A lot of the quilts I make start off by accident. That’s what happened with the Daydream sampler from Quilter’s World.
I do a monthly Facebook Live for Quilter’s World.** I brainstorm a few topic ideas for each one, and together we settle on that month’s focus. A few months back, I thought it would be fun to show how I would make the Daydream sampler with lots and lots of different fabrics.
I designed a cute little block for this month’s Quilt Block Mania called Wreath & Chain. I have some other blocks that go with it to make a quilt with nice big areas for gorgeous machine quilting.
Each designer uses the same palette for cohesion. But when I actually made my block, I used Stash Bandit colors.
I designed a few different centers for the block including a tree and a house. Here’s what I imagine the quilt could look like if the alternate blocks were plain. Some of these blocks were eventually scrapped in favor of more successful designs.
I’m showing it scrappy. I love how varied scrappy backgrounds can look, and scrappy reds are not far behind. I’ve colored it in solids using EQ8 quilt design software but I’d probably make it with prints from my stash.
Here is my fabric version, sewn from my stash. I wish I had yards of that teal-green print. It is luscious.
Get the free instructions for my block right here!
Be sure to visit the other designers who have complimentary blocks posted during Quilt Block Mania! They are all linked below.
Here are two blocks that caught my eye.
If you’re on Instagram, check out #quiltblockmania to see many more great designs quickly, all with the theme of winter celebrations. Thank you for visiting Stash Bandit!
And here are links to all of the designers and their free blocks. Enjoy!
Christmas Wreath by Slice of Pi Quilts
Baby Sue’s First Christmas
Celebrate by Inquiring Quilter
Gifts at Always Expect Moore
Snowflakes by Blockofthemodotcom
Gifts of Friendship
Fireworks at duck creek mountain quilting
Christmas Star by Michelle Renee Hiatt
Adirondack Mountain Quilt Block
A Present from Penny
Candlelighting at Pretty Piney Quilts
Poinsettia from QuiltFabrication
Harbor Holidays at Blue Bear Quilts
Christmas Cracker at Perkins Dry Goods
Sparkling Spruce at Patti’s Patchwork
Jingle All the Way at Orange Blossom Quilt
Snowflakes & Candy Cane Trees at Quilt Moments
Tower of Gifts by Oh Kaye Quilting
Winter Memories by Carolyn Burgess
Holiday Block by Seams to Be Sew
Ticker Tape Tree at Devoted Quilter
Evergreen by True Blue Quilts
Merry and Bright at Around the Bobbin
Ski Vacation
Last year I had this idea: Design a Christmas quilt with giant candy canes. The candy canes would be so big they’d cover the entire quilt. I nestled them together and topped them off with a Starlite™ mint.
Prancer’s Peppermints, designed and made by Diane Harris, appeared in Quilty Nov/Dec. 2018
Quilty magazine published them as Prancer’s Peppermints in the Nov/Dec ’18 issue.
Diane’s giant pineapple “Welcome” quilt, click for free instructions!
Then I thought it might be fun to make a giant pineapple quilt, and that’s how Welcome was born.
During the early fall and again after Thanksgiving, I’ve been piecing a scrappy version of Christmas Figs by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts, published by the Fat Quarter Shop.
Their quilt features the Christmas Figs fabric line by Fig Tree for Moda Fabrics. I had a fat quarter bundle of those fabrics that I’d purchased, and that’s what I used for the first few blocks. But I began to wonder if the blocks would be interesting enough with just those fabrics.
Twinkling Bright by Diane Harris for McCall’s Quick Quilts Dec/Jan ’18
I’ve been working on a new holiday quilt called Christmas Figs. It’s been so much fun!
The folks at Fat Quarter Shop sent me a review copy of the Christmas Figs book, and I could not wait to dive in.
Every year it seems like I have time to sew during November, December and January. Other people are busy shopping, cooking and decorating. But my life is the opposite, and that’s kind of a good thing.
Thanksgiving was quiet with just five guests (two bigs and three littles). The meal was easy and the company departed around 3:30. I sewed for four or five hours after that. We ate leftovers and quickie meals the rest of the weekend, so there were many more hours in the studio.
My exceptional longarm quilter said to me recently, “I think everything you do is modern.” I’d commented that I didn’t think of myself as a “modern” quilter, and her response gave me pause. I’ve been (very happily) fielding inquiries from modern quilt guilds, and the truth is that some things I design and make lean toward the modern aesthetic, some are traditional, and some are hard to put into a category.
Oh, Christmas Wreath by Diane Harris; quilted by Julie Lechner @beenquiltin
Today I’m introducing Oh, Christmas Wreath! This design is decidedly modern: solid fabrics, negative space, clean and fresh. Oh, Christmas Wreath appears in the Nov/Dec issue of Quilty, on newsstands now. I hope you’ll grab it when you see it or order it online in paper or digital format.
The Nov/Dec issue of Quilty magazine is on newsstands now, and I’m very excited to have two new quilt designs inside.
Ever since I started building the Jingle Bells Trunk Show to share with quilt guilds, I’ve been obsessed with making Christmas quilts. I’m constantly working on new ideas, and these two were a fit for Quilty. You may know that magazines work months in advance, so I actually pieced these in April and May for an early June deadline.
Around Christmas last year, I started piecing a simple chevron quilt made from triangle-squares. I sewed from my stash and was pretty excited with how it started coming together.
