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!

This is a quilt I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. I wasn’t sure what the design would end up being, what fabric I would use…but I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my little girl’s bed. I feel a tad bit guilty that although I’m a quilter, the quilts on my kid’s beds are store bought. Well now at least one is handmade by mommy.

I started this quilt earlier this summer and planned to make a couple blocks a week. I sized each block at 17.5″ x 17.5″ unfinished so I would only need to make 20 for a twin sized quilt. My block progress stalled for awhile but when I went up to Holly’s for the weekend in July I finished them up.

Of course it took me a bit longer to make the back, baste and quilt. But I’m really happy with the results! The quilt is centered around Sarah Jane Studios’ Children at Play fabric line (one of my all time favorites).

I incorporated a lot of blenders from my stash. There’s really a little bit of everything in here – Patty Young’s Lush Running Stitch, Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelets, Laurie Wisbrun’s Modern Whimsy circles, some Art Gallery Oval Elements, dots from Heather Ross Lightening Bugs, some of the new stripes from Cloud 9′s Simpatico, some of the yellow Henna Garden by Sandi Henderson, a yellow print from Maude Asbury’s Kitchy Kitchen…plus some of the Children at Play blenders.

I didn’t follow a pattern for the blocks. I just started cutting the center squares and then pulled fabric and worked my way out from the center using different widths for each ring until I reached my goal size. I tried to follow a few rules for my blocks, such as each uses either 3 or 4 fabrics, no more, no less.

One of my favorite parts of this quilt is the back. I decided to incorporate the Parade print from Children at Play. I wanted the print to show across the quilt when it was folded down on her bed.

My poor husband, this quilt was SO big to hold up!

That meant the print needed to be upside down on the back. I added a bit of patchwork above and below. The solid pink is Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Blossom – SO wonderful.

I wanted this quilt to be nice and soft so I quilted it in a grid with horizontal and vertical lines, about 2″ apart.

I love how the quilt compliments her room. She clearly loves it as well!

I know there will be a time in the future (probably way too soon!) where she outgrows this quilt and doesn’t want it on her bed anymore. But I’m hoping it will always hold a special place in her heart and she will maybe even let her own little girls cuddle under it one day.

When pulling fabrics for a child’s quilt, I seem to have a much easier time selecting prints, patterns and colors for a girl’s quilt. Part of my problem is that I tend to have a hard time finding “boy” fabrics that I like. But last summer Sarah Jane really hit it out of the ballpark with her Children at Play line. I just love her artwork, something about the innocence of the designs – paper airplanes and sailboats, hopscotch and dress up dolls, pinwheels and wagons.

I decided to take some of the little boy line and pair it with some of my favorite blenders in green, blue, yellow, orange and red.

It’s really fun to play with prints like stripes, sometimes aligning them horizontally based on the center of the block…

And sometimes vertically.

I quilted this quilt in a diagonal grid. It was the first time I used the metal guide that came with my walking foot. It was actually quite helpful! The lines are about 1.5″ apart. I marked the starting line and then just used my guide to work off from there.

The back is a lime green and the binding is a turquoise. The blocks are 12″ squares and the final quilt measures 36″ x 36″. I decided to list this little quilt in my shop – it is so lacking in boy items!

I am a true believer that you don’t always have to make an intricate quilt to make a beautiful quilt. I find this especially encouraging for beginner quilters who may not have mastered paper piecing or y-seams or perfect points (yet!), but still want to make something that catches the eye and wows their family and friends.

I recently made this quilt and pattern with all levels of quilters in mind. The underlying design is simple and one you have probably seen many times, but I decided to break the quilt into color blocks, changing the look of the quilt.

I just love these colors, perfect for a little girl I think.

I decided to quilt this using densely spaced free motion meandering, but I only quilted the white, negative space. This makes the prints pop.

For the back of the quilt, I used one of my latest favorites – FreeSpirit Designer Solid Jade as well as a print from Moda’s Hello Luscious called Blissful Floral.

This quilt measures 45″ x 60″ and the digital pattern is for sale for immediate download in my pattern shop!

And speaking of my pattern shop, if you missed out on my Prism pattern in Quiltmaker magazine, you can now buy a digital pattern for that quilt there too.