Hi everyone,
Today is my day to share on the Christmas Collection blog hop hosted by Nancy of www.masterpiecequilting.com. I am excited that Nancy let me join. I appreciate that Nancy provided each of us with a copy of the pattern for our use in this blog hop.
When Nancy first announced the hop, I immediately knew which quilt I wanted to do. I love bells. In fact, i love everything about Christmas. I chose to work on the Jingle Bells quilt.
My original plan was that I would have 2 or 3 almost done, 1 of which was in wedding colors for a cousin, but they called it off. I thought it would be great to do the bells in a glittery white. Of course, it would be cute to do a quilt in Christmas colors and the bells in a glittery white.
One of the things I like to do when starting a new quilt is to make up a few blocks for a few reasons:
It lets me check that everything I am doing is accurate. Are my seams where they need to be? Did the block finish to the right size? It also helps me to know if the directions are well written and understandable. These directions are very well written.
I can do 1 block and quilt it up and use it for a hot pad. In fact, I can do several and have them ready for gifts. Just make sure to piece and quilt with 100% cotton thread.
I can put 1 or more together, depending on size of blocks and make some great throw pillow covers to use for decorating, and I have a great tutorial here https://kathyskwiltsandmore.blogspot.com/2019/07/christmas-in-july-12-days-of-christmas.html
Do I like my fabric choices? Do they work well together?
Practice blocks for quilting designs.
I put 4 blocks together and this will be a perfect size, after adding a border to make a doll quilt. And when you have 3 granddaughters (soon to be 4), it makes great gifts. It also lets you test your quilting designs.
The colors I have chosen for my quilt are: (my hubby picked out the green and the red for me)
green with gold sparkles
Red with gold stars
The gold is called turmeric and is part of the Northccott colorworks collection.
You can see the great solids in this collection by going here http://www.northcott.net/product-detail.aspx?fbid=38&colid=789&colorid=1231 then scroll down to find color 551.
The white is a wide backing that I found at my local Joanns fabrics.
So, I still need to finish my quilt. I want to do the applique by hand, but that may take a while, so I will probably do it on my machine. I am piecing it with aurifil thread, 50 wt color 2024. You can check them out at www.aurifil.com.
For the quilting I will go to my go to quilting thread of glide. I love the sheen that it gives you.
You can get this downloadable book from Amazon and here is the link www.amazon.com/Masterpiece-Quiltings-2018-Christmas-Collection/dp/0692199160/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Masterpiece+Quilting+Christmas+Collection&qid=1559564547&s=gateway&sr=8-1 and yes I did say downloadable, which means you will get it right away. That way, you can start on a Christmas quilt right away.
Be sure to go to Nancy's blog www.masterpiecequilting.com and enter to win one of 3 patterns for this quilt. If you don't win and would like this pattern, then you can go here to purchase it https://shop.mybluprint.com/quilting/patterns/jingle-bells-quilt/510744
I would love to hear from you and I would love to do a giveaway of my own. I would like to make a pillow cover or a doll quilt to give away. Leave a comment and which one you would prefer and the winner will get their choice. Be sure I have your email address so I can reach you. This contest will end at 11:50 pm on August 4th. Due to shipping costs, my giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
