Welcome back for Day 10 of the Winter's Walk Quilt-Along!
Today is the last day of our quilt-along and we're tackling finishing details!
Day 10: Finishing
Here's the link to today's pattern sheets. There are two pages today, one with all of the instructions for finishing the quilt, and a second with close-up pictures of the details on both my original Winter's Walk quilt and my variation pillows.
And here's where we're headed:
First off, let's talk snowman faces. For my original Winter's Walk quilt, I decided to embellish my snowmen so that they were in profile and appeared to be looking at the Christmas tree.
But for my Winter's Walk snowman pillow, I chose to have the snowmen facing out of the pillow. I added two button eyes to each and gave them crooked little smiles. I also adjusted their noses by making them a bit shorter and curving the wider ends. I think I actually prefer the curved carrot nose, so I've included both patterns to enable you to choose whichever you prefer!
I went back and forth a lot about whether to give the snowmen arms, but in the end, I decided to keep the snowman shape simple and didn't add arms to either project. Definitely feel free to embroider arms on your snowmen though! That's what so fun about embellishing a project with embroidery—the opportunity to truly personalize your quilt!
I decorated the Christmas tree on the original quilt with red embroidered garland and white embroidered stars:
The tree block is another blank canvas that you can embellish to suit your preferences. You could bump up the embroidery by adding more garland, maybe even with a metallic floss, or by adding stars in different colors. Don't like to embroider? Try decorating the tree with small buttons or beads. The sky's the limit!
I was really happy with the embellished quilt top when I finished my first Winter's Walk quilt, but I think the big-stitched quilting in a cross-hatch pattern sent it over the top! The diagonal lines act as frames for the "snowflakes" and I love how not quilting over the tree and snowmen make those blocks seem to advance. The quilting in the outer border doesn't show up as much, but it does give it dimension and accentuates the zig-zag shape of the Flying Geese.
However you choose to quilt your Winter's Walk wall hanging, I'm sure it will be lovely. I started out as a hand quilter, so I always tend to think of cross-hatching and echo quilting first, but I can't wait to see what you come up with when you finish your quilts!
And that, my quilting friends, brings us to the end of the 2020 Winter's Walk Quilt-Along! It's been a pleasure quilting along with you and an absolute joy to see your work on social media. I hope you've had fun and that you'll love your finished quilts. I also hope you have a joyous holiday season and a happy and healthy new year!
All my best!
—jen
