Christmas in July: Home for Christmas Quilt

Welcome to Day 8 of the Twelve Days of Christmas blog hop hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Today I’m going to tell you how to make a Home for Christmas Quilt. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom to enter the giveaway (closed July 31). You can enter from each of the blog-hop participant’s pages, so I’ve included a blog hop schedule with all the links for your convenience.

Home for Christmas Quilt

One side of this quilt is the Little Tree printed quilt panel by Lella Boutique. You could make a fast quilt from the panel, backing, binding, and batting. Isn’t it cute?! I quilted mine with a simple 60-degree crosshatch design.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas quilt — *A Merry Little Christmas* printed panel is exceptionally soft and silky.

I love Christmas music, and this quilt had me humming. Soon Josh Groban’s version of I’ll Be Home for Christmas came to mind. That’s when inspiration struck. Instead of using an ordinary backing for the panel, I supersized Camille Roskelley’s Dwell pattern to create a perfectly sized neighborhood of houses. And that’s how my Home for Christmas Quilt came to be. So let me share what you’ll need to make this quilt.

Home for Christmas quilt — I added nine houses to the original *Dwell* pattern to match the scale of the panel.

Supply List

I purchased most of my supplies from the Fat Quarter Shop and a few fat quarters from my local quilt shop. (If you choose to purchase supplies by clicking on my FQS affiliate link, thank you for supporting my blog.) Basic quilt requirements are as follows:

Little Tree A Merry Little Christmas quilt panel (56″ x 74″)
Simply Retro book by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) has the Dwell pattern
Binding fabric: 2/3 yard
Batting (I used Warm and White twin size.)

Camille provides a material list for Dwell, so this list is simply my suggested changes to make a quilt similar to mine. Instead of 16 fat quarters, I used half-yard cuts of Bella Solids and Grunge and added a few Little Tree fat quarters and a charm pack for variety. Remember that you’re making the Dwell quilt to replace the backing; Dwell is oversized to closely match the recommended 64-inch by 82-inch batting.)

Two-Sided quilt — Cheerful houses will look great on my couch after we celebrate Christmas.

Grunge Basics Cherry 30150-265
Bella Solids Prairie Green 9900-102
Bella Solids Green Apple 9900-74
Bella Solids Aqua 9900-34
Bella Solids Teal 9900-87
Bella Solids White Bleached 9900-98
Bella Solids Charcoal 9900-284 (Background — I bought 3 yards and used almost every inch, so you might want to purchase a bit more “just in case.” If you’re going to use a longarm machine, you will need more fabric to create wider borders.)

Cutting

Camille’s instructions are wonderful, so I’m only noting changes that are necessary to make my larger version. Remember, you’ll be using charcoal fabric instead of white fabric for the background.

From the charcoal, cut the following pieces:

5 strips 5″ x WOF; subcut 25 squares and 50 rectangles for block backgrounds
5 strips 2.5″ x WOF; subcut for 20 pieces for vertical sashing
4 strips 3.5″ x WOF for horizontal sashing (Trim only a tiny amount of the selvage so you have enough length.)
8 strips 6″ x WOF for the border (This will create the wider “backing” size for the printed panel.)

There are four different types of houses labeled A-D in the instructions. Combine the solids, grunge, and prints as you like. You’ll need to sew 25 houses.

I used file folders to organize pieces for each type of house so I could easily sew a house or two as I had time. As an alternative to House D with the pinwheel, I cut a 6.5-inch square of floral print. In retrospect, I prefer the pinwheels and would have made more of them.

Quilt Assembly

With the additional houses, my quilt top measured 64-inches by 83-inches. I taped the Dwell quilt to my dining room floor and marked the center of each side of the quilt on the blue tape. Then I layered on the batting and quilt panel, referring to the markings on the tape to align the panel with Dwell.

Align quilt with center marks — I aligned the creased center line of the panel with the Dwell center as noted on the tape.

Finally, I quilted a simple crosshatch over the entire quilt, using a 60-degree ruler and Hera marker to make initial markings.

60-degree crosshatch quilting — I used 60-degree quilting lines so they would be different than the 45 and 90-degree angles used in the houses.

Once the quilting was done, I trimmed the quilt to size. Then I used those “trimmings” to cut binding strips. See, I really did use almost every inch of my charcoal background fabric!

dog on quilt — Chester is waiting for our daughter to come home for Christmas.

As an alternative to a Christmas quilt, Lella Boutique’s Harvest Road fabric line will also include a panel, and houses on the back would work great with that one too. I want to emphasize how soft and silky these panels are; the quality is wonderful!

Twelve Days of Christmas in July

For your convenience, here’s the blog hop schedule. Have fun and get inspired to make something!

Sunday, July 14

Monday, July 15

Tuesday, July 16

Wednesday, July 17

Thursday, July 18

Friday, July 19

The Quilted Snail

Saturday, July 20

Sunday, July 21

Riceford Streams (You’re here!)
Vroomansquilts

Monday, July 22

Tuesday, July 23

Wednesday, July 24

Thursday, July 25

Enter the Giveaway (closed)

Figo Fabrics donated a fat quarter bundle of their beautiful new Christmas line, Wintertide, as a prize for one lucky blog-hop reader. (Giveaway closed and the prize was awarded.)

Thank you for visiting my blog for inspiration. I hope you have a merry Christmas in July!

Joyfully,

Tracie

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