Those of you who chat about quilting with me on Twitter (don’t we have fun?) know about my recent heart palpitations over a Christmas quilt I sold on Etsy that took its own sweet time reaching the new owner, along with unconcerned Postal workers and broken tracking.  It all came out fine.  The new owner (very pleasant to work with) proclaims it, “one of the most gorgeous Christmas quilts I have seen.”  Nice, hmm?  Alas, it was not always so, and I want to share its journey from UFO to beauty.

This really begins several (five?) years ago, when I became intrigued with using blue and white squares to reproduce a gingham pattern.

The result was successful, if a little boring.

I jazzed it up with some peacock feather borders and a flat white piping, then quilted it with lovely feathers.  The batting stayed flat and unshrunken (I really think it was Hobbs Heirloom Cotton- could that be?), so the feathers never plumped.

I still think it would have been effective in the right nursery, but it’s never sold.  It will be heading for Project Linus soon.

Next, I thought, Christmas plaid!  Yes, this could be made with 2 1/2 squares in red, green, and white.  Here is what I got.

Yeah.  Plaid.  And it just kind of sits there, doesn’t it?  So it kind of sat in my sewing studio for a couple of years.  This doesn’t seem odd to some of you (you know who you are!)  who have oodles of UFOs, but I have hardly any.  At that time, this was the only one.  Now I have two, I think.  So, yeah, I really had no idea what to do with this bit of Christmas ickiness.

Eventually, I took it back out and dove into it.  I pulled out all my stash Christmas fabric.

I made borders from gold braid prints and tassel prints.  Better, but still small and square.

I created diamond (on point) blocks with varying shades of gold on dark backgrounds, and put rows of these on the top and bottom of the quilt.  Better.  A rectangle now.

Now I cut large borders of printed swags and tassels.  I didn’t have quite enough so I added corner stones.  These brought it to its final size (47″ x 65″) and Victorian glory.  I added lots of quilting in gold metalic thread.

I knew it was either a masterpiece or a gawd-awful hodgepodge of Christmas fabric, but at least it was a finished quilt.  It was festive and warm.

Apparently, it is attractive, because it was picked up in several Etsy treasuries after I listed it last month, and favorited by many, and then purchased by this nice appreciative lady who was giving it as a gift before the holiday.  I am so glad it will have a loving home for Christmas, happy it turned out okay, and so happy to have it out of my sewing space!

Yes, Jaye, it is the process.  Some just take longer than others.