Christmas Quilting Ideas…

Hello, hello, it’s Kirsty here from Bonjour Quilts with another round of weekend musings for you. So prepare to mull over these Christmas quilting ideas with a cup/glass of your favourite beverage and a nice, comfortable chair. Let’s go!

What I’m Sewing…

It’s all about the holiday season here at the moment. If you’re also looking for some Christmas quilting ideas, especially smaller, totally doable projects, then these could suit!

Poinsettia Fleur Mini Quilt

I have a poinsettia version of my Fleur Mini Quilt pattern finished.

This little guy is only 11″ square finished and uses two shades of red to recreate the classic Christmas plant. The darker red fabric forms the outer petals while a slightly lighter red forms the central petals.

I struggled to get a good photo that shows the two red fabrics – it’s hard to tell them apart here. But there is a difference, I promise! One’s a proper red while the other is a more salmony red.

As well as the Fleur Mini Quilt pattern, I also have a version with a much larger block size (which are used to make a queen size quilt). So if you’d like a larger sized poinsettia bloom then the Fleur Queen pattern will fit the bill.

I must also mention I’m in love with the Art Gallery Fabrics background fabric for my Fleur Mini.

The fabric is called Starry Sky and is from the Christmas in the City line. It also comes in a lovely light pink and hot pink version (seen on Etsy here). Those sweet little stars, with the slightest bit of metallic shimmer, are perfect for any Christmas project. As you can see, I snapped up a couple of yards of this one.

Quilting my Poinsettia

I quilted my Fleur poinsettia with a cross hatch quilting design, but using organic, wavy lines. Organic just means I couldn’t be bothered marking anything out so I eyeballed it! I quite like the little-bit-crazy feel it adds to the mini quilt.

I used a light grey thread which is always my go-to when there are several colours in the quilt top. Dove grey blends in nicely with almost every colour fabric.

(If you look closely you’ll see that with a few of the lines I had some stitch problems. My walking foot died a slow death as I was sewing this. Thankfully I had a second one and the problems stopped once I switched the foot over. But for a while there I though my machine was cactus, so I was happy to realise it was just the foot.)

On the back I also used another AGF fabric that I’d had in my stash for at least 5 years. I really love the mustard/gold colour and it works beautifully with the Starry Sky fabric, which I also used for my binding.

I used this mustard fabric for a fussy cut project several years ago, but since then it languished in my cupboard. This smaller backing was just the right size to use up the remaining FQ.

Spokes Mini Quilt – Christmas Version

I’m also sewing up a version of my Spokes mini quilt. Technically it’s done – quilted and bound and ready to put up in my kitchen.

Here it is:

Each quadrant is a different Ruby Star Society fabric – they are from varied lines but are all Warm Red and so work together. This is what I love so much about all the Ruby Star Society fabrics, you can collect them and be assured they’ll work with each other. Not only across the years, but also across the different lines. It’s so helpful!

You can find Ruby Star Society fabrics here in the US, and here and here in Australia.

Quilting my Christmas Spokes

This was so much fun – consistent straight line quilting is so soothing! As I mentioned before, my main, standard walking foot died while I was quilting my Fleur poinsettia. I had just recently bought a quarter inch walking foot from the lovely Kim at Kimz Sewing and Patchwork to use for sewing on bindings. I was hoping it would make my machine bindings more accurate, but that hasn’t eventuated. Seems the problem is me! (…I’m the problem, it’s me.)

But this quarter inch walking foot works perfectly fine as a standard walking foot, and I’m happy I had it on hand.

To see this Christmas quilting idea come to fruition I did have to use my Hera marker to mark some diagonal lines. I marked each main diagonal and then used my quilting ruler to mark one inch lines parallel to them.

Once I’d sewn all these one-inch-apart lines, I then went back and put 3 more lines in between each of these. Turned out to be quite a few lines in the end! But the texture is pretty fabulous and I love how it makes the piece quite stiff, so it will hang nicely on the wall without flopping.

I sewed a binding on from one of the four fabrics I used, and then hand sewed it down on the back. The backing fabric is at least 10 years old and doesn’t match the piece at all, so no photo of that! The fabric was such a large scale print it was only ever going to be useable as a backing. So I’m glad it’s out of the cupboard and earning its keep.

I feel this wall hanging would look better with some embroidery embellishment, so that’s what I’m doing now. I’ve pulled all my Christmassy purl cottons and DMC threads out.

So far I’ve used the cross hatches of my machine quilting as kind of a cross stitch weave to guide my simple stitches. I’ve started with this metallic silver DMC thread. It’s early days but I’m enjoying the process!

Interesting Links around the Interwebs

These ​adorable little hand sewn ornaments​ remind me of patchworking and make me smile. This ​ornament tutorial​ is also very cute.

This article made me chuckle – ​Holiday Recipes Dictated by Kindergarteners​. From the mouth of babes!

I shared ​this video clip​ last year and here it is again because it’s just such a clever, wholesome Christmas creation. And it’s a great song!

And don’t forget my tutorial to turn your favourite quilt block into a quilted Christmas placemat.

Love from the cats…

As always, Lulu and Tigger say hello and hope you remember how important it is to get your sleep during this busy season.

(Lulu hopes your bed partner doesn’t like to sleep with a foot on your face.)

Happy sewing, and enjoy the holiday season!

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