Crazy 8 Christmas Quilt

I know, I know, it's not December anymore, but I worked really hard to get this done and had just the binding to do when I felt too pregnant to do anything at all! Now that my baby is here and I can bend at the waist, the quilt is finished! 

The panel in the middle is called the Crazy Eight Reindeer Panel. I made the star blocks, added a "twist" to the picture blocks that also came with the panel, and added a border. 

Anyway, I love it and can't wait to display it next Christmas! 

Link-Up: Christmas Table Runner

This is a fun table runner to make, and it comes together pretty quickly. I wanted to share the link to where I got the pattern from: 

Quilt Bus Table Runner

And actually you can use this pattern with any fabric to make it whatever type you like, but it makes for some good little Christmas presents to friends! 

**I do have to give credit to my sister for making this table runner pictured above; I made a whole bunch and gave them away so I guess I'm lucky she made one for me! (What are sisters for, right?)

Quilting Block: Tilted Squares

Here is what I am working on with my Crazy Eight Reindeer Panel quilt - tilted squares! It adds a great "twist" to your quilt.

1. Add a border fabric to your middle square. (I added honey bun strips). After adding the border, make sure each block is the same size. In my case, I made all of mine 6 1/2". 

2. On my cutting board, I made a chalk mark where the 1/2" line would be since there is none. Then, I lined my bottom left corner with the 2" mark, and my bottom right corner on the 1/2" chalk mark. 

3. Mark all of your cut lines before cutting. Just remember the goal is to have straight lines even though the square in the middle is becoming tilted! I use my ruler as a guide from the bottom left corner and along the 2" line. See how it creates a straight line? It's also important here to mark before you cut because then you can see how your quilt block will come out before any cutting is done.

4. Below are all of my chalk marks. I put the ruler on the right side to show how you would line it up in order to mark all sides. Basically you start from the corner and go straight! For instance, I used the 2" line on the bottom, the 6 1/2" line on the right side, the 8" line on the top, and the 1/2" line for the left side. 

5. Now cut, and if you started out with a 6 1/2" square like me, you should now have a 6" x 6" finished square. 

These make for very whimsical and cute quilting blocks! You can view them within a quilt here.

Add A Decorative Touch To Your Quilt

I bought this panel (awhile ago) called, "Crazy Eight Reindeer Panel". I saw the quilt put together and LOVED this detail: stitching! As you can see, I added snowflakes falling down from the sky. I also outlined a few items (like the striped blue hat below) to give the panel a 3D affect as well as to help hide the fact that this is indeed a panel! I'm not a huge fan of them, but this one is really cute. You can view the whole panel here. It comes with the large picture with the reindeer, and all of the squares you see with Christmas decor (ie. holly, Christmas tree, snowman, ornament, etc.) I plan to make up my own version of this quilt and have some cute quilting block ideas for you, so check back!

To stitch these falling snowflakes in, along with outlining items on the panel, I used cross stitch thread (all strands) and a needle. 

Quick Tip: Bordering Your Quilt

So I have this panel (shown in the middle), and plan to make this quilt up for Christmas! What I love about this quilt is that the outer border is just one fabric. You can take any striped fabric, stick it around your quilt in a perpendicular fashion, and your quilt will look more complex than it really is! You can also sew a line through some of the stripes (with the batting and bottom layer of the quilt) to make it look even more like separate pieces of fabric.