Charming Christmas Cardinals

Nina-Marie over at Creations..Quilts, Art....Whatever has linked up to an online Christmas Quilt show at  SewGalCal's.  Lots of beautiful eye candy to check out.  Just click on the button to go have a look (But not before you check out my entry!). 

So here is my entry.   Last year, before the local quilt shop had to cut back on hours due to family changes, they were still offering classes.  I signed up to take a class based on the Quilt in a Day pattern "How Charming".  I played around with 3 different sets of fabrics before I finally decided on a Christmas theme.  Then the class was canceled because no one else signed up. It's not a hard pattern and I had signed up for the class mainly as a reason to start a new project.  So I had my own all day class on the same Saturday as the canceled class.  I didn't follow the layout guidelines exactly, but really liked how the quilt came out.



I did learn one very valuable lesson when making this quilt.  In order to fussy cut the cardinals, I had to cut them as diamonds, on the bias.  I had heard that spraying pieces cut on the bias with starch reduces stretching.  But you are supposed to spray on the starch before you cut out the pieces not after!  Thankfully I had not cut the strips for the red frames yet, I just cut them a bit larger and then cut the final square to size, that worked really well and kept everything the right size. 

I collect cardinal fabric, I just love the deep red of those birds.  This was the first project that seemed to be just the right place to use that fabric.  I don't do my own quilting, this one was quilted by Lesa Foreman at the Corner Sew and So.   

Thanks for letting me share one of my favorite quilts.  It's almost time to pull it out of the closet and enjoy it during the Christmas season.  Hope you get a chance to enjoy the rest of the Christmas Quilt Show.