2 Christmas Quilts Finished, screw the 3rd

I finished my tree quilts today YEAH!!! There was a 3rd winter-themed quilt in the making, but time isn't on my side. Hubby reminded me Friday night he would be gaming all day long, thus sewing machine time was quite limited. Andrea will have to be happy with her Bath and Body Works gift basket.

I am really happy on how they turned out...the pictures don't quite do them justice. I am still trying to figure out the best way to photograph my finished quilts, any suggestions? These guys were just hung to a wall with 2 tacks. Fancy, I know.






I got the pattern online. The pattern was supposed to be for a rag-quilt, not too sure what that even is, but it gave me the information I wanted, specifically how many squares to cut to make a tree. I added the star to make it more festive. The pattern had the tree on a white/daytime background. I decided to make one quilt with that background and the other with blue/nighttime background. I like the darker colored one better. Feels cozier plus the little stars create a nice effect (see close-up).

The darker one also has a nicer/more labor intensive border. I took the same fabric I used for the tree and cut it into strips. Like I said, it is a lot more work, but I think it looks more complete. Though I like the fabric and pattern of the dark one best, the quilting on the light one is my favorite. You can see in the close-up of the dark one I quilted 1/4th inch from the seams. This made the tree flat. On the light one I quilted "in-the-ditch" (aka the seam), resulting in a puffier tree. Speaking on in-the-ditch...this is something I learned making these quilts. Well, I learned, what I thought was in-the-ditch wasn't in the ditch. I also learned how to apply the binding properly and how to sew without the presser foot and feeding teeth on my machine...go me!

These were a joy to make. I can't wait to see my mom's and mother-in-law's faces when they receive them this week.