Crackin' dem Crackers

For as long as I can remember, I've had a little love of Nutcrackers.  I think it all stems to growing up in Germany - the land of the Nutcrackers.

On one of my parents' visits to Utah, my mom and I wandered around some quilt and fabric stores.  Since it was near the holidays, a lot of the quilts hanging around were of snowmen, bells, trees, and santas.  In the far back of a little shop, I saw the most adorable Nutcracker quilt.  I oooed and awwed over it for awhile until my mom joined me and said "we can make that, if you want.  We can create that pattern.  Look at the faces and get an idea of how they're put together."  Those instructions from my mom are some that I'm so used to hearing.  My mom can make anything, just by looking at it.  I truly mean ANYTHING - food, clothes, crafts, ANYTHING.  My task always was, to learn that skill by analyzing to see how I can recreate them.  I took pictures and critiqued the stitches on the Nutcracker eyes, but the idea of making my own quilt from start to finish just plain intimidated me.  

I kept the Nutcrackers in the forefront of the back of my mind, with no sight of starting it any time soon.  My mom wouldn't be in town much longer, and I knew that I would NOT be starting such a project without a mentor - that's disaster waiting to happen.  

Then, came the day before I'd get to go home for Christmas.  My mom called to say that my aunt had the Nutcracker pattern I'd been oogling months before.  I got excited!  As soon as I got home, I was ready to get going.  Overall, it took me 3 days to start and finish my first real wall-hanging quilt.  

Mom took me to this little fabric store in Chambersburg.  We spent a good couple hours browsing.  I knew I wanted a non-Christmas colored quilt so that broadened my options.  One of the first bolts I pulled was this fantastic paisley print in what I call "India colors".  (Sidenote - I've also been almost obsessed with India for most of my childhood).  That was the springboard of inspiration, followed by a really fun "hair printed" fabric for, what else, the hair.  Mom has hundreds of different scraps and pieces of fabric so we only needed to get the larger pieces or patterns I couldn't live without.  After gathering all the fabrics and making the pattern pieces, I was aching to start.  Here's the stash:

As soon as all the pieces were cut out, I laid them out.  Each Nutcracker HAD to have their own personality.  That was my favorite part!  All the pieces laid out and ready to press.  In my limited quilting experience I've learned that Fusible is the best creation ever.  You just iron it to your fabric, cut it out, and iron it down.  Then all you have to do is sew around it.  The Fusible glues the pieces together, and...makes life so easy.  Here, the noses were just ironed down, and I'm ready to get sewing.  Couldn't decide which was my favorite face.  Can you?

By the time I'd blanket-stitched around all of them, I still didn't have a favorite, but I was tired - - 2am.  If my eyes hadn't been burning...and my mentor-mom hadn't already gone to bed, I'd have been able to keep going.  Oh well, day 2.  My mom has stuff for all craft projects imaginable - hence my creative/thrifty nature - so, of course, she'd have tiny black beads for the eyes.  The original quilt had fabric eyes, but that just wouldn't do for a "Ladies Lind craft project".  

Once I was this far, there isn't much visible progress, so I didn't photograph.  BUT, I will give you the rundown.

After adding the borders and prepping the backing, the tricky task was to quilt the quilt.  While I was on my mission, my mom got a 15ft long-arm quilting machine.  This monstrous piece of sewing equipment came in handy.  I'd never used such a thing before, but my mom told me, then showed me, and finally set me loose.  I stayed up uber late working, because I was having so much fun.  My mom was so impressed that she wants me to quilt her projects from now on.

The quilting on the quilt

My favorite block

Finished project