The Quilting on My I Wish You a Merry Quilt a-long Quilt

My mom had a lot of fun quilting this quilt for me.  She put stars behind the elf.

And rays behind the ornament.

And bows behind the presents.

She added curls to Santa's beard.

And did trees and angels to the border.

And added some figure eights in the trees.

In case you missed it yesterday, here's my full quilt.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

My Final Quilt from the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Group

I started this quilt in August because I absolutely fell in love with some batik Christmas fabric and because I fell in love with the first block.  After the first few blocks I realized that I'd turned them all into applique blocks.  So I stuck with that theme.  I had completed the center block you see as an extra block before making this realization.

I had the twelve blocks done.  I'd purposely done four with red, four with cream, and four with green backgrounds.  I fell in love with a new fabric coming out in April from Island Batiks.  It's green and you can see it below.  It's from their Alpine Jingle collection.  It's the first batik I recall seeing that is a stripe.  It reminds me of Norwegian sweaters which just scream Christmas to me.  The lovely Katie at Island Batiks was nice enough to send me some sampling yardage (THANK YOU KATIE!) and it just makes this quilt!  I love the trees going around the blocks.

Now....what to do in the center.  I originally had planned another block but after much frustration, realized it was much darker than anything else in the quilt and just stuck out like a sore thumb.  So...I tried our this other orphaned block.  I ended up cutting off the triangles originally in the corners because I didn't like them.  I love the way it looks now.  It's like a gem in the middle of the quilt!

My mom was with me when I finished the top.  I told her I didn't want to quilt it.  She was excited to do it on her long arm.  I'll show you more of the quilting tomorrow.  She had such fun!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Extra Block - Stocking

I really wanted to get my last block done so I could get my I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-Long done for Christmas and my mom needed time to quilt in on her long arm, so I decided to do a stocking.  I had a hard time trying to decide what to put on the stocking to decorate it.  I have been trying to stick with a red, cream, and green color scheme.  So I went with a classic checkerboard.  Did I want to piece it?  NO.  I did not.  So I cut a bunch of shares out with fusible on the back and ironed them on!

Here you can see the first part of the blanket stitching process.  I did the white around the edge.  Where there was a green square I simply stitched as close as I could to the green hoping to cover it with thread later.  Since I use a double blanket stitch it's a fairly thick amount of thread.

Here's a closeup.

Then I went back and started stitching on the green.  I had to switch the blanket stitch from right to left (mirroring) as I was going because I wanted all the stitching to go into the squares.  I'd never done that before and it worked well after I figured out how it switched the mirroring.

Here's a close-up.

 A close-up look at the back.

And the final stocking.  

Up next....the finished top!  Stay tuned...

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Extra Block - Christmas Tree

The original pattern for this was ripped out of something....not sure what....many years ago and hung on my design wall for years.  I finally made it up into a table runner last year.  I knew I wanted to include it in this quilt so I sized it appropriately.  It was fun using all sorts of different greens to make this tree.  I also varied the size of the blanket stitches depending on the sized of the feather.  Big stitches for big feathers and little ones for little feathers.

You can see the difference in the stitching on the back.

I had fun stitching around a snowflake I cut out of a white print for the star.

And the final block!  Such fun.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long - Presents!

When I saw the original for this block I loved the 3D effect, but I didn't want to piece my blocks, I wanted to applique.  I ended up with this, two presents and a gift bag (so much easier!).  I had a lot of fun picking out eh fabrics for this block.

This bow was an interesting challenge to blanket stitch!  Lots of tiny, tiny pieces.

Love this"bow"

This bag is definitely my favorite part of the block.  And even though I'm trying to stick to red, white, and green, the cat had to have a pink nose.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Extra Block - Santa

I found this adorable Santa pattern at Stitches of Love.  I love his floppy layered hat!  I had a lot of fun making him.  I contemplated a leather beard for a while and then decided that was too weird.  So here he is all done!  I used a large size blanket stitch on his beard to make it stand out.

I fussy cut a snowflake to fit right into the pompom on Santa's hat.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Extra Block - Elf

Some of the participants in the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long on Facebook decided to make their angel block and elf instead of an angel.  I knew I had to make an elf.  What to do for a pattern?  I googled "elf drawings" and up popped a tutorial on how to draw an elf.  So I drew myself an elf with a few adjustments to make him easier to quilt.

Here's his face.  I used a light cream fabric and decided to leave off the nose because no matter what color fabric I chose it looked funny.  I think he'll have a quilted nose.

I had to make the hammer out of leather so it looked realistic.

The elf had to have the pointy shoes!

I love the way my elf turned out and I can't wait to include him in my quilt!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Block 8

I decided I wanted to make an applique Rudolph and found this one at Stitches of Love.  I decided to use leather for the head of the reindeer so I didn't have to worry about the green fabric showing through the head.  I'm trying to stick to a color scheme of red, cream, green and a bit of brown.  I also used leather for his antlers.  I love the rough effect it gives.   

If he's Rudolph he has to have a big red nose!

I fussy cut a green with gold batik for the holly at the top of the reindeer.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-Long Block 7

Block 7 is a pieced poinsettia.  I was looking at my blocks and realized they were all appliqued up to this point so I decided to make my poinsettia applique too.  This was originally a quilting motif I modified into an applique pattern.  I love the birds in the background fabric!

For the tiny dots at the center I used a green and gold batik cut in really tiny dots and outlined with a gold Glide thread.

I leave for IQA Houston today!  Many posts to come!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Block #6

As I was working on this block I realized that I'd made all my blocks applique with no piecing.  So I decided to adjust my angel to make her fit a full size block.  An all applique quilt this will be for me!

I was thinking about this angel and I decided I wanted to add some more leather to this quilt as my first block already had some.  You can't have it in one block and not in others.  So I used a brown leather for her hair.  I love the texture it gives.  This is the original hair from the block and I just love it's quirkiness.

I also added leather to the bottom of her dress in a scallop.

Her belt is also leather though it is hard to tell in this photo.

Her wings are also made out of the same metallic leather as the waistband and scalloping. 

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Block 5

Block number five was supposed to be a pieced snowman. Again, I didn't want to cut my background fabric so I decided to applique him.  I'm trying to stick with a red, white, and green fabrics, but the snowman had to have black eyes and mouth and an orange nose.  I close a dark orange so at least it's close to red.

One gal in the Facebook group for this quilt-a-long added a string of lights in her snowman's hands.  I had to do it too.  I fussy cut the red and green lights so they'd have a little gold at the top.

I also changed the snowman's hat from a top hat to a winter cap so that I could make it red instead of black.  I really love how this guy turned out!

Now to start on block 6!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along - Blocks 4

If you follow my blog, you know that I have a hard time following patterns exactly.  I tend to adapt them as I go.  Block 4 was no exception.  It was supposed to have four hanging ornaments, but I saw someone fussy cut a fabric with a six pointed star in the center for the largest of the original ornaments.  It occurred to me that I could paper piece a star and make mine look similar.  So that's what I did.

I'm also sticking with a red, white, and green color scheme and it helped me stick to my fabrics.  Since I'm using batiks it's hard to find a ton more to choose from.  Not that I'm complaining, I LOVE my fabrics I'm playing with.

I love the fussy cut snowflake in the middle!

The final block.  

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Block 2

Today I'm going to inspire you with my latest block for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long that's going on over Facebook.  TWO new blocks come out TOMORROW and I can't wait, but for today, here's my block number two.

I rearranged the trees to focus on the snowflake/explosion in the background fabric.  I couldn't stand the thought of cutting it up.  I also decided to applique instead of paper piece.  Here is the block before blanket stitching.

 And here it is after blanket stitching.  I think it helps define the trees with the gold on them.

And my first two blocks together!  I am loving this and can't WAIT until tomorrow!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy