A Finished Quilt - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...Christmas!

 

It's a finish!  I put the last stitch on my "Not So Quiet Christmas" Quilt yesterday and it is now freshly washed and nicely crinkled!

The inspiration for this quilt was Amanda Jean's (of Crazy Mom Quilt fame) Quiet Christmas Quilt.  In fact, it's more than just an inspiration... I really, really loved her quilt and I wanted something very similar.  Except my low volume stash was not as extensive as Amanda Jean's and therefore, my quilt is a bit more bright - hence the "Not So Quiet" name.

My secondary inspiration was Adrianne's (of On the Windy Side fame) Echino Quilt.  I remember commenting on how much I liked that she had incorporated a few squares made of two - sometimes three - fabrics.  She replied that in fact, it was just the print, and all of these squares were made of a single fabric.  Regardless, an idea was born.  Just because a quilt is made of simple squares doesn't mean I can't piece some of those squares.  A few examples:

That was a great way to minimize waste, and to use every single bit of some well-loved fabric.  Speaking of well-loved fabric, here is my very favourite:

This fabric is the only exception to the rule I set for this quilt:  Christmas colours but no Christmas prints, white, beige, cream, green (including lime-y but not aqua) red (including coral but not orange or pink).  But, oh! those triangles...so awesome, I just could not leave them out!

For the quilting, I combined meandering with groups of three pebbles, like the holly berries that we use in Christmas decorations.  The back is nothing special, just used up some yardage that was languishing in my stash:

As for the binding, it was not my first choice, but I did not want a scrappy binding, and this was one of the few appropriate fabrics I had in large enough quantity.  It turned out to be the perfect choice!

I love a good quilt roll to showcase binding.  Here are before and after the wash quilt roll pictures:

And for the final shot, another favourite: the hammock picture.  This would have probably looked better with snow in the background, but I am not in a big hurry for the winter to arrive.  I'll settle for fall leaves for now, but I may have to take it out again for a Christmas-sy photo shoot when the snow starts falling.  Just saying.

On that note, it is cold outside, the kids have just put on Christmas music, and we are headed to a turkey dinner with extended family later today.  Despite the absence of snow, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

EDITED TO ADD - January 13 photo update:

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilt's Finish Up Friday and TGIFF hosted by Anja Quilts