Penny Christmas

When I finished setting up all my Christmas decorations this year, I was very happy - my house had lots of Christmas, but wasn't cluttered or tacky.  And yet, it was missing something.  One little thing that would make it complete... A Christmas quilt.

Yes, I live in Brisbane, Australia, where our Christmas Day hit 31*C (and it felt like more), but I'm a quilter and so I need quilts, at all times. Because one a hot day, there's nothing like putting the aircon on and then snuggling under a quilt.

I happened to be wondering through the local Spotlight, and their Christmas range this year was just exactly what I was looking for - neutral!


I love text fabric, pretty much any time, and combined with the linen look calico-y brown, and the screen print-y tress, it made my heart happy.  I also bought some greys, not pictured (not sure why not, sometimes I don't even know what goes on  in my head).

I just wanted simple and easy, so I turned to a pattern I have used before - the Penny Patch.  It's not a complex pattern, it is essentially just having the maths worked out for me, but honestly, sometimes that's my biggest challenge.  I happily set to with the cutting and the strip piecing and before I knew it all my components were done.  I laid the top out on my floor and shuffled it around a bit.  In retrospect I probably needed another 2 or 3 fabrics to get that really scrappy - no fabric touching thing, but I let that go and just went with the overall feel of the top.  Which means that there are a few places where the same fabric is side by side. C'est la vie!

 
 
The finished top is lovely and calm, and neutral, but still Christmas-y.
 
And while I finished the top super quick, I decided that since the plan is for this to be part of many Christmas's going forward, I'd hand quilt it, so I spent many evening sitting beside the twinkling Christmas tree stitching away.  I'm about halfway through a simple diagonal crosshatch.  I'm not sure if I'll keep stitching throughout the year, or if I'll set it aside and pull it out again come December and keep it solely for Christmas stitching, but I'm happy to call this a seasonal finish.
 
I hope your Christmas was amazing and that it is a sign of good things to come for us all for 2018.
 
E xx 

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