Christmas Medallion Quilt

Needing a break from more challenging quilts, I actually made this quilt top earlier in the year. It's from this book:  

 It's one of the many books that I've picked up at thrift stores, where I love finding bargains for my crafting library. And as the title implies, the quilt was quite simple, and just the break I needed from more challenging projects. And, for being so simple, it's attracted a lot of compliments from my appreciative audience.

I had a collection of Christmas fat quarters, and it was from that collection that I procured my fabrics. I love this Christmas baking one that I used in the centre.

Actually, I think they are all pretty fabrics in this quilt. 

I was debating on what pantograph I was going to use for the quilting. I tossed around various ideas, and one of my co-workers told me that she thought I should use snowflakes. So that's what I did - choosing Deb's Snowflakes Meander. I've said before, and I still think it's true, that the only people to whom the quilting design really matters is the quilter. Only if I point it out, or if the recipient is a fellow quilter, will the quilting even be noticed. 

Well, this quilt then languished on a shelf for months: first, because I didn't have fabric for binding, and then, once I purchased the binding fabric, I was busy with other projects. And then I misplaced the fabric... So, I finally found the fabric and made the time to get the project finished. And I have now draped it over the back of my sofa.

It looks pretty, but I don't think it does the quilt justice because you can see only about a third of the it. If I had somewhere to store quilts and afghans, I would take the non-Christmas ones down off the quilt ladder and put up the Christmas ones... I need to declutter and create more space. 

If you've been following my blog or my Instagram, you're aware that I've been doing the #modastitchpink2020. And 2020 will likely be the only year I will do that, especially so close to Christmas. Nevertheless, I now have five rows done. 

These are the latest two rows, plus block 26.

One of my pet peeves about sampler quilts is that they're not very efficient for either cutting or use of fabric. Because you only do one block at a time, you cut one size of this fabric, another size piece of that fabric, etc, leaving a rather jagged edge on the fabric to work with. So, after completing row 4, I decided to pre-cut for the remaining blocks. I designed a spreadsheet in Excel, with the blocks across the top and the fabrics along the side, and entered what sizes I needed of each fabric for each block. It made for much more efficient cutting, and I have determined that if I should ever design a block of the month (BOM), quilt along (QAL) or sampler quilt, that is what I will do: give the cutting for the entire project up front. 

I kept my projects organized using the pantograph shelf on my longarm. 

Here you can see the maple leaves for the maple leaf applique quilt and the different piles of fabric for each block of stitch pink. I didn't pre-cut for blocks 24 and 26 because these were the remaining two blocks that had the extra strips of background fabric that I wanted to eliminate. And since I would have to modify those blocks, I decided to just cut the pieces as I calculated the dimensions I needed. 

This is block 24, which is probably my favourite block in this quilt.

And this is block 26. I completed both of these blocks before going back to continue in numerical order. 

I have been alternating completing rows of Stitch Pink with rows of the maple leaf applique quilt, and now have 3 rows of that one done. 

I really have a lot of trepidation about quilting this one, as I plan on using rulers. That's going to be quite labour intensive. The free motion part will be outlining the leaves and veins on the leaves. I was gifted a bunch of crochet cotton, which I might never use for crochet or knitting. But I am considering using it for couching when I outline the leaves and veins. 

I'd like to practice it, but I don't really have time. I want both the Stitch Pink and the Maple Leaf quilt finished for Christmas, plus I'm hoping to finally get the Northcott Connector Playmats stitched up for my grandson. I'm already cutting it pretty close. 

Enough "chatting" for now. Time to get back to working on these quilts.