Making Merry Garland Pattern

When one of your quilty idols asks ever so nicely if you can test a pattern for her .... you ponder for about 3 seconds and almost scream down the (thankfully) email with of a measured response of 'yes, I'd love to' (I was totes playing it cool).

So the pattern is for a Christmas Garland. mmmm not feeling terribly Christmas-y right now (please tell me I have more time to get organised!). So I asked, did she want me to make a Christmas one or different?

"Different would be nice but whatever you like, make it your own!"

mmmm make it my own? Given I'm relatively new to this quilting caper, I'm not sure I really have a style yet. But I wanted to try something different rather than a Christmas one. 

I was inspired by a single line in the pattern "make a fairy ring". I knew Miss 7 would love something like that so I gave it a go. I fully intended to make a 12" mini (it has five different sizes in the pattern - how cool is that) but I totally (stuffed up) cut the 8" mini size. 

I clearly decided to give myself a challenge. Here is how I made it my own:

• cut six feature fabrics instead of two, then
• cut them a different size and
• made them a different way to the pattern (shhhh don't tell Alyce, figured I needed 12 HSTs and I got there in the end!)

Next time I think I will choose even more fabrics to really emphasize the rainbow I was aiming for. 

I decided on a simple cross hatch quilting design using a gorgeous creamy-gold Aurifil. 

When I did that it was just not quite right ... It needed more. So I pulled out my trusty embroidery thread and added some lazy daisy flowers (inspired by Karen Lewis's fabrics) and simple french knots. Each section has three different colours.

While I did pretty well hiding the stitches, a few escaped to the back - meanwhile how awesome does the back look!!

All the fabric are amazing Karen Lewis Blueberry Park except for the binding. I was lazy and already had this cut and leftover from another project so it seemed silly to waste it. 

I was pretty happy with my little rainbow fairy ring. What do you think?


 

Project details:

• Fabric: Karen Lewis Blueberry Park -  you can find it everywhere!
• Embroidery thread: various DMC colours
• Thread: pieced with Aurifil white  and quilted with the creamy gold (#2000 actually Light Sand). I get all mine from MsMidge here.
• Pattern: Making Merry Garland pattern by Blossom Heart Quilts - check out her blog post here.