Christmas Eve

This is the second Christmas quilt Katherine brought me this year.  Again, I don't know the name of the pattern, but it's pretty clear to me that it is Christmas Eve in this quilt, because Santa Claus is making his journey.  Katherine says the pattern is And to All a Good Night by Sue Garman, with some changes.

The focus of this quilt is the applique--so the majority of the quilting time was spent there.  Katherine wanted very minimal quilting behind the appliques, so I ditch stitched every applique and most of the details in the appliques, and then only added what background quilting I felt was needed for stability--so I quilted some snow drift lines into the snow, and some extra stars and a partial tree into the blue background.  Oh, and some smoke from the chimney on the left, because the family is in the house enjoying the warmth of the fire after building snowmen.

The rest of the quilt got freehand continuous curves and holly leaves.  It is blatantly a Christmas quilt, I figured I might as well add the Holly leaves.

 I spent some time sketching before quilting, to make sure I could get a pleasing, continuous design, that showcased all the designs--the stars, the stars on point if you pull your focus out further to include the green chain blocks, and the white diamonds with the green centers--they each look great on their own and together, and none of the shapes were overpowered or pushed back by quilting.  So, lots to keep your eyes moving and focusing on different things.

The thread is a slightly green thread.

Merry Christmas Everyone!