Friday, December 13, 2013

Christmas UFO X2

Getting good pictures is so hard this time of year! I'm sad because I can't seem to capture the beauty of this quilt today, but I'm going to go ahead with the post and I'll try again for the money shot another day. The close up pictures are so much better. Too dark inside... too cold outside! After about 10 minutes my eyes were watering so bad I could barely see and of course my glasses were fogging over too. I see now the right edge is snow dusted a bit! Authentic Minnesota winter for you...

The pattern for this quilt is from the December 2003 issue of McCall's Quilting and it is called Christmas Fantasy. I remember getting the magazine in the mail and getting online immediately to start buying the fabrics I needed - Robyn Pandolph's Christmas Folk Art line - because I wanted the EXACT same quilt in the magazine! I was less than a year into my quilting journey at that time. I still find these fabrics to be breathtakingly beautiful.
When I pulled out all of my UFOs to take pictures for my UFO Page earlier in the year  I fell in love with these fabrics all over again and it was my dream to have it ready for this Christmas. So I am keeping the name Christmas Fantasy because (pinch me!) it is done. Merry Christmas to me!
Cindy at Tops to Treasures was so wonderful to work with on this quilt. She gave me two options to think about and I just could not be happier with the end result. Thank you again Cindy!
Moving back indoors for the back side of the quilt...
Cindy's work shows up better in this light even though the pretty fabrics don't. The rail fence blocks were from an online swap that I hosted on the HGTV Quilting Forum back in 2007. I had assembled them into a top and put it on a hanger. When I put the borders on Christmas Fantasy I started looking through my stash for some backing fabric with no luck at all.
But when I pulled out Christmas Rail Fence I thought hmm... and emailed Cindy to see what she thought. No problem she said. And amazingly it was about the same dimensions so I added the border and that's how you finish 2 UFOs in 1!

There are lots of fun Christmas novelty prints in these blocks which I have a bit of an obsession with. My Christmas stash could generate at least a dozen quilts (and I might be underestimating by a wide margin actually) so I'm excited to be able to flip the quilt over for a different look. Isn't the quilting gorgeous?

And I am linking up to the Mid-Month Check In and will be linking it up to A Lovely Year of Finishes at the end of the month because this is my finish for that Challenge. Done early for the 1st time EVER!

19 comments:

  1. BEAUTIFUL QUILT !

    msstitcher1948@yahoo.com

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  2. A Merry Christmas, indeed! Your quilt is gorgeous. It is awesome you finished two quilts in one.

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  3. Well done and YAY for early finish!

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  4. Just a lovely quilt--I like both sides! Hugs, Julierose

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  5. A wonderful Christmas finish. It looks great. I love the way you use other quilt flimsies as your backing. It works so well.

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  6. What a beautiful Christmas quilt! Love the fabric you selected. Good job on finish for 2 UFO's. Merry Christmas to you.

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  7. Breathtakingly beautiful indeed. Love your two-sided quilt. You will love having it out every Christmas. And wonderful to have it finished BEFORE Christmas. I finished my Christmas quilt last year in February! You get a well done from me.

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  8. Oh my word. Two for one. Just when I thought I might be catching up ; )

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  9. What no kitten story today/ She is such a darling.
    Both sides of your latest finish look lovely. If you get tired of it, send it my way. :-)

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  10. Absolutely gorgeous! Both sides! You were so smart to buy those fabrics right away. You saved a life this holiday season. Elsa will never know how lucky she is. How fortunate for you that Tucker has been accepting. I am afraid my 16 year old cat would have a real problem with a newcomer.

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  11. This is a beauty. I knew immediately these were Robyn Pandolph fabrics. I have a treasured stash of some of this line. She was my absolute favorite! I am so happy you finished this, I know you will enjoy every second spent under it.

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  12. oh wow, Deb! This quilt is a stunner! I love the fact that you made it reversible! and I am right there with you about the winter- we are a 9-4 school, so I don't get home until close to 4:30. It's so hard to get good quilt pictures when the weather and daylight don't cooperate!

    Thank you so much for sharing this at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  13. How gorgeous it looks on top of the snow! And I love the fence rail! I love a scrappy Christmas quilt :)

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  14. Double the Christmas, double the fun! Yay! Yay! Yay! Congrats on finishing this beautiful quilt, Deb. It is a beauty!

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  15. This turned out just stunning. I loved that Christmas fabric line but only have some of the red roses I think. I had a number of Christmas tops made but none quilted. I could probably make at least 2 dozen more as I had a serious Christmas fabric collecting thing going for a few years. I've been thinking about trying to gift a Christmas quilt to all the relatives. That would mean quilting and binding some wouldn't it? Then I'd have to finish those that are UFOs. Could that be a goal for 2014?

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  16. What a clever idea to use another quilt top for the backing! This never occurred to me so I am eager to try it. Do love the Robyn Pandolph fabrics. Beautiful!

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  17. What a stunning quilt and using a second "flimsy" as the backing is a brilliant idea! Cindy is one of my on-line friends and I'm so glad you've found her and love her work.

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  18. I love the quilt top! And think you have captured it beautifully. Good use of a UFO as a backing too. Kill two birds with one stone. I sometimes still want to make quilts in exactly the same fabric the pattern is in.

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