Christmas Holiday Quilt

Quilt for the Seaside!

Does anyone ever really regret starting a patchwork quilt when they are half way through and it seems like it will just keep going? Whenever I make a quilt (and I've made loads of them for some reason!). I always swear that I will never bother to make another one ever again and yet here I was struggling through another one...

My chosen Cotton+Steel fabrics.

I started making this when my mum and dad were visiting us in September. I bought the beautiful fabric as soon as the first Cotton+Steel range was available to buy online and knew that they would become a quilt of some sort. I used Stars in Mustard (Mustang), Metallic Arrows in Coral (Mustang), Tacks in Teal (Homebody), and all of these from the C+S Basics Range: XOXO in On The Rocks, Netorious in Plummy and Dottie in Jean Jacket.

I looked at loads of patterns and decided to add some white in and do something a bit different as a of the quilts that I had made previously have been using just square or rectangle blocks (apart from my first one!). I used the Flying Geese block technique from this quilt on the Purl Bee. I was a bit upset with myself for chopping the lovely colourful fabric into such small pieces but I really like the result now! 

Lots of pieces!

The longest part of the construction was putting together all of the pieces. I kept getting distracted by other projects, such as nice dresses and Christmas presents. So I had to set myself a deadline, which was to have this ready to take with us on our Christmas holiday, hence the name of the quilt. 

My design laid out on the living room floor.

After spending a good hour mulling over the sequence of the pieces, it actually didn't take me too long to pull this baby together. I took inspiration from the flip and sew method that I saw ages ago on Pinterest, and sewed each column onto the back fabric and wadding individually which helped bring it all together. I then stitched in the ditch along every other row to make it a bit quilty and get the square pattern on the back. I used some of the leftover backing fabric to bind the quilt, and stitched it to the back by hand. I wanted it to look really nice, and I have got so frustrated with binding in the past that I thought that this would be worth a shot. I managed to (almost) get all of the hand part done in the time that it takes to watch Love Actually!

Quilty squares on the back of the quilt.

Despite my lack of love of this quilt during the process, I am now loving it. I've already spilt tea and crumbs all over it, which I take to mean a symbol of true affection! And I'm already planning my next quilt... 

The finished article.

We had a lovely time away over the Christmas break in Newport, Oregon. We went to the Aquarium, had some lovely walks along the beach, ate lots of tasty food and had some very nice local beer and wine. The view from our cabin, which we found on Airbnb, was amazing and we went to sleep to the sound of the ocean (and sometimes rain) each night. Here's a couple of snaps from my Instagram feed:

How cute is the sea otter having a post lunch nap?

Moody sunset

Newport Bridge