December's OMG

I mentioned in my last post that I would be working on my Christmas panel quilt, one of my SAHRR 2025 projects. Well, it turns out that after putting together the Cowboy panel quilt, this second one was a breeze! It came together without any re-stitching which is quite the accomplishment when you're making it up as you go along. 😂

All four borders ready to attach

I found it difficult to decide on the fabrics to use for the borders. At first I wasn't going to have a border and I was just going to use "quiet" fabrics between each block, but it was just too chaotic. I was doubtful as I was doing it, but after looking at the picture, I knew that it was NOT going to happen!

A failed experiment

I was hoping to use blue in the border but none of the blue fabrics were correct. I also didn't have the right green. So, going through my fabrics, I found a checkered fabric that had all of the right colours!

The perfect inner border

I then looked at my friend's finished Christmas panel quilt. We bought these panels last year to make together. She finished her quilt early in 2025, but I made it for the SAHRR and it took a while to make, especially since it was one of two quilts!

My friend Sylvie's Christmas panel

Isn't the yellow amazing as a border? I was lucky to find a large piece of bright yellow fabric in my stash. After making the pieces around the blocks, I should have enough for the binding.

Borders around the quilt

At this point I've added three of the borders - I just need to add the bottom border. It will then get sandwiched and quilted! 😊 That is a reasonable December One Monthly Goal (OMG).

Table Scraps Challenge

I really wanted to make something for the November Table Scraps Challenge. After all, the colours were ours to choose and the theme was ~~music~~ book or movie. Since I was playing with Christmas fabric scraps, I decided to make a couple of small mats that I will stitch up using colourful running stitches. I'm not finished stitching them, but that's something that shouldn't be rushed.

As for a song (sorry, it should have been a book or movie!), I'm going to say that the song "River" came up most often as I was working on this. Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded it (1971) and it was later recorded by Sarah McLachlan (2006).

Two Christmas fabric mats - lot of colours!

First mat - stitching with colourful running stitches

The second mat, ready to stitch

The backs of the mats

What I learned

After working on the Christmas panel quilt, I'm happy to say that I'm no longer in denial about Christmas coming!
I was really surprised by how quickly the Christmas panel quilt came together. I'm happy because it shows that I did learn a lot making the first one!
I'm so grateful that I had the fabric necessary to finish the borders around the quilt.
I looked in my Christmas fabric stash and found a nice print for the back, so it should be easy enough to piece together and then sandwich.
I'll be putting together a post with all of the links to the Christmas panel quilt like I did for the Cowboy quilt. At this time, I'm just including my last post on the Christmas panel. It has all of the related links
I'll enjoy slow stitching the Christmas mats.

Related links

SAHRR Week 6 and Free Motion Mavericks, February 27, 2025

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the December OMG and the November Table Scraps Challenge. Why not check some of these out, after linking up below?

FM Mavericks

Welcome to week 560 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts FMQ this fun Go Blue banner. She used a new attachment that was a bit of a disappointment. Kat quilted around all of the elements of the fabric.

Go Blue banner FMQ by Kat

Donnalee made another lovely placemat for Zoey, her dog. This one is a Christmas mat. As well, she made this storage bag that will be sold at the guild's show.