Friday, November 25, 2016

Quick Snapshots of Christmas Quilt

I do need a wall that's big enough and free of other things so I can do quilt photos.
This is a Christmas quilt--despite the fact that over 35 years ago I said I'd never make a Christmas quilt! Too much time required to make one for too little time to use it, I reasoned.

I changed my mind two years ago when I found these pre-printed panels, mostly because I knew from previous "Bob Warr" quilts that the piecing would go quickly..
 I added two borders to each block.  Except for the red triangles, the fabrics are from my treasured fabrics from the late 1980s.

 Then I added a border of a wintry gray fabric from the 1990s. (No, I did not choose the best spot to photograph, but the fact that I didn't notice, says something about how forgiving the fabric is.)  I was not especially pleased with the gray quilting, so I tried something different in the other three borders.

 There I used a pale blue thread that just lit up the gray border fabric.

 For the quilted areas around the blocks I used swirlies that go quickly and are ever so much fun to do.

For the binding I cut the red fabric 1.75 inches wide and the green fabric 1.5 inches wide.  After seaming them together, I pressed the seam allowance toward the red and then pressed the edges together--which created faux piping about 1/8th inch wide.

I used Glide quilting threads.

Binding on at last--after the quilt languished for about two years! Now that it's bound and ready for snuggling, I'm thinking there's a good possibility that I'll make another Christmas quilt--or at least a winter themed quilt.

So, I'm quite happy to have a Christmas quilt with colors that will make it useful well into January. I'm just as happy to have a binding on it that required no hand stitching!  (Back when I did hand piecing and hand quilting, I think I was in denial about my own mortality and didn't realize that the ideas will always come much more quickly than the time to execute them!)

Thanksgiving weekend is flying by!  I spent yesterday baking several batches of rolls before we joined friends for Thanksgiving dinner with our twenty-something children, friends, and loved ones.
This morning the college girl and I were at Busy Bee Quilts shortly after seven for the only Black Friday sale that interested me and then went to East Mountain Grill for a little breakfast.  She studied for a while and then went off to see the latest Harry Potter movie with friends while I worked on quilt binding. I'm hopeful that in three weeks when winter break begins I'll have plenty of energy for more quiltmaking.

I hope you all experience a very blessed weekend as well!

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, and creating,

8 comments:

Doreen said...

That is so pretty!!! I love the look of Glide (AND the way it stitches!!!!). Your choices are so perfect! If I didn't dislike the cold/snow so much (at least my body feels that way) I would enjoy the wintry scenes more!!!!

Dora, the Quilter said...

Thanks, Doreen! The truth is that I'm not so fond of the cold/snow as it happens--although it's better if I can stay in my warm home while it happens!

(Glide is my favorite so far! I've been using it for over ten years.)

Quilting Babcia said...

The icy blue quilting thread on that beautiful gray border is perfect for a winter quilt. We don't have a winter/Christmas quilt either, though several years ago I made the 4 oldest grandsons each a simple Christmas quilt. Now there are 3 more grands and and another about to arrive any day, so next year maybe the bin of Christmas fabrics will finally be emptied.

doodlebugmom said...

So pretty! I would love to make a Christmas quilt someday!

Missy Shay said...

I use my Christmas quilt through the whole cold season! I do, however, hang it on the quilt rack during December.

O'Quilts said...

very nice!

Needled Mom said...

It looks fabulous. I love my Christmas quilts. It is so much fun to bring them out each year.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Nice quilt. My Christmas quilt doesn't get put away. I have so few of my own quilts, that it gets used all the time. The only reason I got to keep it, was because it's from a block exchange. Otherwise someone would have claimed it.

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