Christmas Smorgasbord

Finished at last – and now officially called “Christmas Smorgasbord”.  And what a smorgasbord of colours and fabrics it is.  Red and green, of course, with white, cream, tan, yellow and a little blue.  Stars of all shapes, mostly pieced, with a few appliqued as well.  The prints feature Father Christmas in many variations,  reindeer and holly, angels, wrapped gifts, bells, and baubles, Christmas trees, stars and teddies, in fact, everything Christmassy.

It started out like this, Christmas stars and nine patch blocks received from a couple of internet block swaps I took part in ages ago.  One swap for the stars, and the other for the nine patches in Christmas colours.  Thinking they would go well together, I combined the blocks into one quilt top.  And of course I didn’t have quite enough so stitched up a few more blocks to make it even.  I made the quilt top square, with seven blocks across and seven blocks down.

Most of these blocks were received through internet block swaps

Once the top was assembled, I machine quilted through the nine patch blocks, and individually quilted through each star block.  Then I quilted gentle curves around the borders, and lastly, applied and then hand stitched down the binding.  Some quilters don’t like stitching the binding down, but I quite enjoy this step - with just the label to go,  it means I’m almost at the finish line.

Almost finished

Like most of my UFOs, this quilt has been hanging about for much too long.  But it’s finished now, in plenty of time for next Christmas.  Which is only 7 months away, for those who are counting.

Christmas Smorgasbord