Quilt of the week

"Welcome to the North Pole" This is my all time favorite Christmas quilt! Every year I hang it above my desk at the office and I have to force myself to take it down around February! This quilt is from a commercial pattern but I completely changed the fabrics to make it much more colorful and whimsical. I started the quilt in May of 2000 and finished it in November of 2002. It is all hand appliqued and hand quilted. The only machine piecing I did was to sew the blocks together and add the borders. You can see in the close up photo that I used alot of embellishments which was so much fun. I had never done any beading before and I found myself scouring the craft stores for lots and lots of different beads and trims and lace and ribbon and buttons and bows! I don't think it was possible to put on too much glitter and glitz. Even though most pieces of fabric that are used are very small it was important to have just the right stripe or check or polka dot so I found myself buying really unique and unusual fabrics for just the right look I wanted. This is one of those quilts that you can look at for a long, long time because the more you look at it the more you discover there is to see. If this is what the North Pole really looks like, it must be a really fun place to live. Enjoy your visit!