~ Quilt #2 of 4 ~ Christmas Joy by Carol Swift ~

 For most of you the holiday rush is over but for me it's still in full swing.  Since the holidays can be so demanding on everyone, we have our celebration whenever we can get everyone in the same room at the same time.  Some years it's before Christmas, and sometimes it's after.  This year we will be celebrating Christmas and my daughters birthday all in one day on my daughters birthday in January.  That gives me 15 days to complete this quilt and 2 more.  Can I do it?  I think I can!  Believing you can is the only way to reach a goal.  

This quilt pattern, Christmas Joy is a FREE quilt along that is now over but the patterns are still available on the Thermoweb website.

 It was designed by Carol Swift of the Just Let Me Quilt Blog.  Some of you may recognize this blog.  Carol hosts many blog hops each year.  I'll be participating in several of them this year for the first time.  On her blog she also has several free tutorials and patterns as well as a patterns for sale.

The cute little chubby stubby Santa was hard to resist with his nose like a cherry.  I knew my grandchildren would love this jolly ole elf as much as I. 

My blocks are made using Thermoweb's Heat and Bond Lite, Aurifil thread, and scrap fabrics.  Working with scraps is my favorite way to make a quilt.  In this quilt there's a little bit of everything.  Moda, Riley Blake, Lakehouse Drygoods,  Walmart, Joann's and Choice Fabrics.  This mish-mashing of fabrics makes me happy.  For some reason it gives me a sense of accomplishment.  It must be the rebellious kid inside of me that refuses to follow the so called quilting rules.  Who makes these rules? I'll tell you who, MARKETING.  Yes, designer fabrics are better sometimes.  I won't name a brand but there's one in particular that is all the rage but the quality is not great.  If I can avoid it I do.  Their solids are worse than Joann's and Walmart's Waverly fabric.  To be honest my favorite solids is from Joann's.  Kona Cotton Solids, it puts all designer solids to shame.  Word of warning!  Not all Joann's solids is Kona, make sure you read the label.  There's a big debate out there in quilting land about the quality of  Kona fabric from Joann's.  All I can do is tell you to read this article about Kona and Kaufman Kona written by Bonnie Hunter.

Okay back to my blocks.

To stitch down the applique to the background fabric I used a small blanket stitch.  On my machine the settings is 7.0 long x 3.0 wide.

The pattern has a printable sheet for the applique.  This means you can print directly to sheets of EZ Print Lite.  I chose to trace mine by hand, much more time consuming but cheaper.  Oh my frugal ways!  That's my mom coming out in me, tighter than tree bark!  Funny how we try so hard to be different than our parents only to realize our parents had some pretty sound ideas and advice.

Putting myself on such a tight schedule has caused some quality issues.  I tend to bypass the basic rules in quilting when in a time crunch.  For instance....Measure twice, cut once.  After two cutting errors on one particular cut I finally decided to take a break, rethink my process and RELAX.  This is a self imposed deadline.  I've no one to impress but myself.  If it gets done great and if it doesn't OH WELL.  No promises were made that could cause disappointment.  Then back to the studio I went with a new plan of just do what you do with no pressure attitude.  It's smooth sailing from here, right?!  WRONG!  Look at my little snowman arms.  They are supposed to be on top of the white not under....sigh.  This is a minor mistake that will stay in the quilt and I'm not even going to fix the shadowing.  Sometimes you just have to go with it.  The grandchildren will not care about the arms so why should I.  He's still a happy little guy sure to put a smile on the little ones faces.  

#thermoweb 

#christmasjoyquiltalong 

#christmasquilt 

#freequiltpattern 

#rawedgequiltapplique

#podunkpretties

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