Pink patchwork Christmas quilt

Quilting friends, I have a confession. Lately, I am all over the place with my quilting and crocheting. There are so many fun projects I want to tackle, and dozens of ideas are popping around in my brain. Does the same thing happen to you? In my attempt to focus, I make very dedicated and particular project lists.  I even write notes alongside my lists, reminding myself not to have a squirrel moment. (Focus, Taunja!) But alas, the squirrel moments certainly do come, and I seem weak to resist them.

I’ve recently decided I should decorate my sewing room for Christmas, in a vintage inspired theme with pink as one of my main colors. (I blame my friend Ibby, whose home office last winter was decked out with pastel bottle brush Christmas trees, vintage themed ornaments and other darling finds.) So, I set out to about to follow her lead.  I gathered some super cute pink, red and white fat quarters and scraps from my stash, and then I stitched up this top a few weeks ago while at quilt retreat!

You know, I love the challenge of an intricate quilt pattern as much as the next gal, but I am also equally thrilled with the charm of simple patchwork.  Here I am, trying to wrangle my quilt while my mom took photos. There was a fair amount of giggling going on, to be sure!

My quilt top finished at 55 ½” wide by 66 ½” square, so it will be a nice little throw for my sewing room.  I cut my squares 6” x 6” and ended up with 120 squares, enough for 12 rows with 10 in each row.  (I chose 6” squares because I had a sweet panel from the “Twas” collection by Jill Howarth for Riley Blake Designs.  The Santa squares in that panel were 6”. )

Here’s a picture of the fabrics I started with.  A couple of them didn’t make it into the quilt top because they just didn’t look right when I laid out all the squares. After I omitted some, I had to pull extra bits from my stash. It was a sort of free-for-all in the end. Ha! I took notes of the fabric names if I happened to find selvage edges.  My parts and pieces came from Twas (Jill Howarth), Sweet Liberty (Brenda Riddle), Lighthearted (Camille Roskelley), Emma (Sheri & Chelsey), Oh What Fun (Elea Lutz), Spark (Melody Miller), Merry Little Christmas (Bonnie & Camille), Bee Plaids (Lori Holt) and Lollipop Garden (Lella Boutique).

You may remember that I used fussy cuts of “Twas” fabric when I made a Christmas version of my Nestled pattern! Character prints can be so inspiring!

I am planning to display a small Christmas tree in my sewing room and decorate it with handmade ornaments.  I’ve crocheted two sweet little stockings thanks to another great YouTube tutorial by Erica Arndt. (She also has a tutorial for mini stocking caps, which I plan to tackle next.)

These stockings were so much fun to make.  I was doing one of those happy dances in the living room after I finished the first stocking.  (Don’t pretend you’ve never done that!) The oh-so-pretty yarn is Scheepjes Stonewashed (sport weight) in Canada Jade, Moonstone and Rose Quartz. My crochet hook of choice was a Clover Amour hook, size G 4.0mm.

Since I’m in the confessing mood, I’ll admit that I have enough fabric in my sewing room to stitch projects for a year or more, I am sure.  But that didn’t stop me from picking up more fat quarters while on retreat.  Here I am with friends Cheryl (who has money to spare because she didn’t buy anything) and Sylvia (who purchased some neutral prints for a quilt for her son). I’m not going to tell you what’s in my bag, as that is another simple patchwork scheme in progress! I’m also tickled with my new measuring tape that I’ll store in my crochet tote!

My vintage inspired, pastel holiday sewing room probably won’t be realized until next Christmas, but that’s okay! I will have the whole winter to plan, make, enjoy, ponder and dream.

I hope each of you gets carried away by your own squirrel moments. Then I can say I’m in good company!

~Taunja

P.S. Be sure to scroll to the last picture.  Minnesota is glorious in autumn!