18 December, 2014

Christmas Tree Quilt



Christmas Tree Quilt
64'' x 70''

Sometimes you get something in your head and HAVE to do it. I thought that about three or four years ago, when I cut all those blue and green squares for a quilt. Then life got in the way and I never made it. After my quilting mess a couple of weeks ago I got cranky. I didn't want to bind or quilt. I wanted to piece a top. And not just make blocks, contributing to one of my many other ongoing projects. I wanted to make a whole quilt top. So I looked to my quilts under construction for possibilities.

Conveniently, these blocks were cut and sitting in a pretty little pile at the bottom of my closet. And they always were intended for a Christmas quilt. It was meant to be.



I must have anticipated a layout like this, I can't quite remember. But I had enough blocks cut, with only a handful leftover, to do this.

My quilting disaster happened on a Thursday. On Friday afternoon, while the Garbage Truck napped and the girls watched a movie, I got all those rows together. By Sunday night, while Hubby was playing hockey, I got the top pieced. All that background fabric only accounts for 6 pieces. Some thinking was required to get there, but it wasn't difficult sewing.


The next Thursday I was back at the long arm and this was the first quilt on the machine. Just a straightforward simple meander. Big and loose and loopy. It was fast, a good warm up for the other work I needed to do, and perfect. I could barely see the quilting as I was doing it - Aurifil white on that dotted Robert Kaufman print - so there was no point obsessing over how to quilt it. After loading the quilt it took me about an hour to get it done.

Lucky for me I had some turquoise binding already made for a photo shoot back in the spring. So that went on that Thursday night. And two days later - a record for me - I had the binding done and the last threads buried. 


What a sweet print for the backing. I don't exactly stash Christmas fabric. And the LQS I was at obviously has a pretty serious clientele for Christmas fabric. They usually have a huge stash, but most of it was gone when I went to the store to get something. But I really wanted to extend the holiday theme to the back. Something fun and pretty for the family. This candy print fit the bill. And I love the pink on the back. 

While this is technically a quilt for the whole family, I did kind of make it for my little guy. He's coming up on 3 and currently obsessed with Christmas. He gets it this year and the waiting has been sheer torture for him. If you ask him what he wants for Christmas - which adults love to do to children - all he answers is "A Christmas Tree!" We don't normally get ours until the weekend before Christmas so this way he got one a little bit early.

And he's already taking advantage of it. 


 May you and yours have a wonderful holiday (if you celebrate). And may you find joy, peace, and love. Throw in some giggles and a romp outside for good measure.

11 comments:

christaquilts said...

I love it - so clean and modern!

elle said...

Merry Christmas, Cheryl. Gosh he looks like you! Lovely quilt!!!

mjb said...

Simple and beautiful! Merry Christmas to you!

Serena @ Sewgiving said...

I love the surprise pop of colour on the back ... lovely and fresh :)

Karen said...

Great quilt--wintery colors but warm and cozy! Merry Christmas to you and your family, Cheryl!

Charlotta said...

Simply perfect!

Charlotta said...

Simply perfect!

Scooquilt said...

Beautiful quilt! Some of the best are the intuitive ones we just make spontaneoysly. Merry Christmas!

✾Jamie Lee Cooley✾ said...

It's a very pretty quilt! So you use aurifil on the Longarm exclusively? I use different threads (omni, bottom line, aurifil) and was wondering how you adjust the tension as I have a problem with the aurifil breaking. As long as I crank the bobbin tension to about 400 (which is crazy high as I usually run my other threads in the bobbin at about 150) the thread doesn't break except when I manually pull it it still breaks, which is not a huge deal, I'd rather it break when I'm done quilting instead of during quilting. Just curious because I always use aurifil for piecing and thought the cones would be great for the Longarm. Thanks! And happy holidays:)

Anonymous said...

Love that last picture;) The quilt is great and good job on getting it done so quick!

Liv Haalan said...

Thanks grreat blog post