A Very Cherry Christmas Quilt
Last week I decided to do a bit of selfish sewing and make my family a Christmas quilt. I tend to do all my Christmas sewing the last week in November. Three years ago it was the advent calendar. Last year it was the tree skirt. I guess I’m pretty motivated by a December 1st deadline.
Due to my self imposed short deadline, I chose one of my favorite quick and easy layouts – 5″ squares. And to make it even easier, I used mostly charm packs from Aneela Hoey’s Cherry Christmas line.
I really love Aneela’s artwork. The designs on the fabric are so pretty and holiday, but in an understated way. For some reason, I decided I just needed to add the black text print from Violet Craft’s Madrona Road into the mix. This led to the addition of a few other prints, including some pearl bracelets by Lizzy House, dots from Sarah Jane‘s Children at play, and a Kei Honeycomb.
I really love that punch that the black prints add.
A bit of sizing details…I used 4 charm packs and 40 additional cut squares (5″ x 5″ each). The quilt is 13 columns by 16 rows. It measures around 59″ x 72″.
I quilted using a wavy line. On my machine, I use the Running Stitch (Bernina 440QE stitch #4, looks like a zigzag), max out the width and set the length to 4. Although this led to some kind of boring hours of quilting, I love the finished effect.
The back is a flannel from Bonnie and Camille‘s line Vintage Modern. I used 4 yards with a tiny amount left over. I did prewash the flannel…I knew it would shrink a lot more than the cotton on the front. The binding is also from Bonnie and Camille, but their new line Marmalade. I just couldn’t resist it for a Christmas quilt.
So now I’m enjoying some snuggles under the quilt, at least until Spring!
Tagged as: Aneela Hoey · Bonnie and Camille · Charm Packs · flannel · Lizzy House · modern quilt · modern quilting · Patchwork · Sarah Jane Studios · Violet Craft · Walking Foot · Wave Quilting · Wavy Quilting
I love the Sew Cherry fabric line! Thank you for sharing your quilting method. I have the same machine and I think that I am going to give your method a try.
Stefanie
it’s so pretty!!! and love that quilting!!! Do you still use the guide to keep everything sort of straight? I think i’d get so distracted and end up getting it all chris-crossed.
Anna – I just use the edge of the walking foot for my guide. I line it up to “top/bottom” part of the wave and nothing overlaps. The best part is if you aren’t exact, you can’t even tell.
I do so love this quilt Faith! Its funny we both made cherry christmas quilt’s last week and blogged about them today!
Absolutely beautiful. I also love to add black to a quilt. It is one of my second favorite go to colors!
Its Lovely, My dreams were to big for a Quilter of the first year.. I am spinning in Mud… My family has to many bdays and etc during Oct and Dec.. Plus 2 sons got married in Sept. plus a new grandson so I am behind.. I have been planning to use your Star Quilt tutorial for oh about 6 m for my flicker group Liberty and Justice and do you know I had to stay up to one 1am to make it. Thank God its such an easy block…I want to share it with you, Its made with Kona Modern Print .. its wild !
Thank you! Burned out of ideas, but I have a nice stack of Cherry Christmas, and even some Sew Stitchy. I am officially giving myself permission to make us a new, simple snuggly for Christmas
I have a Husky, but have a similar wavy stitch setting. I hope you don’t mind I run with your idea? Beautiful and inspiring result!
Lovely quilt, A very unselfish act of enjoying your sewing gift. I also am going to use your quilting idea.
So nice, especially like the flannel back and stripe binding, thanks for sharing… I don’t know why I wait to the last minute for Christmas inspiration sewing….
This is a really great Christmas quilt! I love how you machine stitched it. I’m not confident in free-motion quilting, but will try your way on my next quilt!
Merry Christmas!
everything about this quilt screams perfection. It really is lovely
It is a beautiful quilt Faith! I love the quilting. And the flannel back oh so cozy.
Absolutely lovely and proof positive that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make an amazing quilt. Great job, Faith.
it’s so… dare I say… cheery!
fun photo backdrops too!
Great Christmas quilt! It looks so snugly! Thanks also for posting how you did the quilting! Can’t wait to try it out!
cherry christmas will be my christmas quilt too. I have 2 charm packs and some solids from the Pink Chalk subscription and have been collecting red/white and green/white blenders. Love the flannel on the back- so cozy for a holiday quilt!
I love this fabric line too and your quilting is beautiful. I notice you have very little drift. When you are quilting parallel lines like this do you always start on the same side of the quilt and move across or do you alternate? I have been alternating directions every other row and am having problems with drift and am trying to figure out how to eliminate that. Thanks.
Hi Caryn – I do half the quilt in 1 direction and then do the other half in the other direction (due to my sewing machine’s harp space). Honestly, I don’t worry about a little drift. I correct any minor issues every time I hit a seam (where I can align my walking foot to it). In this case, any minor drifting would be corrected every 4.5″ or about 7 waves. I think any minor imperfections are what makes the item really handmade and not look like it was made in bulk in a factory in China by an automated machine.
I was going to ask this very question so I’m glad you got it covered. I absolutely love this quilt! You have such a way with color – I think you should venture into fabric design. You’d be very good at it
Lovely quilt! The Aneela Hoey fabrics are just gorgeous.
Wow,great project and yummiest fabrics.Thanks for sharing your tips!!
Thank you, thank you for giving such great inf re: your work. Love that you helped a new Bernina sewer with what stitch you used! Happy Holidays to you & your family.
Love the Christmas quilt. I got some Tina Givens Stardust and Glitter but have not cut into it yet.
Love those little snow globes. Beautiful quilt.
Muito legal quando conseguimos feitos com antecedência,é linda demais sua colcha.Obrigada por informações valiosas.Que você e sua família tenha um Natal de Fé e Paz.Beijo grande.
Looks great Faith! I love Christmas fabrics that don’t scream red and green, so this is right up my alley. Enjoy it!
This is very sweet!
I love the quilt! So simple yet effective. I do love Aneela’s fabrics. Where is the beautiful outdoor Christmas tree? Is this your yard? I’d love that. JEALOUS! We don’t really have the right sort of pines in Australia for that.
I absolutely love this quilt, Faith. Beautiful job! The fabric choices are wonderful……xxx
Since when is it selfish to sew a warm, beautiful quilt for your family?! In my book, that’s called Nurturing, Loving, Nesting, Soothing — certainly not SELFISH! Selfish would be if I took ALL of the Christmas money and used it to buy myself a new sewing machine, and then gave my husband and children tube socks for Christmas. And I’m only SLIGHTLY tempted…
I would never do that. Well… NO!
Very cute, and it looks lovely and snuggly with the flannel on the back
Very lovely!
This is so pretty. Maybe I should try that December 1 deadline. Do you think it might work for me?
Love the idea of flannel on the back for a Christmas quilt. Did you machine dry or just air dry the flannel after washing? How did the finished quilt wash/dry with two fabrics? I need to try this!
Hi Melanie – I machined dried the flannel since that is what I will normally do when washing/drying the quilt. So far, no problem with using the 2 fabrics together.
You are AMAZING!!!!! Great fabric choice & BEAUTIFUL quilt.
So effective and simple. Looks snugly. Enjoy ; )
Hey Faith, I love this quilt! I think I get so caught up in block designs that I forget about good old scrappy square quilts. I think it’s the simplicity of this quilt that makes it so pretty, and I love the few patches of black! You have such a good eye for color!
Great quilt! I love the simplicity of it and the punch of black. Thanks for letting us know what stitch you used.
Beautiful! Square block quilts are still my all time favourite!
Hi Faith, I love your quilting on the holiday quilt with the BERNINA running stitch! I hope you don’t mind, I am linking back to your blog post as a great example of using the running stitch in quilting at WeAllSew.com.
Erika