2018 Christmas Quilt Along Coming Soon!

Yay!  It's quilt along time again!  And the theme of this year's quilt along is "Deck the Halls" — I'm thinking garlands and greenery, holly and berries, wreaths and ribbons...  

The quilt along will start on Monday, December 3rd and once again, I'll be posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from the 3rd through the 21st.  The final project is a mystery that will be constructed and revealed in stages throughout the month.  This year we'll be doing fairly simple machine piecing (with some smaller patch sizes) making this quilt along suitable for most quilters, including confident beginners.

Here's what you'll need for this year's quilt along:

• ⅞ yard background fabric
• ⅞ yard dark red/burgundy print for piecing and binding*
• 2 fat quarters red prints—one should be a medium red print and the other a lighter/brighter red print
• 3 fat quarters green prints—one dark, one medium-dark, and one medium
• 1⅛ yard fabric for backing
• 40" x 40" piece of batting

*If you'd like to use a contrasting fabric for your binding, you'll need only ⅝ yard of the dark red/burgundy print and ⅓ yard binding fabric.

I'm going with a more traditional, warmer color palette this year—forest greens and cranberry reds set against a cozy tan background—but if you prefer brighter, more modern colors and prints please use what you love.

If you can't quilt along with us this year, be sure to follow along here or on Instagram or Facebook @JenDalyQuilts.  Hope to see you back here Monday!

—jen

Back to QAL page.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

6 inches of fresh snow on the ground is putting me in the holiday spirit!  I just checked the calendar and we've got a bit over 5 weeks until Christmas—plenty of time for some holiday sewing!  If you're looking for some ideas, here are a few of my latest Christmas projects:

The first is my "O Christmas Tree" advent calendar.  I originally made the calendar with muted flannels and assorted colors of felted wool to give it the warm, traditional look that I love.

But then I realized that the calendar would be equally cute made with a bright green tree and red, pink, and turquoise felted wool:

I'm not sure which I like better, so I may just have to hang both of them in my house this year—in different rooms, of course!  If you'd like to make your own advent calendar, you can find the pattern on my Etsy shop.

Next up is a sweet stitching project called "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."  I made two versions of this project as well.  One is a little hanging quilt—perfect for a door knob, a cupboard knob, a hook, whatever you like!

The second version is a darling pillow:

Both versions would make great hostess gifts!  You can find the pattern for these little cuties in the November/December 2018 issue of McCall's Quilting.

And last, but definitely not least, are "Jolly Janglers," my felted wool snowman ornaments.  

These ornaments are so simple and easily made with scraps of wool and homespuns from your stash. And you can give each it's own personality by embellishing them with different buttons, tiny jingle bells, or embroidery.  An added benefit:  finding the little branch arms will get you outside enjoying the wintry weather!

You can find the pattern for these irresistible ornaments in the November/December 2018 issue of Quiltmaker.  I challenge you to just make one!

All of three of these projects require a bit of handwork, which in my mind makes them perfect for this time of year.  What could be better than stitching a snowman or embroidering a felted wool penny ornament while enjoying a holiday movie—cocktail optional?!  Bliss!

Happy Stitching

— jen

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!

2016 Christmas Quilt-along Coming Up!

I've finally emerged from my pie-induced coma and, as promised, it's time to get ready for my 2016 Christmas Quilt-along!

I'm calling it a "Quilt-along" this year, rather than a mystery quilt, because we'll actually be assembling the quilt top by the middle of the month and spending the last week before Christmas embellishing it with embroidery.  We'll be using both traditional and paper piecing again this year, and the embroidery will be very simple—perfect for the confident beginner to intermediate quilter!  I can't wait to get started!

Here's what you'll need for this year's quilt:

    

• 6 Fat Quarters - 3 green prints and 3 red prints (I'm actually substituting a pink FQ for one of the reds because I'm going for a Christmas candy kind of look)
• 1 6" x 6" square gray print (mine looks like a solid, but it's actually got a subtle print)
• 1 yard background fabric (mine is the white/pink micro dot.  All of the embroidery we'll be doing is on the background fabric, so you'll want to choose a background fabric that the embroidery will show up against—nothing too busy, think subtle print—and if you can't find a print you like, a solid white will work just fine!!)
• 1 yard backing fabric
• ⅓ yard binding fabric
• 34" x 40" piece batting
• embroidery floss to match your fat quarters (mine are (from top to bottom) DMC's 817, 666, 3832, 937, 470 and 166).

It will also be helpful to have a washout marking pen, embroidery hoop and needles, and basting spray.

I mentioned above that I'm trying to use Christmas candy colors in my quilt.  Earlier in the fall, I wrote a post about my Holiday Games quilt and included some ideas for different colorways.  The red/pink/green version really caught my eye and it's the inspiration for this year's quilt.

The Quilt-along will start this Thursday, December 1st.  I'll be posting every other day throughout December and we'll finish up on December 23rd, just in time for Christmas! So exciting!!

And now before I let you go, I'd like to share some amazing photos of last year's mystery quilt, all made by readers of this blog.

This one was made by Jill and I love how she kicked it up a notch by adding the yellow piping:

Here's a beauty made by Maureen from Canada.  I had to include Maureen's home country because my husband is also Canadian!  Yay Canada!

And finally, here's my mom's version!  I love the quilted cross-hatch that she used in the inner border—it adds dimension and it's a great substitute for the big stitch quilting that I used in the original.

Thank you Jill, Maureen and Mom for sending me photos of your gorgeous quilts!

The free pattern/tutorial for last year's mystery quilt is still available on my blog, if you'd like to make your own little quilt.

In the meantime, I'll see you back here on Thursday!!

Holiday Games

So excited because I just received my copy of the latest issue of McCall's Quick Quilts!  

I've been waiting for this one, because it features my one of my favorite little Christmas quilts, Holiday Games.

Holiday Games is a truly fast and fun quilt that you can make with scraps of red and green fabrics from your stash.  In my quilt, I even mixed in some flannels and wovens, and I think they really contributed to the warm, homespun feel.  For fun, I also topped four of the trees with a wooden star button and instead of quilting the checkerboard center, I used perle cotton to stitch small crosses where the squares intersect—what a time saver!  I was definitely playing when I made this quilt, and I love the end result!

Just in case traditional or primitive isn't your thing, I've included a couple of EQ7 sketches of what this quilt might look like in a more modern color palette.

Here's a red, green and pink version that makes me think of candy. Yum...

And in this version, I've substituted turquoise for the pink.  Less candy-ish, but equally fun!

The December/January 2017 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts will be available on newsstands by October 25th.  You can also purchase a print or digital issue now at the Quilt and Sew Shop.

Happy Quilting!

Good Cheer

Boys back in school — check.
Daughter safely delivered to college — check.
Mourning period over — hmmmm.....

Ok, two out of three is going to have to be good enough because it's time to get back to work!

Today I'm a guest blogger at the McCall's Quilting/Quick Quilts blog.  Head on over to find out how this:

inspired this:

It's my Good Cheer table runner and it's featured in the October/November 2016 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts, currently available at the Quilt and Sew Shop or wherever quilting magazines are sold.

Happy quilting!