Make an Easy Christmas Quilt (or not!)
I have a new easy quilt design in McCall’s Quick Quilts! You can make it look like Christmas, or you can choose different colors for any time of year.
It’s called Very Merry, and it was fun, fast and simple to make. You’ll find it in their Oct/Nov issue, available in paper or digital versions.
Let me share a little about how the design developed. Before I was a quilt designer, I often wondered how people came up with original ideas for quilts. I couldn’t imagine thinking up something new on my own. I thought designs popped into people’s heads fully developed and finessed to perfection. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
Just an ordinary star quilt block…
It turns out that ideas often springboard from what’s already been done. This quilt began with thoughts of a traditional star. As I looked at that ordinary block, I wondered what might happen if I changed the proportion of the star points.
…led to a less ordinary star quilt block.
That question led me to the star above. One question led to another, which led to another and another.
This one is even more unique with its divided center.
What would happen if I divided up the middle patch?
How will it look if I make the quilt scrappy, including different fabrics for all the borders?
Could I have blocks of more than one size in the quilt?
What if I enlarged the block and made even more divisions across the center patch?
Could I use three sizes of blocks in the same design? Could that center patch be the same dimensions for all of the stars?
I was pretty happy with the design at this point. EQ7 quilt design software from The Electric Quilt Company is a marvelous tool that I couldn’t do without, and I used it to try out some different color recipes. These changes happen with just a few clicks.
Over time I have learned that design is great fun, hard work and sometimes a matter of luck and serendipity. I stumble onto ideas as often as I actually think of them!
Very Merry by Diane Harris, McCall’s Quick Quilts Oct/Nov 2017. Photo by Mellisa Karlin Mahoney. Used with permission.
I’ve also come to believe that ideas are born into a mind that is open, behind eyes that are looking! Ideas beget ideas. Every day I look at quilt books, magazines, blogs and shop sites to see what’s out there. Every day I have new ideas—some good and some less so. But no matter what, I keep playing, asking and creating, because that’s what makes the world go ’round for me.
Very Merry is part of my newest trunk show for quilt groups called Jingle Bells. It’s nothing but Christmas quilts, and boy is it FUN! Maybe your quilt group would like to see it. Please visit my Trunk Shows page and contact me today—let’s talk quilts!
Get the digital pattern for Very Merry.
Tags: Christmas quilts, easy quilts, mcccll's quick quilts, quilt design, scrap quilts, star quilts
Mary O.
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I like it , Diane.