Christmas Quilts to Make

Treasure your Christmas with a special quilt.

Stitch up a cozy Christmas quilt and capture the spirit of the season for all to cherish. Express your Christmas joy with patchwork, appliqué or theme-printed fabrics using a holiday motif that stirs your passion. Whether a family heirloom, a special gift or a bit of cold weather comfort, your labor of love will gather memories to enjoy year after year.

Religious

Sew a Christmas quilt using the nativity scene as a source of inspiration.

Nothing speaks more clearly of the holiday than the nativity scene depicting the birth of Jesus. In addition to the Holy family, there are several components you may wish to include. Shepherds, the three wise men, stars, angels and an assortment of manger animals all make appropriate additions to consider when designing this quilt. Use repeating elements to simplify the process. For instance, you might alternate blocks of angels with blocks of stars to surround a large center depicting the nativity scene. Use coordinating printed fabrics, patchwork or appliqué your masterpiece.

Jolly

Keep a jolly spirit with Santa and his elves on your quilt.

For the young and young at heart, Santa's workshop is a beehive of activity, magic and wonder. Sewing up and delivering the jolly ol' elf himself surrounded by blocks of toys or his industrious helpers plants you firmly on the "Nice" list. And don't forget Santa's "ride." Applique Rudolph and the gang pulling a sleigh full of toys across a starry night background. Browse through quilting books for patterns or even flip through a Christmas coloring book for easy-to-copy scenes. Felt and vinyl are no-fuss materials for Santa, reindeer and sleigh. Stitch down vinyl laces between the reindeer and sleigh for the reins. Remember to add some miniature bells to your work; you'll want this quilt to jingle.

Lyrical

Choose a quilt theme based on a popular carol or poem.

Christmas carols and poems provide an abundance of inspiration for designing a quilt top. Individual words or phrases can also become part of your quilting lines. While piecing or appliqueing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" may be challenging for the novice quilter, "Little Drummer Boy" should present few problems. Repeating drum blocks, either printed or pieced, surrounding a center with the embroidered song lyrics should put a lot of "pa rum pum pum pum" in your creation: 21 to be exact.

Sweet

Candy canes can be a sweet and simple motif for a Christmas quilt.

If visions of sugar plums dance in your head, create a quilt for the sweetly inspired. Candy canes, gingerbread houses and even steaming mugs of hot chocolate should get the gastric and creative juices flowing. Traditional log cabin blocks easily transform into gingerbread houses with a little imagination and some well-chosen embellishments. Candy canes and their broken brethren: striped candy, also make useful alphabet material for spelling out a greeting. Just don't lose the illusion by making a perfectly round, unbroken "O."

Seasonal

Snowflakes and other symbols of winter make a quick and easy easy sampler quilt.

Snuggle under a sampler quilt created with winter symbols that delight you such as sleds, holly, snowflakes, snowmen, wool hats or mittens. Printed snowflake fabric makes a quick border for an appliquéd snowman center. Enliven Frosty's snowy milieu with color and form when you decide on your quilting method and design. Snowflakes, gusts of wind or even curling smoke from Frosty's pipe complete the fun with quilting lines. Sew a flurry of mitten appliqué blocks into a playful quilt by leaving the bottom of the mittens open for little hands to slip into. Consider using felt or fleece in lively colors and patterns for mittens or hats.

References

• Paper Piece a Merry Christmas, Jodie Davis, 2000
• Favorite Christmas Quilts from That Patchwork Place, Martingale & Company, 1999

Resources

• Christmas-Carols.net: Carol Index
• Christmas Patchwork Projects, Linda Seward, 1986