"Tis the Season to Finish Our Quilts!

We all have our long holiday to do lists, putting this quilt together for the holidays would be worth every sewing-quilting moment you take to finish it. It will be an adorable quilt for you to put out for Christmas, also a great quilt to decorate your guest room with. Your holiday guests will love being welcomed with this cozy warm holiday quilt. I find quilting to be relaxing and enjoy doing my hand sewing in front of the TV watching movies. so when you get to the binding and embellishment stage of this quilt. Turn on the Hallmark station, (there's bound to be some traditional Hallmark Christmas shows on) sit in your favorite comfy chair and enjoy finishing your Christmas, Tis the Season quilt. Oh, and don't forget a plate of Christmas cookies and a cup of hot cocoa, (or a glass of wine). A couple of Hallmark movies and some hand stitching will surely help you relax and enjoy the holiday season.

I have all of my blocks and sashing laid out by my sewing machine.
I'm all ready to sew together my quilt top.

Here I am sewing a sashing and pinwheel strip following my quilt layout diagram.

I have my quilt top all sewn together except for the borders.

Here I am sewing on the borders, making sure to match up the seams

to set the snowmen as the corner blocks.

Here my darling nephew is posing with my quilt top.

I think he really likes it too!

You still have time to catch up if you are a block or two behind. This quilt will be so much fun to put out for the holidays. It would also make an awesome gift for someone special. The pattern for finishing the quilt up can be found for FREE this month in my Craftsy Shop and also on my website. Also, if you ever need to find past blocks or tutorials, I have a tab at the top of my blog labeled 2016 BOM that you can click on to get links to all past blog postings for this quilt. A complete listing of fabric supplies can be found on my website, Craftsy Shop and also under the 2016 BOM tab on my blog. Remember to post pictures of your progress on Instagram #quiltdoodledesignsBOM2016 (you can also tag me at Quilt Doodle Designs) There is also a flickr group you can join and post pictures. I love seeing pictures of what you guys are doing with the Tis the Season patterns. It is soooo much fun to see the quilt made in different fabrics! Love it!

Button packs are available in my Etsy Shop. I have packaged the button packs a couple of different ways. Either as one big pack with everything in it or individually for each design/row.



I hope that you have fun making this block this month. Email me if you are interested in joining in on a blog hop show and tell. Send me you email address, blog address, and name. I will put together and email you a day to present your finished quilt. If you don't have a blog and want to participate, let me know and I will post  your pictures for you.

Our blog hop will be January  19th - 22nd.

There will be all sorts of fun prizes for our blog participants and visitors!  Remember to post those calendars! I can't wait to see everyone's finish quilts!

 Happy Quilting!

Cindy

August's Block ~ Santa Claus!

This month's block is Santa! Did you know that if you don’t believe in Santa, you’ll get underwear in your stocking! Well that's what I told my boys thru out the years and I can report that I have never put underwear in anyone's Christmas sock. My  boys are 30 and 21 and they still believe in the spirit of Santa and we still fill Christmas socks during the holiday season. My family certainly believes in Jolly St. Nick, so I had to include him in the BOM quilt! I love seasonal quilts and love setting quilts out for Christmas. There’s something extra special about a Christmas quilt.  Let’s have fun a make a row of Santa’s for our Christmas quilt. (If you don’t want a row of Santa’s, feel free to repeat one of the previous blocks.) So let’s get started…

Here I have all of the pieces laid out to sew the 'plain' Santa block. 

I have sewn the squares onto the rectangles to form Santa's hat.
I'm all ready to construct the Santa block. I made two for my quilt.

Love how my plain Santa block turned out. The buttons
are perfect for Santa's nose and eyes.

My picture is sideways.... but thinking about sewing all of these squares together will do that to you! lol.... you can see I have all of my blocks lined up ready to sew, but first I need to sew my triangle squares.

All of my triangle squares are done, so now I'm off to finish putting
my checkerboard Santa together.

'Checkerboard Santa'
I only used two fabrics for my Santa's hat. You can use several different red fabrics for a scrappier look. I made a total of 3 checkerboard Santa blocks for my quilt.
I didn't sew the buttons onto my quilt until I was finished quilting it. It's not pleasant working around buttons while you are machine quilting.

The pattern can be found for FREE this month in my Craftsy Shop and also on my website. Also, if you ever need to find past blocks or tutorials, I have a tab at the top of my blog labeled 2016 BOM that you can click on to get links to all past blog postings for this quilt. A complete listing of fabric supplies can be found on my website, Craftsy Shop and also under the 2016 BOM tab on my blog. Remember to post pictures of your progress on Instagram #quiltdoodledesignsBOM2016 (you can also tag me at Quilt Doodle Designs) There is also a flickr group you can join and post pictures. I love seeing pictures of what you guys are doing with the Tis the Season patterns. It is soooo much fun to see the quilt made in different fabrics! Love it!

Button packs are available in my Etsy Shop. I have packaged the button packs a couple of different ways. Either as one big pack with everything in it or individually for each design/row.



There's also a handy dandy grab-able button to post on your blog to help me promote and get the word out about this fun Christmas BOM .  Please help to spread the word!

I hope that you have fun making this block this month. It's one of my favorites to do. I made a couple extra ones for some companion projects to go with my finished quilt. The 8 1/2" Santa can be substituted in my Reindeer Pillow pattern to make a Santa pillow. Wouldn't that be adorable to put out for the holidays? Stay out of the heat, grab a glass of iced tea and do some quilting. It's a great way to spend a hot summer day!

 Happy Quilting!

Cindy

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Been Stitchin'

I can't believe that it's Thanksgiving next week! Everyone tells me it's late this year, but it snuck up on me! I usually have most of my Christmas gifts bought by now, I'm usually working on projects for gifts! I stayed up late last night and was stitching away on some dishtowels. I love to have them on hand to give out as hostess gifts during the holidays. Sometimes I'll pair a cute dishtowel up with a brownie mix for a quick gift for a friend. I'm making extras to take into work to sell too. I think they are adorable, hope my co-workers think so too..... I also want to get around to making some table runners and a few other projects for gift giving. I feel like I'm so behind, I'm sure I am in good company (wink-wink). I'll be pulling out some of my fun quilty items to decorate with sometime this weekend too. I would love to share some of them with you too!

My NEW gingerbread girl mug rug pattern! Right now it's only available thru Craftsy and Etsy as an instant downloadable PDF. 

Here's Nutmeg, my gingerbread boy mug rug pattern, it is also NEW!

Frosty is a quick applique that can be finished in an afternoon.

My penguin mug rug can also be used as a candle mat or small mini quilt.

This is one of my most popular designs... The Grinch. Most of you know I love The Grinch and really thought while growing up that I was Cindy Lou Who. This pattern can be found on Etsy for a small fee but psssst.... it's free on my WEBSITE! 

Bundle Up Snowmen

Tasting Snowflakes

Little Deer, one of my first patterns....

I Love making mug rugs.... notice I put a top hat on my snowman....

These are just a few of the holiday/winter projects that I decorate and give to my family and friends as gifts during Christmas. All of these patterns are available on Etsy, Craftsy and also on my Website! (There are some cute little widgets you can click on the sidebar to take you instantly to my online stores)

My patterns are fun to do and many of them can be completed in a weekend or afternoon. Chances are good that you already have fabric in your stash to complete a project or two... I hope that you enjoy my little slide show and take time to check out my patterns! It's not too late to start those holiday projects. I'm off to do some more stitching and grab another cup of coffee. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and find some time to quilt.

Happy Quilting,

Cindy