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Christmas Eve Mini Quilt

This small quilt is a handsome gift for the coming Holiday season. Its finished size is 11 1/2" x 11 1/2".

The embroidery design used for the quilt is Winter Church.

You will need

embroidery thread (either polyester or rayon)
medium-weight iron-on cut-away stabilizer,
light-colored fabric for embroidery, large enough to be hooped,
scraps of cotton fabrics to match the colors of the embroidery; it's easiest to choose them after you embroider the design. We used pale lilac (7" x 7" square), lilac (9" x 9 square), pale gold fabric (about 11" x 11" square), and small amounts of purple and wine batiks for borders and binding,
batting and backing,
quilting threads to match the fabrics,
temporary adhesive, such as Sulky KK 2000, or a similar product,
quilter's ruler and rotary cutter, white chalk pencil for drawing on dark fabric, graphic pencil and sharp scissors.

Emboridery

Stabilize the light-colored piece of fabric with medium-weight iron-on cut-away stabilizer for embroidery. Upload the design into the machine and embroider it following the color card.

Select fabrics for the quilt to match the colors of the embroidery.

Cutting and Sewing the Top:

We cut and sewed as we went, step by step. We find this is easier for a small quilt like this. To make the circular frames around the embroidery, we made some templates for you.

Download the file with the template. To open and print the template, which is a PDF file, you will need Adobe Reader or a similar program. The program is free to download and install.

Template Download (PDF file)

Print-out the template.

Cut out the embroidery leaving seam allowance of about 1/2".

Cut out thet two circles in the template:

Position the smaller circle on the fabric for the first border. Trace it with the graphic pencil.

Cut out the circle with seam allowance 1/4" along the inner circle and seam allowance about 1/2" along the outer circle. With sharp scissors make notches through the seam allowance of the inner circle.

Fold the notches back and press.

After protecting your working surface with old newspapers, place the circle on it, face down, and spray with temporary adhesive.

Position over the embroidery, align the embroidery edge and the edge of the inner edge of the circle and press with your fingers.

On your sewing machine, topstitch along the inner circle very close to the edge.

Take the second template circle and lay it over the fabric for the second border. Our second border is darker, so we had to use a white chalk pencil.

Repeat the same procedure as described above:

cut out the circle with 1/4" seam allowance along the inside circle and 1/2" along the out circle;
make notches in the inner seam allowance and press them back;
spray with temporary adhesive;
position over the working piece with embroidery;
topstitch along the inner edge as close to the edge as possible.

On the back of the work, trim the seam allowance of the first border to 1/4" width. Do not trim the second border yet!

Our third border used golden fabric. Use the second circle template. Position it over the back of the fabric and trace the outer circle only. Cut out the circle with seam allowance 1/4". Make notches in the seam allowance.

Press the notches back, spray with adhesive, place over the working piece. Topstitch along the circle edge as close to the edge as possible.
On the back of the work, trim the seam allowance of the second border to 1/4" width.
Measure and trim, if necessary, the width of the golden border.

For the outer borders, measure the working piece you have made so far. Our work at this stage measured 9 1/2" x 9 1/2". If your working piece measures slightly larger, you can either trim it to size or cut slightly larger pieces for the outer border.

We used 2 fabrics for the outer borders, you can use one if you like.

The outer borders are attached in a "log cabin" style.

The first strip is 1 1/2" x 9 1/2" and is sewn to the right edge of the working piece.
The second strip is 1 1/2" x 10 1/2" and is sewn to the bottom edge of the working piece.
The third strip is also 1 1/2" x 10 1/2", and is sewn to the left edge of the working piece.
The last strip is 1 1/2" x 11 1/2", and is sewn to the upper edge of the piece.

Quilting and Finishing:

Now place the backing on a flat surface (table) face down. Cover with batting. Spread your working piece over it.

Pin all three layers together with 1" pins and start quilting. We quilted in a free motion style all over the quilt. The piece is small and is very convenient for training your free-motion skills.

After the quilting is finished, press the work with heavy steam and square the work -- all corners should be 90 degrees and opposite sides should be of the same length.

Finish the raw edges with the binding. We made the binding of the same fabric as the outer border.

Your quilt is ready. Enjoy!

Happy Stitching!

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