, happy pieces arranged around my January kitchen.  They span many years and come from many different sources.  Most were gifts from my oldest daughter – some were brought home from her trip to Holland  such as the wooden windmill mold ….

… some pieces were bought in antique stores….

…some were bought years ago in a shop that specialized in gifts from Holland….

Some items are displayed just because I like them – a windmill that held crocus bulbs 30 years ago …

…old toy dishes….

…and one of my earliest quilting projects…

Some items never leave the kitchen, such as my daughter’s hand-embroidered piece…

…a vintage clock and spoon collection

…a granite ware covered cake dish…

….and my set of vintage spice jars, which I use daily.

I enjoy my Dutch collection through the month of January – and now it’s almost time to pack it away and get out my Valentine stuff!

Snickers likes the Civil War Quilt

That was my daughter’s reply when I e-mailed that the quilt was ready for her to pick up.  After one year, twenty-five days and fifty-three blocks, the Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt is completed.

I’m not good at free-motion quilting, so the quilting was stitch-in-the-ditch with decorative stitching in the sashing and borders.

The finished quilt measures 63×83 inches per my daughter’s specs.  She prefers a fleece backing and I used a pretty, gently-used fleece blanket as both batting and backing.  This made a very heavy quilt which was difficult to wrestle through my Bernina, but it will be a toasty-warm quilt for my daughter to use.

I used the label that Barbara Brackman provided and made it into a pocket big enough to hold an 8-½ x 5-½ list of all of the block names by row, printed on a sheet of printable fabric which was cut in half and sewn together so the printing shows on both sides.

It was quite an adventure throughout the weeks of 2011 and I thank Barbara Brackman for the series and thank heaven the quilt is finally finished and in its new owner‘s hands.