Annette's Quilt

Annette brought me this beautiful Christmas quilt that she had made using Laurel Burch fabrics.

She wanted lots of detail and variety. At first, she was thinking maybe a string of Christmas lights on the red background in between the ornaments. I got out my piece of Plexiglas and dry erase marker and sketched it out. By the way, this method is brilliant! Someone had posted on Pinterest about using clear Plexiglas as a 'drawing board' of sorts for quilting. I like it because it is a great way to test ideas before you quilt. I always have an idea in my head, but I'm never quite sure exactly how it will come out once it is quilted, and by then, it is too late. This is so easy, you just place the Plexiglass over the quilt and mark on the glass with dry erase markers to see if you like the design. Just wipe away with a paper towel after.

 

 

 

When I sketched out the Christmas lights, they didn't look like they belonged. Annette saw this pic on one of my Pinterest boards and liked this idea. I used this pic, which I believe is a stamp from shop.sweetstamps.com, as the basis for the red background fabric. Each ornament is unique. There are no two the same.

 

 

Each of the larger ornaments have their own design as well.

 



 

'NOEL' is spelled out as ornaments.

The letters of 'Joy' hang down like ornaments from the swirly branches.

 

When Annette first gave me the quilt, she said she'd like a Santa face in the red somewhere. I thought, hm, could be difficult. I started pinning Santa faces I liked and she told me which one she liked. Here is the Santa face she picked. It is the picture in the top left corner.

 

 

It was a little more challenging than the simple Santa faces I had been thinking of, but I think it turned out well. I'm slowly discovering that if I can draw it, I can probably quilt it:) And Sewingly Yours has introduced me to the most wonderful pen that makes marking super easy. It looks like a ball point pen, but all you have to do is swoop an iron (and not even a super heated iron) over it and, poof! Gone!

 

 



This is the pattern Annette picked for the outer borders. It is difficult to make out in the photo, but you can see it better in the following pic.

It is available at TK Quilting.

Each of the corners had a Christmas tree pattern. Annette asked if I could quilt some presents under the trees. I also decorated each tree. The tree in the pic above has a string of lights on it and the one below has little pearls hooked together like garland.

 

And if you look very closely under the right side of this tree, you can see the outline of a dog with reindeer antlers and ornaments hanging from them.

 

Thanks Annette for letting me quilt this beautiful wall hanging! Really had the creative juices flowing for this one!