Finished quilt: The Christmas quilt "God Jul"

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Quilt details

Name, Recipient, Size, Start/Finished date, Pattern and Fabrics used

  • "God Jul" (which means Merry Christmas in Swedish)
  • for my family
  • 79 x 80 cm (length x height).
  • 19.9 - 28.10.2018.
  • A Christmas themed basic economy blocks/diamond in square blocks, with sashings and a wide border added.
  • About the fabrics used:
    • The red polka dot fabric is "HO-HO-HO, Let It Snow" by Nancy Halvorsen, Benartex (style 3294, 100% screen printed cotton). I remember buying this one in the Eurokangas store in Helsinki while I was there visiting Emma C. That has to be back in 2007 or so, so more than 10 years ago!
    • The Christmas fabric in the border is the one I bought from Kruunun Kangas back in April
    • The green and the white centers were fabrics I found at the stash at Arbis.
    • The reds solids were actually two different shades, one being a rest fabric from the Arbis-stash and the other was one of the Eurokangas red solids I bought back in April. I used up all the rest by making the label and red prairie points to go around the center of the quilt.

Batting, backing and binding fabric:

  • Single layer of (100 g) polyester batting from Kruunun Kangas.
  • Binding was made out of 5 cm wide non-bias strips from the rest of the red polka dot fabric. The binding was machine sewn on the back, then hand-stitched to the front.

Quilting pattern:

  • I only did outline walking foot quilting on this quilt, around the blocks and the center. The red hearts are just embroidered on the quilt top.

Top thread:

  • For piecing the top: Gutermann Mara 120, 100% polyester, 1000m, color 800 (white).
  • For piecing the back: Gutermann Mara 120, color 1 (natural white).
  • For the quilting: Gutermann Mara 120, color 1.
  • For the embroidery detail hearts: a vintage thread I'd gotten from the stash I'd inherited from my maternal grandmother. It was a 100 % polyester "Mölnlycke" thread in the red color 93

Bobbin thread:

  • For piecing the top: Gutermann Mara 120, color 800
  • For piecing the back: Gutermann Mara 120, color 800
  • For the quilting: Gutermann Mara 120, color 1
  • All in all, it took about 2 full bobbins to free motion quilt the quilt
Blogged about it on:
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So, not to bore you too much with the making of the quilt top, which you can read about here because I blogged about it on September 24th, I will just continue with commenting on the binding, walking foot quilting and embroidery details I did on it. 

This was the first quilt I ever bound by hand. I sew the binding on to the back, and hand stitched it to the front. It felt off, not seeing the machine stitched line on the front. But I think it framed the quilt much better. And yeah, it feels softer.

Here's a photo I took to commemorate the whole thing; the last stitches before I was done. 


After having done walking foot quilting around the outlines of the blocks and sashings inside the quilt, I thought the blocks looked a bit "empty". Thing is, I didn't want to quilt it too densely and loose the puffiness the quilt had.

So, I drew (with my vanishing Prym textile marker) some hearts around the economy / square in a square blocks. (If you look at it really closely, you can clearly see that the red solids on top and bottom of the block are the same, and that the ones on the sides are slightly more dull in color. Yup, I thought I managed that problem rather well ;) )


When that was done, I started embroidering them. But I made sure the thread only went through the top layer. I didn't want them showing on the back, since the quilting was so minimal otherwise, and done in natural white (and much thinner) thread.


Like I wrote, really minimal.


I made the label for the back by sewing together a small and sightly wonky economy block from the fabric scraps.


The embroidering was done a little at a time, during the course of stolen time during five consecutive days. I embroidered while watching two episodes of the Stitch TV show. Episodes 403 and 404, if you happen to want to know that.


I stitched the last heart while trying to relax on the sofa in the living room.


I think the design turned out rather well. The blocks felt a little "naked" before the hearts, imho.


Here's how the label looked. Like I wrote, a bit wonky.


The backing was this fabric I found at the Arbis stash, and I think it started out as curtain. It had these pastoral idylls on the bottom, and to avoid using those I cut them off and stitched together the fabric upon itself, getting this more of a "panel" look. The brown on the sides helped even out the quilt. The seam is on the left side, maybe 1/3 in on the fabric. Your eyes don't want to see it, unless you know to look for it.


And that was how this "three day Christmas top" became out family's first Christmas quilt :)


"God jul" and happy quilting to all of you out there! :D

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