Easter Projects

Cross and Crown Sampler

Since I made my heart wallhanging and table topper for February, I thought it might be a nice idea to make a wallhanging and some type of table treatment for every month of the year. That way, I can switch them out and have some variety. I would go with a theme of the month - if there was a relevant one. March has St. Patrick's Day and I already had Celtic Ballad for a March wallhanging and would have to think of something for the table. But I decided to move onto April and Easter. 
When I looked online for Easter fabric, it's almost all rabbits and eggs. While I may get my grandson Easter candy in the shape of eggs and rabbits, that's not what I wanted my quilt projects to celebrate. I kept thinking of this song: 

So, I looked up "cross" in BlockBase+. There are lots of options, many of which have nothing to do with Jesus. Anyway, I didn't want to just do a cross block as Jesus didn't stay on the cross or in the tomb.  He rose again as victor over death, and the grave, and sin. So, I narrowed it down to "cross & crown" and found that there were 12 different Cross & Crown blocks. For me, the crown part represents His victory as well as the victory He has given us over sin and death through His power, and the crowns He will give us when He comes again. 

Brackman 1891, 13"

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: Job 19:25

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Brackman 1871, 12.5"

And I decided to see if I could make all 12 into a wallhanging. Unfortunately, I can not import the blocks in BlockBase+ into Quilt Pro 6, my quilt design software. And Quilt Pro 6 does not have all of the Cross and Crown blocks that BlockBase+ does. So, I resorted to paper and determined that yes, I could fit all 12, at their originally published sizes, into a reasonable sized wallhanging. 

Brackman 1863a, 10"

I also opted to use the colour arrangements (but not the same colours) as in BlockBase+. 

Brackman 3234, 7"

Where the fabric was concerned, as mentioned, when I looked for Easter fabrics, most of what I found was bunnies and eggs. I couldn't even find an Easter lily fabric at my local quilt shop. 

Brackman 1864, 10"

Instead, I chose to use one of my absolute favourite fabrics, Michael Miller Fairy Frost in what I considered "Easter" or "spring" colours, and chose a solid lavender for the background. 

Brackman 1667, 9"

Because there were numerous different sized blocks, I knew that they were not going to fit together perfectly. So I would also need some filler fabric, with enough to make a border. 

Brackman 3805a, 8.5"; 16 Y-seams and a lot of bias edges

I "auditioned" several different fabrics, but this is the only one that felt "right". 

Filler fabric

While it kind of competes with the quilt blocks in the finished wallhanging, and I'm not altogether thrilled with it, there is great meaning behind why I chose this fabric. 

In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Matthew 28:1,2

 This fabric looks like sunrise and that's about when the resurrection occurred. It also makes me think of the ascension, when Jesus returned to heaven. 

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. Acts 1:9

Notice the cloud mentioned in this verse, and the clouds in the fabric. Clouds are also mentioned in reference to Jesus' second coming.

Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him. Revelation 1:7a

So, I also want this wallhanging to remind us of that coming event. While we don't know what time of day it will happen ("But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Matthew 24:36), and if He comes at noon in Alberta, it could be the middle of the night in Australia, the second coming has also been associated with sunrise or daybreak, especially in some songs (Gleams of the Golden Morning, Some Golden Daybreak). I suppose that's because it will mean a brand new start, new life, new beginnings, just like a new morning.

As I think I've mentioned previously, I can find sampler quilts quite tedious. They're just not as efficient as using the same block for the whole quilt.

Brackman 2802, 6"

And this one had some blocks with some quite tiny pieces. 

Brackman 949.7, 12"

Meanwhile, as I was putting the pieces together, I was wondering if I should put the filler fabric between all of the blocks. 

Brackman 3261, 6"

I had originally planned on butting all of the blocks against each other and only adding filler where needed. But then I thought it might look better if I spaced them out, as long as I had sufficient fabric and the resulting wallhanging wouldn't be too big for the space on my wall. 

Brackman 2069, 6"

And it turned out fine: enough fabric and enough wall space. 

Brackman 1382, 12"

Conveniently, Urban Elementz had a sale and I placed an order, including King of Kings, which I used on this quilt.

Back to the fabric supply, I still had plenty of fabric to make the coordinating table runner. 

Crown of Thorns Sampler

Often, when I'm working on a project, I'm also looking ahead - to the thread and pantograph selection, but sometimes also to the next project. 

Golgotha, Brackman 2068

So, I was considering what I was going to do for the table treatment. 

Brackman 3654, meant to be a pieced block, but I opted to do applique.

When I searched for "crown" in BlockBase+, I found several Crown of Thorns blocks. 

Brackman 2152

As it turns out, there are 6, but two of them are bordered blocks which I didn't think would work well in a sampler-type quilt. 

Brackman 2048

So, I chose to do the other 4, adding the quilt block called Golgotha as the centre block in the table runner, and making all blocks 12".

Brackman 1806d

Since these were all 12" blocks, I didn't have as many miniscule pieces to contend with. But Brackman 3654 would have created all kinds of grief with curved and Y-seams. So I opted to do it as an applique block instead. Much less hassle! I quilted the table runner with Easter Lily, also from my recent Urban Elementz order. 

In between times, I was working on Easter projects for my daughter and grandson. 

I saw some cute projects online, and made these carrot treat bags. 

I opted to use hair elastics rather than add drawstrings. 

I think these bunny treat bags would look better if they weren't overfilled, but I didn't want any leftover jelly beans. 

A couple of years ago, I made fabric baskets for Easter for my daughter and grandson. But they were not Easter-themed fabrics so they could use the baskets for whatever they wanted. I'm not sure what I used for their Easter goodies last year - maybe just plastic bags? 😁 This year, I decided to make baskets again, but I'm going to ask for them back, plus the bunny and carrot treat bags, if they want them filled again for next year. I don't really want to continue making new baskets every year. Besides, my daughter can sew, so if she wants more fabric baskets she can make her own. I used less generic fabric this year as well. The lining fabric has Easter eggs and flowers on it. I used a carrot and blue stripe fabric in both baskets and a chick/bird fabric on the second basket as well. 

This is my daughter's basket. I used the pattern in this video, though obviously I didn't add the face and rabbit ears. 

This video is kind of annoying because all it has is irritating music and captions. I had to rewind several times to make sure I got the measurements and number of pieces correct. Initially, I was going to add the face and ears for both my daughter and grandson. But it is kind of silly, and extra work. 

Besides, my grandson is 10 years old, getting kind of old for a bunny basket. So, I used a different tutorial for his basket. 

That's it. While my Easter projects were late this year, I guess I've got a head start on next year. I thought of lots of different songs while working on these crafts. Here's one to close this post that goes with the Crown of Thorns sampler: