Holly & Berries - Have A Jolly Little Christmas quilt

It's beginning to look a lot like... Christmas!

This is my second finish using the blocks in the free Have A Jolly Little Christmas quilt along. You can read all about this free quilt along here.

This block is Holly & Berries.

It really is a simple block. In the above setting, the blocks were joined without using sashing. Giving it a more abstract look. But I am really excited about how they would also look WITH sashing! This setting would allow more of a definition of the Holly & Berries block.

For these projects I'm making for the Have A Jolly Little Christmas quilt along, I am making from my stash. The first thing I did to prepare, was to do a bit of sorting. I wanted to find out just what did I have in a white/offwhite solid. And I measured all those pieces of yardage and planned accordingly.

My Sampler quilt shown last week in this post, was made with an off white background. Whereas, this Holly & Berries quilt was made using a true white background. It's not noticeable on their own, but you can see when they are side by side that the sampler quilt has more of a yellowish hue.

All the other fabrics are also from my stash. You really only need small pieces for the sampler blocks. And I am determined to start using my fabrics this year and to resist making purchases if I can. It is difficult to resist shopping for new fabrics, but I found some perfectly suitable pieces already on hand.





When it came time for quilting, I went with my usual organic wavy lines. I used Ghost White Magnifico thread by Superior Threads on top and plain white Guetermann in the bobbin. I used to do A LOT of quilting in white. And the beginning of this year will have a lot again.

The backing is Winter Garden by Susan Winget for Steele Creek Studio, which I found two years ago at Fabric.com. I fell in love with this print and bought it when it was on sale. I bought A LOT. So you'll be seeing more of this too.

The binding and the berries were made using a long time stash favourite of mine from Robert Kaufman. It is almost gone now. (Insert sad face emoji here.) But I love how festive it looks paired up with the green plaid print. It's not such a true red, but a little more orangish, like a tomato. And those wee flowers? So cute!

But apparently the binding fabric was not as wide as standard yardage. My four lengths were not enough and I was short by only a few inches. I rummaged through my scraps from this project, and could find none of the red. I thought about cutting into the wee bit of yardage that I have left....

But instead grabbed a piece of the green plaid out of those scraps and finished off my ends. Don't know that I care much for the red thread on the green bit when I machine finished the binding though.

The "Holly & Berries" nine block quilt finished at 40" x 40"

and was the 16th use of my 2nd edition of 100 labels

ordered from Ikaprint.

This is the second project I have made using the blocks designed

for the "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt along.

The free colouring page has been downloaded over 1900 times already!
And tomorrow the "Winter Mittens" block instructions will be posted.

Are you quilting along?

 Click here to go to the "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt along page.

My first finished project made for the Have A Jolly Little Christmas quilt along can be seen here.

It is NOT necessary to purchase the pattern in order to participate in the quilt along, but if you would prefer the convenience of using a printable pdf pattern, the Have a Jolly Little Christmas Collection includes all 15 designs and is available for purchase in my pattern store here.

Linking up to Finish it up Friday with 

Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

Keep On Quilting On!

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