Christmas Quilts in the Rafters

I hope you had a blessed Christmas celebration with friends and families.

I don't do much Christmas decorating, several nativities are usually the extent of decorating. We haven't had a Christmas tree in years. No one enjoyed cleaning up the needles and artificial trees just look fake. Some years I have poinsettias but not this year, this year I have Christmas quilts in the rafters.

The front quilt is Peppermint Pines.

Here is a link for the Peppermint Pines pattern.

Behind Peppermint Pines is Christmas Stars.

Here is the link to the Christmas Stars tutorial. And yes, I did hang this quilt so the mistake is on the backside but I've found another mistake on this side facing the front door. It's there in the picture, finding it should keep you entertained if you enjoy puzzles. Oh well, I've never claimed to be perfect.

The green and red chain quilt is Wintersweet.

Here is the pattern link for Wintersweet. I did alter the pattern by finishing the chain out to the edge.

I've realized I like chain quilts!

I'm not able to take a picture of all three quilts at the same time.

Sweet Kisses is on the back of the couch but it doesn't scream Christmas quilt at you. 

The pattern for Sweet Kisses is here.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

Wintersweet Quilt

The 2nd of the quilts quilted by Lori is Wintersweet. Wintersweet was a free pattern from Cake Stand Quilts and you can find the tutorial information here.

This pattern is a very simple design but it's so elegant, I really like it! These pictures aren't in the correct order, they're the way blogger decided to load them.

For this quilt, I selected the snails trail quilting design. Lori made it smaller, the curves are 1/2" apart. All the background fabrics in this quilt are white on white fabrics. As you can tell, white isn't always white! There are at least 5 white/white fabrics. It was nice to use them.

Here is Wintersweet with her simple beauty! The white/white fabric doesn't really look this yellow in real life.

And the backside.

I made the binding with an assortment of the green fabrics after I finished piecing Wintersweet. In June I found this red/white stripe and used it instead. Now I'm wondering why I only bought 1 yard! I was on a shop hop with several friends and this was purchased at a store several hours from my home. The backing fabric is a white on white whole cloth fabric. Of course there was some of that fabric trimmed off after quilting so I have more white/white fabric to use in a scrappy quilt.

And a closeup back view of the quilting. I always think a swirling design looks good with a geometric design.

I made a change to the pattern and finished the chain, I thought it looked incomplete the way the instructions were written. You can read about that change in this post. My version of this quilt measures 81" by 82".

Several comments were left on my post about Peppermint Pines stating they would like to see the Christmas quilts hanging on the rafters. I will definitely show you but they won't be on the rafters until after Thanksgiving. 

In my house, Christmas comes after Thanksgiving, not before Halloween! 

Linking to NTT, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Free Friday Patterns, Patchwork & Quilts

Wintersweet Finish Again!

I know I showed you the wintersweet flimsy I made last week and said was finished but I wasn't satisfied. I just didn't think it looked completed so I took the time and finished the chain. It didn't take long to do, just a morning of sewing.

Doesn't this look better?

Here is what it looked like without the chain finished, made the way the pattern says.

I added twelve partial 9 patch blocks, four 4 patches and 16 background fabric rectangles that measured 4.5" by 14.5". Wintersweet now measures 83" square. I'm not planning on adding an outside border.

In my last wintersweet post, I said the binding was going to be red. I've changed my mind, the binding is now going to be a variety of green fabrics.

The free pattern for Wintersweet is found here on Cake Stand Quilts website.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Stitch, Sew & Show, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Wintersweet Finish!

My Wintersweet quilt is a flimsy! This is such a simple pattern but so cute!

Right now wintersweet is 75" square but I think it looks unfinished. If I add partial 9 patch blocks, the chain will be completed and bring the size to 82". What do you think?

I found this red & white stripe in my stash to use for binding but there is only a fat quarter. A variety of red fabrics will be used along with the striped fabric.

Wintersweet is a free pattern from Cake Stand Quilts. I want to make this pattern in other colorways too. I can see it in spring fabrics, autumn fabrics and let's not forget blue and yellow fabrics!

I've start prepping fabrics for another Christmas quilt, this one utilizes a charm pack of Christmas fabrics I purchased a long long long time ago.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Wintersweet

The rows for Wintersweet have been sewn together. I did not lay all the blocks out individually. I gambled and just sewed the blocks as I came to them in the stack. I think I did pretty good.

Even though I have a very nice display wall, I organized the rows on the floor. It's hard to reach that high!    

These blocks make me smile, I think this is going to be a lovely quilt.

I'll decide if I want to add borders while I'm sewing the rows together. The pattern doesn't show borders but I'm normally a border person.

The free pattern for Wintersweet is found here.

Linking to Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Magic Crafts, Wednesday Wait Loss

Wintersweet

What can I say? I love 9 patches! So when I ran across the Wintersweet quilt on Marie's Quilt Bee blog, I had to have that pattern! 

Winter sweet is made with 2 blocks and I made the red 9 patches first.

Then I sewed green strip sets and made 4 patches . . . .

And green 9 patches. The green cutting mat seems to be affecting the coloring.

I arranged part of the blocks on the display wall. These are the true colors. 

The 9 patch blocks finish at 6" and they look very nice. After I had placed these blocks on the design wall, I had to wonder how this quilt would look with 3" finished blocks? Then I thought how long would it take me? I'm not going down that rabbit hole right now, maybe someday but not now!

Wintersweet is the 2nd Christmas quilt I've pieced this month. I've using fabrics left from Peppermint Pines and from my stash. The background fabric is an assortment of white fabrics.

The free pattern is available from Cake Stand Quilts. Scroll down to the bottom of that post to print the pattern.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts