Christmas Presents Quilt

I've mentioned before that sometimes I get so excited about certain fabrics or patterns that I have to buy enough to make two, or even three (sometimes four) of the same thing.  Such is the case with this Christmas quilt.   I kept the first one, I gave the second one to my sister, Karen in 2010 and just this week, I delivered the third one to my awesome friend (and Tualatin City Council President - I feel smarter and more important just saying it), Monique who won my blog give-away.  They are all the same, but just a little different, too.

The pattern is called "It's a Wrap" designed by Sandy Gervais.   She designed last week's quilt pattern as well.  The packages and bows are made using a "Holly Jolly" jelly roll.  One jelly roll makes 30 blocks.  The original pattern shows 5 blocks across and 5 down for a total of 25 blocks which leaves you with 5 extras if you make them all up.  Well, what are you going to do with 5 additional blocks?  I decided to make the quilt shorter by one row, needing only 20 blocks for the quilt.  That way, with two jelly rolls I could make 60 blocks and 3 quilts.

Additional fabric is needed for the bow background (just above the bow), the red cornerstones and cream colored sashing strips.

The pattern doesn't show any borders but it was just too long and skinny without them (in my opinion, especially when it was 5 rows long) so extra fabric was needed for the two borders (the narrow green one and the red ornament print on the outside).  The bias striped print is perfect for the binding (without having to actually cut strips on the bias).

Quiltmasters quilted two of the quilts for me using the "Christmas Lights" pattern.  I quilted Karen's myself with a bow design in the bow and stippling in all the lighter colored fabrics.  Can't remember what I did in the border.  I should have taken a picture of it and my sister when I was in Utah this summer.  Oh well.  You will just have to imagine.  The back of each quilt is a different fabric from the same collection.  Pictured above is the back of Monique's.  Mine is yellow too, but just has holly leaves, no ornaments.  This one is cuter.

Monique and I finally connected on Friday.  She chose the Christmas quilt over the table topper (I actually know someone who really wants the other one.  Hmmmm).  I've known Monique ever since I moved over to this side of Tualatin almost 14 years ago.  She caught the quilting bug from me and I actually helped her make one of her first quilts.  While I was at her house she showed me some new fabric she had recently purchased at "The (world famous) Stitching Post" in Sisters, OR.  Made me want to get started on something new.  Monique has encouraged me right from the beginning to keep blogging and to post the link on Facebook.  She told me I could turn my blog into a book and that she wants a copy. 

I've got some more Christmas quilts to show you this month and several in varying stages of completion that I wish were done and decorating my house.  And thanks to Bryce for building me a nice fire tonight and to Annie for playing Christmas music on the piano while I worked on this post.  I think it's done.  Happy December!