Christmas in July

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to play with Sweetwater's Hometown Christmas fabric for a Christmas in July theme for Moda.

This picture was actually taken in July, so it was literally  Christmas in July for one morning at my house.

I put together two blocks, a background center block and a print center block.

This is the background center block, or Block 1.  The amazing quilting is by Connie Lancaster, the owner of Quilts Plus in Indianapolis, Indiana.

This is the print center block, or Bock 2.

The pattern is a breeze, I went with 3 inch fabric squares and 3 inch half square triangles, but really you can go with any size that you like.  You can also piece as many blocks as you like, no rules here.

The family of fabric has some great prints but the plaids were my favorite.

And here's my finished quilt.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 197

I 've named it Christmas in July

It finished at 88' x 88"

The fabric is Hometown Christmas by Sweetwater for Moda.

It has approximately 1,573 pieces.

Carrie Nelson and the nice folks at Moda have written a pattern for this quilt and it's available for free on the Moda Cutting Table blog.   I think there may also be a giveaway, so check it out today. click here

Thanks Moda for the opportunity to create a fun project and bigger thanks to Carrie Nelson who helped wth the design and all the pattern work.

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Good Melon

"At that moment I knew.  I knew the way you know about a good melon".  

That quote is from the movie When Harry Met Sally, one of my all time favorite movies that I've watched countless times.  That line played through my head the last couple of weeks while I worked on this project, which I've named Good Melon.

Earlier this year Joanna from Fig Tree offered a curated bundle of fabric made up of melon color fabrics with a few tans.  The color combination really called to me, I rarely work with tan and thought it looked so nice with the melon toned fabric.  It reminded me of cantaloupe, thus the When Harry Met Sally line running through my head.  The fabric came with a split rail pattern that was fine but I thought I could do better.

While looking through my stack of patterns I ran across this one,

Scarlett Queen by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  A pattern that's been on my to do list for ages.   I think's it's the red that always appealed to me, but thought maybe it would look great in melon too.

I did change it up just a tad.  My center blocks were all melon, with some 4 patches but more not.

 I thought those corners in the pattern were a little fussy but after piecing the blocks knew I needed something, so I went with this instead.

I didn't really have the fabric I needed for that pieced border and gave this a try.

But in the end went with this, again, less fuss, just cleaner and simpler.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 206 - Good Melon

It finished at 64 1/2" x 64 1/2"

The fabric is a mix of several different designers but all Moda

The pattern was inspired by Scarlett Queen by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co

It has approximately 895 pieces

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Red and White Finish

One of my quilting goals for 2017 is to piece a Red and White quilt.  And this is my go to bible when it comes to red and white quilts, and one of my favorite quilt books.

 

I have at least 20 pages of quilts marked with post-its that I would like to make at some point, so it was just a matter of selecting one of the 20, which was easier than I expected, mainly because I know this is not my last red and white quilt.

So this is the quilt top I decided on, first, because as you know, hsts are my favorite block, and also because this is one of the quilts in my Red and White Tribute Quilt.  I think it would be fun to have life-size versions of all the mini quilts in my tribute quilt.

I pre-washed my Moda Bella Solids, and I used a color catcher for the red,  it didn't pick up any color at all, way to go Moda.

And Voila!

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 208 - Red and White Lady of the Lake

It finished at 66 1/2" x 74 1/2"

The red fabric is Moda Bella Solid Christmas - 9900-16 - the white is Moda Bella Solid 9900-98

It has 645 hsts for a total of 1,290 pieces.

The large hsts are 6 1/2" and the small ones are 2 1/2"

I miss-counted my 2 1/2" blocks and ended up with 125 extra, plus the pieces for even more.

That's OK, that's just a jump start on the next one, sometime down the road.

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