Christmas Quilting

Did you do any sewing for the holidays?

Making Christmas quilts was definitely NOT on my radar for 2019. I made the drunkard's path quilt shown on the wall above several years ago as part of this QAL. There's not a bit of Christmas fabric in it.

Two years ago I designed this small wreath wall hanging as a gift to my readers. It's a free pattern and is still available on the old Craftsy platform. You can find it here. 
Note: If you are interested in a copy of this pattern leave me a comment.

Then, while visiting the Missouri Star Quilts last May, I found myself buying a handful of modern Christmas fabrics in small amounts. Here are a few of them and I'm happy to say I've used them up. Wish I had more of the little bird print though. It's so sweet.

I decided to make another simple Irish Chain quilt like these quilts quilts made earlier in the year for my SILs. It's a fast, easy project. With 6" blocks finishing at 42 x 54 the small size is just right for my lap.

It's my first quilt using minky for the backing and was quilted by Cara of Sew Colorado Quilting using a design called Wild Cherries. I thought it felt like berries and love how it looks. Even though the thread is green, it gets buried into the minky giving an embossed look. I washed it yesterday and now it's so soft!

After finishing this one, I was hooked on Christmas sewing. Foolishly thinking I had all the time in the world, I decided to make two more quilts. And maybe stockings. Maybe a tree skirt. Maybe fabric ornaments. The list goes on. Of course that lead to buying even more Christmas fabrics online and down the rabbit hole I went. Big time!

Did I mention foolish in the previous paragraph. Ha! I only managed to finish one of those two quilts and none of the other things. Maybe next year. I certainly have all the fabric I need now to make the above mentioned projects and more.

My finish was this scrappy, mostly 16-patch, wonky star quilt for my daughter. I love it!

The original idea was to alternate red and green 16-patch star blocks in a 5 x 5 layout. Then I decided I didn't want stars in every block. Then I decided I wanted a few bigger stars so I made four 9-patch blocks with bigger wonky stars. Then I threw in a couple of 4-patch blocks to alter the scale even more. Finally, I decided I didn't want a square quilt so I added a row at the top and bottom using the same size squares as the 4-patch. I love letting a quilt evolve into something a little different from where it started. It finished at 50 x 60 so a large lap size.

The prints are so fun. I mixed the new fabrics with many from my stash. Some are really old Christmas prints and some are just stash prints like dots and stripes. Little deer, bears, rabbits, owls and birds make appearances here and there.

I'm especially fond of all the little deer . . . aren't they cute?

It's backed with the same red minky as the Irish Chain quilt and quilted by Cara with a pattern called Star Struck which was perfect for the star theme.

So two new Christmas quilts this year makes me happy. I think they look great mixed in with the other holiday quilts. Here's a few of my older quilts that make an appearance during the Christmas season. I think of this green, triangle quilt as a winter quilt but it fits right in for Christmas too. I blogged about it here.

This applique still life is very traditional but I love it!

And this little paper pieced cardinal. It was a struggle to make at the time but always reminds me of my Mom. Cardinals often visited her bird feeders throughout the year. We don't have them here in Colorado and I sure miss seeing them.

Thanks for reading along with my sporadic blog posts this year.
For a little more holiday cheer, check out my all red Instagram posts here.

Hope you have the most Merry Christmas ever!

Cheers!

Linking up with Wendy's Peacock Party for the end of 2020.
Also with Cynthia and Oh Scrap.

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My Christmas Gift to You, A Free Holiday Pattern

Today I'd like to share this sweet little holiday quilt with you by offering it as a free pattern.

If you're interested in a copy of Berry Merry Wreath, please email me directly at anne@springleafstudios.com to request a copy.  Do not leave a comment on this post requesting the pattern.  I have received too many requests from no-reply bloggers that I am not able to connect with.

The design is based on the traditional Friendship block. The circular block arrangement plus the addition of red circles gives this simple idea a lovely Christmas feel.

While I originally made mine for the wall, I realized it fit perfectly on top of my coffee table so perhaps it will find a home there instead. It would also make a lovely base for a small Christmas tree.

I know Christmas is fast approaching but I can tell you this quilt goes together pretty quickly and is super easy to make. The pattern yardage is for a small 28" x 28" finished quilt but I've included a list of optional sizes so you can make one that fits your space. A super sized version would make a beautiful cozy throw to keep you warm on those cold December evenings.

You can use traditional holiday fabrics or go modern with solids or modern styled prints. I didn't even use holiday fabrics, choosing instead to go with reds and greens from my stash. The only truly seasonal fabrics in the whole quilt are a few squares of white-on-white snowflakes and a holly berry print for the border.

The pattern includes a page of design variations to give you some additional ideas and a coloring page so you can play around with your own color schemes. Nothing says it has to be red and green. How about soft wintery blues, whites and silver? I think that color scheme would be so, so pretty.

Again, if you're interested in a copy of Berry Merry Wreath, please email me directly at anne@springleafstudios.com to request a copy.  Do not leave a comment on this post requesting the pattern.  I have received too many requests from no-reply bloggers that I am not able to connect with.

If you make your own Berry Merry Wreath, I'd really really love to see it. 
Tag me on Instagram @springleafstudios and use #springleafstudios and #berrymerrywreath.

And just in case you're wondering about the other Christmas quilt on the wall above my couch, it's from a quilt-along I did a couple of years ago. You can find all the information here. Making this quilt is what turned the corner for me in terms of wanting a more updated look to my Christmas decor. Now I have another new one with my Berry Merry Wreath.

I wish you peace and happiness during the holiday season.
Remember to relax and enjoy time with family and friends.

Cheers, Anne


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Drunkard's Path QAL: The Binding

December . . . the final month in my Drunkard's Path QAL, and I'm thrilled to say I'm starting the month with a finish. WaHoo!!!   You can find all the previous QAL posts here.

November was the month of machine quilting and I will admit it wasn't easy. Free motion quilting is not something I particularly enjoy but the QAL provided me with the motivation needed to have a finish. That's a big one for me since I'm better known for multiple starts and fewer finishes. You can read my quilting post here where I look at possible quilting motifs to use and my process of exploring ideas. I ended up going with a poinsettia looking leaf design throughout including the borders. You can see a bit of it here. I was worried that the change in thread color would look bad on the back but it's not that noticeable when you see the back as a whole.

With the quilting complete, all that remained was the binding. I find binding a relatively easy process. Especially after struggling with the quilting. Most often I don't decide on my binding fabric until the quilt is complete and then I audition various fabrics. I especially love to use stripes for my binding and usually keep quite a few stripes on hand for that purpose.

For this quilt I pretty much assumed it would be a red binding. I pulled out both red and green stripes to try and instantly knew the green was better. Either would look wonderful but the green really allowed the red fabrics within the quilt to shine.

When I put the following image up on Instagram, Linda of @FlourishingPalms made the suggestion to use both colors in a flanged binding and recommended this great tutorial by Karen of @RedBirdQuiltCo. Social media can lead to learning so many great new things.

I loved the look of Karen's flange binding and, after reading through the directions, felt sure this would be my choice. The best of both colors. Just a hint of red. Then I pulled a red solid and tried it. It looks really nice but once again I found the red shouted it's presence. The green 'leaves' in the quilt recede behind the red 'petals' in the design and I wanted the binding to recede a little as well. The red petals need to be the focus of this quilt. I felt any red in the binding simply brought too much attention to the edge of the quilt. I really do like Karen's tutorial though and will definitely be trying it on another project sometime soon. It's a great look for the right quilt.

So green it is. A lovely green on green small stripe from the Caterwauling line by RJR Fabrics. It's been in my stash for awhile, the selvage says 2011 so who knows how long I've had it. I love it when I find the perfect fabric in your stash?

Here's the finish . . .

At what point in the process do you choose the binding fabric? Do you have a go-to binding choice? Solids? Stripes? Prints? If you've made a quilt during this QAL along I'd love to see it. Shoot me an email with a photo.

I hope to show more photos in a few days when I actually get the house decorated.
Right now it's time to get my Christmas decorations put up. I think I hear Christmas carols calling . . .

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Drunkard's Path QAL; The Free Motion Quilting Begins

For those of you who know me or read my posts regularly, you know free motion quilting is not my favorite thing. I'd rather start a whole new project than quilt the most recent top. But with my drunkard's path quilt I am determined to get it finished by the end of November so I can use it this Christmas. I have 20 19 days!  For anyone just stopping by for the first time, you can find all the previous Drunkard's Path QAL posts here or see the tab at the top of my blog.

Making a block a month worked nicely. Adding borders last month worked well. Now there's nothing left but quilting. I managed to pin baste last week after finding numerous other things that had to be done. Translation . . . PROcrastination. The only good thing is that I get lots of other things done when I'm procrastinating.

The biggest question is how to quilt it?  For this, I looked through a few books for some ideas. Another form of procrastination perhaps?

Next I sketched ideas on paper at full size.

For my Kaffe mini quilt made with the same block design, I used a petal motif in the flowers (purple) and a vein in the leaves (green). Then I echo quilted the background areas.

I decided a variation of this would be good for the Christmas quilt but the petals would need to be more poinsettia like. I used tissue paper over the printout of the quit to see how it might look.

Once I had the basic idea, I turned to the dry erase board to practice a few times and get the general flow down. I find a dry erase board quite handy for practicing at full size. After a few times drawing it on the dry erase, I moved on to actually sewing it a few times on a practice quilt sandwich.

Another option for full size practicing is to place a piece of clear plastic over the quilt and use a dry erase marker to draw your design in the spaces. I highly recommend putting tape all around the edge of the plastic first though so you don't accidentally draw off the edge onto your quilt.

I've created a Free Motion Quilting Guide that includes the outline of the petal shape on one page and the sketch of my quilting motif on the second page for you to play with. Download it here.

Yesterday I quilted all the red petals. Next will be the green leaves. I may do the same leafy vein used for the mini or perhaps I'll just stick with the petal design like I used in the red. Poinsettia flowers and the leaves have the same shape so this seems somewhat appropriate. With such busy fabric it hardly shows anyway but I still want the motif to make sense for the design.

The biggest question will be what to do in the little background areas and along the border.
Any ideas? I wasn't thrilled with the echo look. I think something simple that flattens the areas a bit but is not too dense. There are so many little spots and a lot of stopping and starting without any easy connection from one area to the next. Originally I was going to stitch in the ditch between the blocks to anchor the diamond areas down. Then I realized this wasn't the best choice since I pressed those seams open. So I skipped that part and moved right into quilting the petals figuring something would become more obvious when the time came.

Now that I have finally started, it's not nearly as bad as I usually think it will be and the finish is in sight. So far my machine is cooperating. I have an old Bernina with a very small arm space so even a quilt this size isn't easy to push and shove through. Sometimes I roll the excess. Sometimes I bunch it up. Either way, there's not a lot of room to maneuver.

How about you, do you have Christmas projects waiting completion?
Do you procrastinate when it comes to free motion quilting? If so, why?
Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

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Drunkard's Path QAL, Block 6

Squeezing this post in before the end of June. There's not much to report for the Drunkard's Path QAL other than I now have 6 out of 9 blocks done for my Christmas quilt. Here's my June block . . . #6

I love how they look when they come together. I've already sewn the first three blocks into a row.

This week I'll sew the second row together. Gotta love progress however small it may seem.

The last three blocks are cut and ready to be sewn. One each month taking me into September to have all nine blocks finished. Six of these little bags are now empty . . . just three more to go.

Then in October I'll add borders. I'm leaning toward this version right now. See the other options here.

That leaves November to quilt and bind. Still seems quite doable. While I may take my time getting certain projects done, I don't usually spread out the blocks. For this quilt, the block-a-month method has been working quite well. It doesn't feel like a big commitment and yet knowing I will have a new quilt for Christmas is very motivating. I've wanted to make a new holiday quilt for years but usually never thought about it until November, so of course it never got made. Year after year after year. Now, I'm looking forward to having a brand new Christmas quilt for 2015. Just saying that makes me even more committed to getting it done.   : )

There's till time  . . . why don't you jump in and join the fun. If you're not up for nine Drunkard's Path blocks, then make three or four for a table runner. At least one other reader is doing just that. The block width of 16" makes for a nice sized runner. You can find all the information here.

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Drunkard's Path Quilt Along 2015, Piecing

Welcome back. It's time to start sewing.

Hopefully, you've all had a chance to select your fabrics and maybe even cut one blocks worth of pieces. The template and cutting directions can be found here in case you still need to do that part. And if you missed yesterday's post on block design exploration, you really should check it out. Really. In the post I show four optional ways the drunkard's path units can be arranged for some amazing looking blocks.

You can also now link to every Drunkard's Path Quilt Along post by clicking on the button above or going to the Quilt Along tab found at the top of this page. So let's begin . . . 

Piecing:

I want to start by telling you not to be afraid of curved piecing. Even though it seems like it would be hard, I promise you it really isn't. You just need to be brave, find your quilting mojo, and jump in. You won't know until you try. There are many great resources available and many techniques, so do what works best for you. 

I prefer to use a minimum of pins and go slowly. If using more pins works better for you then by all means use them. Here's my method:

1.  Make a crease in the middle of both the quarter circle and leg pieces by folding each piece in half and giving it a good finger press. If you can't see the crease, try using an iron just on the edge for a stronger crease. I prefer to make my creases by folding the quarter circle right sides in and the leg piece right sides out. This way the creases nest nicely when the two pieces are placed together.  

TIP: if you feel more comfortable using more pins then I suggest you also make additional creases by folding the halves in half again so you have three creases to align. I've exaggerated the creases here so you can see them.

2.  With right sides together, align the creases and pin in place directly through the crease.

3.  Pull the short leg ends around and align them with the straight edges of the quarter circle. Pin in place close to the edges. I find pinning close to the ends helps keep the top fabric from creeping past the bottom one. It's going to look very odd, but believe me, it all will sew together just fine.

 

4.  Using a 1/4"seam allowance, sew the two pieces together. I prefer to sew with the leg piece on top so I can see how it needs to be eased into the curve. If you find it easier to sew with the circle on top that's fine. Try it both ways and do what works best.

I use my left hand to pull the leg edge into alignment with the curve while using the tip of my small scissors or a stylus to hold the two layers together just in front of the needle. It may look like you're going to sew in little tucks but most of the time it's just the excess fabric to the left of the needle. If it's a serious tuck, raise the presser foot and ease the top fabric into place.

As you approach the end, be sure the fabric is still aligned with both ends even with one another. This is where I find it tends to end up misaligned. That's why I pin close to the edge in such a way as to ensure the ends stay together.

5.  When you're done sewing it's going to look a little bunched up. Don't worry. No need to clip any curves. A good hot press smooths it all out nice and flat. Press the seam toward the quarter circle. This is very important because the seam needs to be out of the way when it's time to sew the units together.

TIP:  If by chance you did sew in a tiny tuck, try ironing it out with a little steam. If this doesn't work, you can usually rip out just a few stitches near the tuck and then resew that area by easing it into place.

6.  Trimming. Align a small square ruler so the 4 1/2" ruler marks line up with the corner of the quarter circle. Trim the leg sides so there is 1/4" outside the curved seam on both leg pieces. The finished trim size should be 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".  You shouldn't need to trim the quarter circle side unless it stretched a bit during piecing. The most important part here is the 1/4"seam allowance along the leg edges so when units are sewn together the quarter circles meet and no background shows.

7.  If you haven't seen the optional block arrangements in this previous post, now would be the time to take a look just in case you'd like to use one of them instead of the arrangement I'm using. Otherwise continue on . . .

Layout all 16 units into the block design using the photo below as reference. Take care to be sure the placement is correct with like red prints paired together and like green prints paired together including the matching green leg. It can be easy to get them turned around. 

Once you're happy with the arrangement, break the block apart into four quarters as shown below.

8.  Working one quadrant at a time, sew the matching petal units together; red with red, green with green. Press the seams open. Next, sew these two units together to finish the quadrant. Take time to match the seams in the center. Press the seams open.

TIP:  The bulk from the curved seam allowance has a tendency to push your foot off to the right as you approach the center. Taking it slow and watching for this helps.

Check to be sure that no background is showing where the two petal sections come together. If your seam has slipped over due to the bulk of the nearby seam, slowly sew over that area again and repress.

NOTE:  If you normally aren't an open seam presser, I understand. I'm not either. But in this case it really does make for an easier block to sew together plus a flatter finished block.

In the photos below, the first shows how the curves should join together . . . a nice, smooth transition where the curves come together with no background showing. The second photo has a sliver of the background showing. Not the end of the world by any means. With something as minimal as the second photo, I'd leave it alone rather than get too worried.

9.  Sew the units together by matching seams to complete the block. Press the final seams open.

Congratulations!  You've just finished your first Drunkard's Path block for the quilt along. Now it's up to you whether you feel motivated to keep piecing or make them one at a time each month along with me. I'll be posting my latest finished block each month here and on Instagram. You can add your blocks  at #DrunkardsPathQuiltAlong.

As the blocks come along, I'll also be looking at border options and other ways to finish up. And don't be surprised if I start another quilt too. I'm having so much fun with the design, it's hard to not start another.  : )

Thanks for sewing along with me.  I can't wait to see what you make.