A Quick Christmas Finish

Maybe a quick finish will be just the thing for me to get back in my groove. This sweet Christmas throw quilt top was the fastest finish I have had in a long, long time. Feels really good to share this already.

Honestly, I need to do more projects like this with large pieces, little (if any!) piecing, and satisfying results. I had only about 5 hours of total cutting/sewing time in this quilt, and it turned out great.

Back on November 9, when we had Frienzies' sewing with Sherrie, Frienzie Kay had two of these Christmas panels and gave me her extra. I didn't hesitate in accepting it! Seeing what she was doing with hers, I knew I would like a similar quilt for myself.

I didn't have a chance to do anything soon, though, because we heard the devastating news about Kevin's dad. But, while we were in Coshocton, I did take the opportunity to buy my fabrics while taking a walk one morning. I shared that stack of fabric in the last post.

I was too lazy to get correct names on all my fabrics, though, so let's dispense with that here. The panel and the red accent fabric are both from the Holiday Wish collection by Jan Shade Beach/Henry Glass. My silver dots is from Vintage Holiday by Bonnie and Camille/Moda. The green accent fabric is by Hoffman. The cardinal print (not shown in photo above) is from a line called Winter White by Lynnea Washburn/Robert Kaufman. (Clarification: the wreaths in this photo are on the edges of the panel piece; I have saved them for some future project.)

Last night, I decided to just get started. I mean, why wait? It promised to be a quick finish, so do it!

My original thought was to use just the 6 panels, but as I sewed the borders on them, I had a change of mind. I don't really have a wall for a wall hanging, and as a throw, the 6 panels wouldn't offer too much coverage. I knew I'd bought extra of the border print (the cardinal fabric), so I cut 3 additional panels of birds, bordered them, and planned a square quilt.

Once I had the panels bordered and the order of the designs set, I added the silver dot fabric for sashing strips.

The step above is where I stopped last night. The long horizontal sashing was my first task for today, and the inner and outer borders. See what I mean about being a really fast finish?!

The picture above is of the center of the quilt, the 2-inch strips of silver dots served as both sashing and inner border.

And my border print of cardinals completes this fun and fast Christmas quilt. Since I bought plenty of this, I made the outer border as wide as my ruler - 8.5 inches. I figured the more cardinals the better. Folks in our family have always been partial to cardinals, especially my late grandmother. This feature makes my Christmas quilt all the more special. The size comes to 63 inches square.

So, now I need to get busy with the quilting and have this ready for the holidays which are just around the corner. I hope I can be as fast on this next step as I was on the first.

Happy Quilting, Friends!