December is here and it's time, at last, to reacquaint myself with friends old and new: my Christmas quilts! I have *ahem* one or two, so settle in with cuppa and a mince pie and take a little trip with me down (a snowy) memory lane...
The Olden Days
I started quilting in 2010 and it didn't take long for me to start making Christmas quilts. These were both pre-cut friendly patterns by Camille Roskelley - Surfside on the left and and Wild Thing on the right - made with fabric collections designed by Kate Spain for Moda - Flurry and 12 Days of Christmas - and hand quilted. Kate nearly always combined aqua with her Christmas greens and reds, which was unusual at the time, but suited our home perfectly (thank you, Kate).
Homely Joys, 2015
This is the first Christmas project I shared here on the blog and this time I reworked one of one of my own patterns, swapping out the potted trees on the original for Christmas trees. As often happens, it was the fabric that inspired the quilt: Elea Lutz's Christmas Joys for Riley Blake was so beautifully drawn and added an innovative dash of pink that I couldn't resist. I added some favourite Tilda blenders to balance all those retro prints.
Amaryllis, 2017
Not technically a quilt, although it probably took as long to make - all that binding! - my Amaryllis runner and placemats were my very first commission for Today's Quilter. The fabric was a French General collection called Petit Maisons de Noel combined with one of their printed linen-effect blenders, which I've loved sewing with ever since. The colours suited my parent's home perfectly, so it was a joy to gift it to them.
Wintersweet, 2018
This is one of my favourite Christmas quilts - and one of yours too, based on the post views - shared in a series of blog posts. I made mine with with a jelly roll of Joanna Figueroa's Christmas Figs collection, which combines classic red with two shades of green, which makes the whole quilt sparkle. You can find a pattern for this quilt in my free PDF project library.
Daylilies, 2019
This quilt appeared in Today's Quilter as Winterlilies and I went on to demonstrate it on Sewing Quarter. Based on a classic log cabin block, this is a fun and beginner-friendly quilt to make and always looks so dramatic. Adding to the drama is the charcoal linen-texture background. I'd already experimented with this colour palette on my Roosting quilt, published a few months earlier - also an 'unofficial' Christmas quilt in our house - combining the dark background with red and green folk-style prints from the 'Lil Red collection by Stacy lest Hsu and finished with a red gingham binding.
Sweetbriar, 2020
This is the first of two Christmas quilts I made for Today's Quilter in 2020 and for some inexplicable reason I've never got around to publishing it as a stand-alone pattern. Again, I've played with a darker background - this time it's Liberty Fabric's gorgeous Wiltshire Blender - to set off some vintage Tilda and a piece of antique French fabric I found on Etsy.
I've always wanted to make a summer version of this one: maybe next year...
Dalarna, 2020
And this is the second Christmas quilt I made for TQ in the summer of 2020, which appeared in their Christmas Supplement. It combined the Dala Horse block I'd designed for a Moda Christmas sewalong with the little Christmas tree block I'd used in my Homely Joys quilt, adding a traditional Swedish stuga for good measure. My original quilt used a jelly roll of Kate & Birdie's Juniper collection, but you can cut your own strips from yardage too.
I think I've recoloured this every year since and this year is no exception! My latest reimagining uses Tilda Fabric's Creating Memories collection and Richla at GotKwilts has created some lovely kits for it, which you can find here. Wouldn't that be a splendid find under your tree this Christmas morning?
Twelve Days of Christmas, 2021-22
My fabric ode to Christmases past, the Twelve Days of Christmas was the 2021 project for the Block of the Month programme I run with my friend Andrea from the Willow Cottage Quilt Co. We had over 100 quilters join us to make this spectacular quilt with Tilda Fabric's Windy Days collection: not typically Christmas, but we needed gold for those rings! It always brings back wonderful memories when I hang this up each year.
Danish Hearts, 2022
OK, I'm cheating again here because it's a table runner - created for my Christmas-themed Festival of Quilts stand - but I'm longing to make a quilt with this block. I combined some favourited festive prints from Liberty, Moda and Tilda and paired them with a scrummy Tilda Chambray background.
Comfort & Joy, 2023
I feel like this quilt, made for TQ last year, circles back to my first Christmas quilt with its joyous dash of pink. This time I used prints from several collections by Lori Holt (I found mine at Sew Hot, which always has a good selection of Lori's fabrics for UK devotees). Again, it expanded on the Fairisle block I made for another Moda Bakeshop Christmas sewalong. And my pink Christmas quilt now has a friend : -)
Christmas Market, 2024
My latest Christmas quilt, inspired by Europe's historic Christmas Markets, was made for Today's Quilter using a Layer Cake of Vanessa Goertzen's Christmas Eve collection, which adds some warm greys to the classic red and green. Happily it's home in time for Christmas, so it'll be taking pride of place in the dining room for this year's celebrations.
And next year? Well, I'm looking forward to a restful Twixtmas when I can start sketching, because Christmas never stops inspiring me,
Nicola xx
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