Christmas wreath

So many of you have made such wonderful Christmas quilts and decorations. I always think I really should get to work and add one piece every year as a tradition but December is really too late to be thinking about that isn't it? I should start in July... But I never do. I have lots of little Christmas ornaments, many of them hand made but I only have three small Christmas quilts for my walls. I thought I showed this before but I can't find it in my blog so maybe not.

Here is another quilt without a date on it so I don't know when I made it but it was at least 5 years ago. Maybe 10. One summer I bought the book Quick Watercolor Quilts and decided to try my hand at the techniques introduced there using fusible interfacing. I made three or four of these little quilts but only kept this Christmas one. I found some pink poinsettia fabric with metallic outline and cut it up into 2" squares. I also found some light pink striped fabric and cut that up likewise. Then it was only a matter of arranging the squares on the fusible interfacing (I'd drawn a grid) fusing and then sewing.

But... It all seemed too squared off and too many corners so I started cutting out the leaves and flowers from the poinsettia fabric and fusing them to the pink fabric. It turned out to be a long~~ process but I'm glad I did it. After fusing, the interfacing is just folded and sewn so it really is a quick process if one doesn't get carried away like I did. I especially liked the way the striped fabric made a woven effect. Finally I hand quilted with metallic thread around all the flowers and leaves (getting carried away again).

Since this quilt is in pink it doesn't look quite so Christmassy so it stays up on the wall until nearly Valentine's Day! It doesn't go with the red, white and green of the rest of the house but that's the best I can do right now. Maybe I can make another one in more traditional colors next year... Next year... NEXT YEAR!!!