a Christmas Quilt is a Bowl Full of Cherries

So I made a Christmas quilt. I totally wasn't planning it but somehow I was at the fabric store and a bunch of Aneela Hoey's Cherry Christmas prints jumped into my arms and somehow made it out the door with me. (I did pay for them!) And a few days later I was making myself a Christmas quilt. Backed with minky.  Could it get any more cozy? Only when shared with a wiener dog and a cup of chai latte.

I used a quilt as you go method on this quilt - I think there are a few different types. The type I used (and I basically just winged it without looking at many instructions - as per my M.O.) was to quilt each individual block onto batting and then piece the quilted blocks together. Once I had a completed, quilted top I basted it to the minky backing and then stitched in the ditch along my block seams. In the end, I don't really think it saved me much time and the whole thing was rather bulky to stuff through my machine on account of the thick batting/block seams. This would be a good method to use if you wanted to do some really intricate or complex quilting that you felt you couldn't accomplish when quilting the piece as a whole with a regular sewing machine. But I think I'm done with this method for a while - didn't seem worth it to me.

But making a Christmas quilt totally was worth it! Randy is in love with it and it may be the warmest quilt we have ever owned. I plan to take it out of town with us over Christmas to brighten up our hotel room. In the mean time we are snuggling up underneath its cheery warmth while watching Christmas movies, drinking Chai lattes, and stroking our wiener. :)

Drunken Library Quilt

We've made a lot of quilts here at Hitched & Stitched, but until recently we had never made one for ourselves. I decided to remedy that oversight and came up with my Drunken Library quilt - so named because I think it resembles haphazard stacks of books. I originally imagined that it would be folded in thirds and draped across the foot of our bed. But anyone who has known me for long knows that I'm not what you would call a detail person and sometimes petty little things like measuring are just too much of a bother when in the midst of a creative whirlwind. I just kept adding blocks to the quilt until it "looked done" to me (and until I ran out of fabric). It turned out to be exactly the width of our bed and not an inch more - which sounds impressive but looks silly, since there was no overhang on the sides. So the quilt now resides folded and draped over the back of the lounge chair that sits in front of our bedroom window. All in all, I am quite pleased with the end product and glad to have our own quilt in our house for the first time!

Something I Made: Day 26/31 Day Photo Challenge

I've been working on a quilt for the foot of our bed for.....lets just say a while. Its a low-priority project - I work on it here and there. Maybe it will be finished by the end of the year. :) I bought all of the fabric, including pre-made binding (!) at one of my favorite little crafty spots: Sewn Studios in Oakley. I'm calling it the Library Quilt because I the piecing reminds me of precariously stacked books. I can't wait for it to be finished!