Christmas Quilt-a-long Quilt Finish

Hello there!  Today is my DD's first day back to school.  Right after she boarded the bus I ironed the fabric I'd been planning to use for the binding of the Christmas Quilt A Long Mystery Quilt.  Clearly by now the cat is out of the bag.  But I have a little surprise.  I made mine reversible.   Then I quilted it so that the back was on top.  Now the binding is all attached and I am very happy to claim a finish.  This year has been speeding by so fast I really haven't had the number of finishes that I expect of myself, but we all have our limits so I will be happy with what I have. 

Christmas Quilt-a-long Mystery Quilt Front

It took me a while to sort out how to make this Christmas Tree.  In the end I opted for making it the width and height I needed and allowing the angles to resolve themselves.  This method did create more waste but I believe the results are lovely.  The packages underneath the tree where something I hadn't planned to add but the tree with it's star on top just cried out for gifts.

Christmas Quilt Back

The quilting is stars and loops around the yellow star.  I quilted it to look like a night sky where you have to look just a little to see the additional stars.  While I did stitch in the ditch around the star I did not quilt on the star itself, I wanted it to poof just a little bit. Around the tree on the brown background fabric, I quilted swirls to resemble the air movement and wind blowing around the tree.    The two darker brown strips each have a strip of stars quilted onto them.  The tree was fun to quilt with hanging loops shaped to resemble hanging ornaments.  Sometimes I added little wiggle of a quilting line to change things up, just like you would see on a tree in your home.  The presents, considering I was dreading making them I am very pleased with how easily they went together and were quilted.  For the most part the packages are quilted with metallic gold thread.  Into the packages I stitched my quilt label, so unless you are looking you simply don't see them.

The binding is a red that I had planned for one of the main colors in Sue's mystery side of the quilt, but I felt the red just wanted to conquer the teal.  A shopping trip found new colors that suited the entire quilt beautifully.    Sue suggested  I save the red for the binding.  As I was sewing on the binding thrilled to see how well the brown accepted the red.  It sure gives everything a little pop. 

Have you been up to anything good lately?  

A special Thanks to Tiny for being my model today.