It's that time of year...

Halloween is October 31st, and November 1st is the start of the Christmas holiday season, or so it seems! Overnight, stores move trick or treat candy to the clearance shelves and pull out ornaments, reindeer decorations, wreaths, and the CD of carols, played on a continuous loop. It can be hard to get in the holiday spirit quite this early, but if you're looking to finish a seasonal quilt project by mid-December, now is the perfect time to start!

With that in mind, be sure to look for this year's Quilting for Christmas magazine, featuring the Holly and Stars Topper.

Holly and Stars Topper
featured in Quilting for Christmas 2012 

Designed by: Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts

Featured in: Quilting for Christmas

Fabric: Christmas Traditions by Judy Hansen and Old World Christmas

Q. What fabrics did you use in the quilt?

Sue: We combined Old World Christmas from Fabri-Quilt and Christmas Traditions by Judy Hansen for Paintbrush Studio. It’s amazing how many different greens and reds there are in Christmas fabrics—we really discovered that by using two different collections together!

Q. How did you come up with the design idea?

Sue: We like the idea of a holiday project with versatility. So we made the quilt that could be used as either a table topper or a wall quilt.

Q. Tell us about the techniques used in the quilt.

Sue: We fussy cut the postcard print to feature one design as the focus of each star block. Beyond that, this one is made with basic quilting techniques. The editor rated it Intermediate, but we think a beginner with some experience could easily make it. The only tricky thing is stitching the light green pieced triangles for the star blocks.

Q. How does the machine quilting accent the design?

Sue: Sandy used a winter flourish quilting design. It imitates the loops of the holly sprigs shown in several of the fabrics.

Q. What do you like best about this quilt?

Sue: We really like the effect that Jacob’s Ladder blocks give to a quilt. We find ourselves going back to that block quilt after quilt for the diagonal paths that it makes. It’s a great frame for the four star blocks in the center of this quilt. Kind of gives them the look of a medallion.

Jacob's Ladder Block

To find out more about Quilting for Christmas, click here.

To find out more about Sue and Sandy, click here.
Click on the fabric collection name to find out more: Christmas Traditions and Old World Christmas