It's Finally Time To Change Things Up!

One of the things I've been doing "in the background" as I gear up to get back to the machine, is to finally swap out for the season all the quilts decorating the house.  For me, Fall felt like it descended rather abruptly everywhere and one of the things I've been enjoying on the web is seeing how everyone decorates with their quilts and quilt projects for the change in seasons or planning for the new quilts they will make to display for the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

From 1992 to 1997, the dearly departed Quilters Newsletter magazine ran a series called "At Home With Quilts".

Every time they sent out an email asking readers what topics they'd like to see covered in the magazine, I always asked for that one to come back!  It safe to say this is a topic of interest to me....

... and I admit that making quilts for different places in my home is one of my "Quilting Prime Directives".  Examples of a few of my favorite Quilty Decorators in the blogosphere are:  Lori DeJarnatt over at Humble Quilts, Heather Mulder Petersen of Ankas Treasures, Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings,  and Janet and her wonderful mini quilts over at Rogue Quilter.  However, if I visit any blog and the host talks about quilts on display, I definitely stop in for the open house!

I've been very slow this year to make the change over to Fall in my own home but figured that might be the best place to start in my attempt to get back into the groove.  Changing out quilts means looking at and through your old projects.  That usually makes me long for capturing the joy (and sometimes remembering the agony) of making them which eventually leads me back to the sewing machine!  So I finally got started on my own seasonal change over....

First up was the quilt behind the bookcase.  From this....

To this. 

This one is "Flannel Point of No Return" and was a pattern by Connie Tesene and Mary Etherington of Country Threads.  It was  patterned in the very first issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  Most people remember Marti Michel's "Storm At Sea" cover quilt from that issue.  

Normally I put this one on the back of the couch during the fall and winter seasons.  Made of flannel, it's particularly cozy to be wrapped up in on cold evenings.  I thought I'd change it up this year which means the one that was on the wall last year is going onto the back of the couch this year.

"Flying for Cover" is another quilt from my "flannel series" (I do love me some flannel!) and was one of the quilts that finally got its label when I did the Quilt Alliance's Label finishing challenge last year.  I'm still not sure if I like the placement switch up --- "Point" has less contrast with the wall than it did when it was on the back of the couch and vice versa for "Flying".  I'll let them set awhile and see if I want to change them back.  Now, the quilt that had been on the back of the couch....

...goes over to take up residence on the living room chair.   Repiecing the Past, my Civil War sampler scrap quilt, booted out its sister quilt Civil War Legacy.....

...which now gets relegated to the bottom of the quilt storage table since I have no place to display her at the moment. 

The last swap out in the living room will be the quilts displayed above our computer equipment cabinet.  So away goes Spring Basket Blues....

...to be replaced by Tucker.  So far these are the only two mini quilts I've made for this spot --- hmmm, going to have to add something to the "To Do" list to correct that.....

There was also a quick swap to make at the entry staircase:  it's just a "flip"  from the Underground Railroad sampler....

....to the Pioneer sampler on the flip side.  

It's simple to change out things when the quilts are sandwiched back to back!  I've got a bigger "decorating with quilts" project but I'll report on that when I get it done.