The Sweater Quilt Christmas Adventure

Pattern found HERE

When I designed “The Sweater Quilt,” a Christmas version was first in my mind. I was looking through upcoming Christmas fabric and was smitten with Christmas Adventure by Bev McCullough of Flamingo Toes for Riley Blake Designs. The fabric is not normally in my go-to color choice. It is bright and pastel while I tend toward muted fabrics and saturated colors. However, when I saw the adorable Christmas lights on the darker blue and the classic argyle prints-I knew this was perfect for The Sweater Quilt.

This pattern is great for beginners because it is a row by row quilt but with stripes in between rows so there are no seams to match between! It is also a good practice of a few basics in quilting: four-patch, HST and Flying geese!

The Christmas ornaments with tiny bicycles were so whimsical yet the little golden accents added a little glam. The argyle prints are classic sweater patterns so it fit in with my theme.

This fabric collection stands out on its own so well that I wanted a simple place to photograph it. I wanted grey stone that would contrast with the bright and lively colors in the quilt. After driving around to numerous old buildings we found the perfect spot at an historic mansion turned church. The building had beautiful stairs and stone exterior fences that were perfect for displaying a quilt.

This pattern has two of my favorite block to make: stars and four patches. I love the bold flying geese star because it shows the fabric in all its glory. The HST star is one of those blocks that is relaxing as it is mindless sewing. I find sewing lots of repetitive seams therapeutic and calming. The four-patches in this quilt pattern provide a nod to something classic. To me, the four-patch is quintessentially a quilt. I knew that it would make the quilt feel familiar and cozy.

Let’s talk stripes. I really wanted this quilt to read like a sweater as if it were picture or portion of a sweater. To emphasize that horizontal look, I decided to add stripes. I love how the thin stripes outline the thick stripes and really set off the star rows and four-patch rows. The wide stripes are also a great place for some fun quilting. Lin (@linsewsnquilts Instagram) added classic argyle prints. While it can be harder to see this texture in photos-it absolutely show up in real life. I love the quilting Lin did!

This was one of the most fun photoshoots because the quilt is bold and strong and it just contrasted nicely with the stone. I can’t enough of the photos…