Christmasl QAL & Challenge Finale

Our venture began back in June with the lovely Joanna as our first hostess and Hazel was our alternating months hostess. And it was nice that they ran the QAL for the weekend so you could join in either day. We also got the big Challenge given to us by the spearhead of this venue - Sue @ Quilt Times.

The Challenge

Make a quilt on the theme of Christmas without using the colours red or green.

The small print:

·         The quilt may be any style, as long as it has two layers of fabric enclosing wadding, secured by quilting or tying

·         It may be any shape, but must measure no more than 96” around the outside edges.  ie, it could be a square 24” x 24”, a rectangle  8” x  40”, a triangle measuring 36” on each side,  a circle with a diameter of 30”, or any other shape you can think of, as long as the total outside edges do not add up to more than 96”

 ·         If the design is not your own, you must credit the original designer

 ·         It must be completed, including binding, in time for your final photo to be included in our grand parade in December

·         You will be asked to send one photo of your finished quilt with a ruler along the longest edge to prove it meets size restrictions to your hostess  in December

·         To be eligible to win the prize you must have joined at least three of the Quiltalong Linky parties with a post during the weekend showing what you are working at that time.



Now I am not a huge fan of Christmas print fabrics, and I do love working minis - so this challenge was really easy for me and scraps were pulled out for play.

They became the base for my project.  If you are familiar with the 'twister' template, this sqaure setting makes sense to you.  Yep, lots of scrappy 2.5" squares, then a solid border - waiting to be chopped up!

With the mini Twister only 1.5" square, I bought the small rotary which made it much easier cutting these.  No room for error inbetween those cuts as you can see - as well as that project really shrank down once cut and re-sewn.

All cut and re-sewn for a mini tree - ready for decorating.  Yes, that border fabric had a silver 'sparkle' to it - not the easiest fabric to sew thru.  And there are some really heavy seams to this, so it is going to have to be finished by hand.

Lots of tiny beads and buttons (no red or green) and metallic threads in siver, gold, and blue - all hand tied.

I went thru that package of beading needles.  As they got more and more bent, they eventually broke.  I made it thru the project and one (bent) needle left.

Since we need to show the size meets the challenge - a photo with tapes.  Finished at 12.5" x 14".

And I made sure there was no red/green on the back either.

So I present my piece for the Challenge - please be sure to visit Sue and see what others have completed for their challenge.  I, also, find it funny that this QAL/Challenge started with a tropical storm - Andrea (boy it rained) and ending with our first major winter storm (at times we are to see 1-2" an hour). And boy it's cold!!  Looks like a blue and white Christmas for us.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon