My Gift to You for the Christmas in July Blog Hop

Fellow Quilters,

Today is a busy day here – I am participating in 2 exciting events.  If you’ve hopped in from the Christmas in July Pattern Parade Blog Hop, welcome!  If you’re one of my blog followers and are thinking “Patti, what are you talking about?!?”, allow me to explain.

Carole from My Carolina Home has organized the Christmas in July one-day blog hop with 22 participating bloggers:

Table Toppers, Home and Kitchen
Inquiring Quilter
Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Cooking Up Quilts
The Quilted Diary
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Morning Glory Designs
Scrapdash
Days Filled With Joy

Small Projects
Geeky Bobbin
Sunburnt Quilts
Tamarinis
Tuning My Heart Quilts
Prairie Sewn Studios
Puppy Girl Designs
Ladybug Buzz
Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio

Traditional and Modern Quilt Patterns
Ms P Designs USA
Quilt 2 End ALZ
Patti’s Patchwork (that’s me)
Cotton Street Commons
Brown Bird Designs
From My Carolina Home

Today each blogger will be posting a free pattern in their blog.  This could be for a holiday-themed project such as placemats, a table runner, tree skirt, lap or bed-sized quilt to decorate your home for the holidays.  Or it could be a quilt-related project – table topper, home or kitchen décor, lap or bed quilt – that is not holiday themed, that you could make as a Christmas gift.  From personal experience I can tell you that the best time to start making a holiday décor project or a holiday gift is NOT mid-December – it is July!  Hence the well-known phrase “Christmas in July”.  And with 22 projects to choose from, you’ll likely want to make several between now and mid-December.

Working at Northcott, I can tell you that we time the arrival of our holiday collections so that they ship to quilt shops in June/July because that’s when quilters are planning their holiday projects.  Quilt magazines also feature holiday-themed projects in their Summer/early Fall issues.  When Northcott’s holiday collections come along I jump at the opportunity to design with them.  Between holiday projects for my Patti’s Patchwork pattern shop and for quilt magazines, I design and make 2-3 holiday/winter quilts every year.  I have lost count of how many holiday quilts I own but if I had to guess I would say at least 30.  Christmas quilts go onto the beds in my home December 1.  Holiday lap quilts come out to be tossed over the back of chairs and couches, and holiday wall-hangings replace artwork hanging on walls.  The more the merrier!  Can one have too many?!?  I think not!!

For my Christmas in July Pattern Parade project I chose the gorgeous The Scarlet Feather collection by Deborah Edwards for Northcott.  The stunning 24” x 42” wreath panel had me at “hello”.  Anyone who knows my quilting style knows I’m a sucker for panels.  But I also want you, my fellow quilters, to experience the joy of having holiday quilts on your beds at Christmastime, so my pattern is for a bed-size quilt.  Queen-size actually.  And it won’t take you from now ‘til mid-December to get it done.  No siree Bob! The quilt is a classic lone star (yes, I’m a sucker for lone stars as well) with enormous setting squares and triangles, and nice W-I-D-E borders.  Here’s a picture.

Grand Holiday Lone Star by Patti’s Patchwork

Isn’t she a beauty?  You can download the Grand Holiday Lone Star pattern here.  This quilt uses 6 panels, so just a heads up that you’re going to want to get your fabrics soon before the stores sell out.  Northcott has THE BEST feature on their website to help you find the fabrics you’re looking for.  The Product Finder is toward the top right corner of each collection’s page.  When you click on it and click on your preferred state/province, a chart pops up listing the shops that received the collection and which fabrics from the collection they received.

Find a shop with checked boxes for the fabrics you’re looking for

Simply find a shop that received the specific fabrics you want and check with them for availability.

The Scarlet Feather 24″ x 42″ panel

Each panel has a lovely 8” wide poinsettia border on the selvage edges so you’re going to have a few of these left over.  What can you do with them?

• Use them as bands on matching pillowcases for your bed – you’ll need an additional ¾yd – 1yd of coordinating fabric for each pillowcase, depending on whether you use the panel strip for the band lining or use the coordinate for the band lining.
• Use them for an easy table runner. Triangle Frenzy or The Quilt Company have some patterns using 60° rulers that would be perfect.
• Use them for projects by the other bloggers today
• Use them to customize ready-made or store-bought items such as hand towels, aprons, toss cushions, etc.

The Grand Holiday Lone Star pattern is perfect for using my E-Z Miter & Lone Star tool, the handiest gadget ever for fast foolproof mitered borders and foolproof lone stars.  You can find a YouTube video on my website or watch a (fuzzy) Facebook Live tutorial on making mitered borders with the tool (it was my first Facebook Live recording and my practice round was crystal clear).  I will be adding a video soon for making lone stars with the tool.  Of course, you could make this quilt the old-fashioned way without the E-Z Miter & Lone Star tool but once you’ve used it, you’ll understand why I’m such a fan of it.  In the pattern I include a helpful tutorial on how to use directional border prints for your quilt borders – it’s at the end of the pattern.  You can use this same concept on most directional border prints.

The Grand Holiday Lone Star is not the only quilt I’ve designed using Northcott’s The Scarlet Feather collection.  Check out PC252 Stellar Medallion.

PC252 Stellar Medallion (includes wall, throw & queen)

Here are some other Christmas patterns from Patti’s Patchwork:  PC242 Carpenter’s Star(a split lone star),

PC242 Carpenter’s Star (includes wall, throw & queen)

PC224 Gifts Galore,

PC224 Gifts Galore (includes wall, lap, throw & double)

PC185 Stacks of Presents,

PC185 Stacks of Presents (includes wall, throw, twin & queen)

PC147 Holiday Gifts, (a fat quarter pattern)

PC147 Holiday Gifts (includes lap, twin & queen)

PC144 Poinsettia Medallion,

PC144 Poinsettia Medallion (includes wall and queen-size)

PC133 Festive Frostings

PC133 Festive Frostings (includes lap, twin, queen & king)

and the ever-popular PC119 Oh Christmas Tree (a jellyroll pattern).

PC119 Oh Christmas Tree (includes wall, lap & queen)

If you’re reading this before 3pm EST today I invite you to pop onto Zoom for my trunk show on Linda and Deb’s Sew What! Zoomcast.  It’s fun and free.  Log on to Zoom and find the event at Meeting No. 708 847 7971 and Password 541374.  Knowing Linda, it will be highly entertaining.  Have a social beverage in hand for your chance to win prizes.

I am blogging July 16 in the Quilt Designer Shop Hop

Finally, tomorrow is my day to blog and go live on Facebook as part of the Quilt Designers Shop Hop – 10 talented designers, 10 great website tours, 10 free blocks, and 10 creative inspiring quilt designs using these blocks.  Please subscribe to my blog today to catch all the quilty goodness tomorrow.

If you’ve read this far, I have more good stuff for you.  What – more?!?  If you leave a comment on my blog telling me what Christmas gifts or projects you make, I’ll randomly draw 3 winners to receive an E-Z Miter & Lone Star tool.  If you also tell me which of my Christmas patterns is your favorite, I’ll throw that in if I draw your name. If you prefer a different one to make as a gift, I could make that substitution.  Please leave your comment by midnight Sunday July 19 to be eligible.  Good luck!

Enjoy today’s events and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Cheers,

Patti