You may recall last year I purchased four “vintage” Christmas stocking kits from the bargain table at the Northwest Quilters’ Guild Show. I finished the first one late last year. Then in February I started the second one and just finished it. It’s from Bucilla and copyrighted 1994, so it’s been around a while. Turns out my husband Mike never had a proper stocking so this one has his name embroidered on it. This stocking was a lot of work, because there are two large figures. Everything is stuffed and sequined, including the tiny bird which contains seven pieces. Good grief!
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/3-2-576x700.jpg)
While I’ve been working on the stocking, I pulled out my one “vintage” quilt top–my only UFO and finished the little bit of appliqué remaining. But I was struggling on how to quilt it. That’s partly why I didn’t finish the top fourteen years ago; I wasn’t sure where I was going with the quilting. I wanted to cross-hatch the background, but the blocks contain a lot of embroidered detail. The number of starts and stops were way more than I wanted to do, and I wasn’t willing to quilt through the embroidery. I know quilters do that, but it’s not my preference. I considered a variety of fills, but I really wanted to do classic cross-hatching.
Then I spotted a Baltimore Album quilt on-line by and noticed what the makers did. Genuis! Small circles were quilted around the appliqué and cross-hatching completed the large background areas. I thought it was a good solution. In order to stitch small enough circles, I’ve been practicing on my longarm on a purchased top. I’m hoping to gain muscle memory so when I get ready to quilt my more important top, I’ll be ready.
Here are photos of my top, all wrinkled from being in a drawer all this time. The blocks are Elie Sienkewicz and the border is my design. I also added silk ribbon embroidery in some blocks.
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2-2-685x700.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/6-644x700.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/1-2-525x700.jpg)
Here is the quilt that has inspired my quilting design. It’s called “Seasons of Love.” I’m uncertain of the makers’ names as I can’t clearly read them.
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/10-700x685.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/7-684x700.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/5-1-700x696.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/4-1-700x681.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/8-696x700.jpg)
![](https://kathiekerler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/9-700x698.jpg)