The Advent of Christmas Day 17

With its pure, vibrant, red tones, here's one of the most "Christmasy" quilts we saw at the 2013 Houston International Quilt Show.

Memories of Scarlet Serenade by Sharon Schamber

Memories of Scarlet Serenade is a version of  Sharon's original quilt, "Scarlet Serenade", which won "Best of Show" at the 2005 Houston International Quilt Festival, as well as numerous other awards and recognition in quilt publications.  Sharon notes, "Over the past few years, I have been exploring machine embroidery techniques and pushing the limits of what can be done in the hoop [embroidery machine]. This quilt is the culmination of that journey."

Close up, Memories of Scarlet Serenade by Sharon Schamber

Sharon has expertly combined both contemporary geometric motifs like the Mariner's Compass blocks here with traditional rounded floral motifs of the red flowers, vines, and small berries. This work is perfect for the holiday season, as the motifs in vivid colors provide a  festive, cheery look to this flawlessly constructed quilt.

Close up, Memories of Scarlet Serenade by Sharon Schamber

Sharon notes that the techniques used to create this show-stopping quilt include original digitized machine embroidery, machine piecing, original digitized machine quilting, and free-motion longarm machine quilting. She used hand-dyed fabric, machine embroidery thread, and wool batting. (Wool batting provides slightly greater depth of material in order to more easily show all the beautiful machine quilting designs).

Close up of border, Memories of Scarlet Serenade by Sharon Schamber

Sharon's sawtooth border creates excellent visual interest by drawing the viewer's eye to the high contrast between the strawberry red fabric of the quilt body and the off-white tones of the border.

The digitized embroidery designs for the original Scarlet Serenade can be found at Sharon Schamber's website.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2013 Houston IQF.