2017 Christmas Quilt-Along Starts this Friday!

♫It's the most wonderful time of the year♫... time for my annual Christmas Quilt-Along!!

The Quilt-Along starts this Friday, December 1st.  This year's project will be pretty straightforward—with standard piecing and blocks suitable for all quilters.

Here's what you'll need for this year's Quilt-Along:

• 3 fat quarters - red prints
• 3 fat quarters - green prints (you can get away with 2 fat quarters and 1 fat eighth)
• ⅛ yard gray print
• 1½ yard white fabric for background (I'm using a solid)
• ⅓ yard fabric for binding
• 1⅔ yard fabric for backing
• 26" x 60" piece of batting

Wondering what shades of red and green to buy?  Here's a hint...

This year I'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between December 1st and December 22nd, that way you'll have the weekends to catch up if necessary.  You can follow along with the Quilt-Along here or on Instagram and Facebook @JenDalyQuilts.  

I can't wait to get started and hope to see you back here Friday!

Wool Appliqué - Free Pattern

Tomorrow I'm teaching a Wool Appliqué class at a local Sew-op and I've had so much fun stitching up samples for the class, that I thought I'd share the love and make the appliqué pattern available to all!

Here's a peek at the pattern:

Here's one of the finished samples popped into a 5" x 7" frame:

And the second made into a 12" x 16" pillow:

I cut the background fabric for both projects into an 8" x 10" rectangle.  To stitch the samples, I used two strands of embroidery floss and a Blanket Stitch for the topmost shapes and a single strand of embroidery floss and a Whipstitch for the stem and the larger, bottommost shapes.

To finish the framed version, I layered the stitched project with a thin piece of batting, wrapped both around the glass that came with the 5" x 7" frame, and inserted the unit into the frame.  

For the pillow version, after stitching, I trimmed the background down to a 5" x 7" rectangle and added scrappy squares and strips around it to make it into a 12½" x 16½" unfinished pillow top.  I used an envelope closure for the back of the pillow and inserted a 12" x 16" pillow form.

If you'd like to make your own little wool appliqué project, you can find a pdf of the pattern here.  

Happy Stitching!