‘Twas
Over the course of twelve years, I stitched the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas pattern by Sue Garman. Finishing on Boxing Day, 2020, here’s the story of an heirloom quilt.
The poem and the pattern
I love all things Christmas and Sue Garman’s Gorgeous quilt pattern was too difficult to resist. She published the pattern in 2008 and I think my quilting store started that year with a Block of the Month program.
I was in. Ish.
With a little bit of hesitation… This pattern looked like it was a LOT of work! Maybe I’d do every OTHER month…
Sue’s pattern is great. Clear instructions and her explanations of the history of the Christmas/winter festivals and Clement Clarke Moore’s poem is well done. I learned so much as I stitched. I definitely appreciated her exceptional research.
I sporadically worked on the blocks…
Making of the blocks
Wool Applique
The blocks as I have stitched them, are wool on wool on wool on wool! The background is felted wool. The pieces are wool felt too. And there are a lot of pieces.
Some applique decisions:
The blocks finish at 14”, yet I made them 15.5 - 16 inches in size when I stitched them. This was done intentionally so I could choose where to cut the block smaller when I went to finish the quilt. That means, for some of the patterns, I extended the shape or drew in the full design. For example: the reindeer at the edge of block 6 is cut off on the edge pattern - the reindeer’s nose is cut off. I extended the nose. Because these are big blocks and because it shifts a lot while you sew, I wanted to have the option to keep a nose in/out when I went to put the quilt together.
I had a basting line of thread around the whole pattern to show myself where the 14” edge was (the edge of the pattern).
I did sew the background pieces together by sewing machine (if there was a wall and a carpet) before I adhered the other pieces on. I stitched the background to a piece of lightweight muslin, so it had some structure before the pieces were adhered and then sewn on.
I did use heavy fusible to adhere the pieces down before I stitched by hand.
Most of the pieces are cut out on the pattern line (no extra added) of the fabric and then blanket stitched to the background.
Any pieces where it was smart to do so, I cut as much of the piece in one whole segment (to keep its shape). Example: the window panes’ snow. All of those white pieces are one long strip (not several small white pieces), tucked behind the window frame. The window frame is one large piece, a huge larger square with windows/squares cut out of it, to ensure it was sized properly. The fire place is one large block of yellow, on which there is the outside of the fireplace frame and the fireplace logs, etc.
Any patterns that were layered, I cut extra fabric beyond the layer, so I could tuck it behind the top piece.
Example: the stockings - The cuff was cut on the line (no extra), but the stocking main fabric? I went a little beyond on the top of the stocking piece of wool. The area under the cuff is larger and goes beyond the pattern, so I could tuck the extra under the cuff and it would look seamless.
Example: the trees - only the top of the tree is cut on the line. For the rest of the tree, each piece is cut a little large on the top part of the piece (to tuck under the upper piece).
Any doll houses with windows, I did not cut each individual window out. Instead, I cut the window frame hole and put the yellow felt behind the window hole. Not only did this give a dimension to the window, but it was easier to stitch.
Bows were cut in as few pieces as possible to ensure they retained their shape - the crisscross plus-sign ribbon on the body of the gift (one piece), the bow loop on the top of the gift (one piece) and the knot of the bow (one piece).
I made all of the reoccurring features the same:
The stars are the same in my quilt (not every pattern block was the same - I standardized all of the outside stars to look the same)
I made all the window sills the same (not all of them had snow on the sills)
I added a full moon to many of the window vistas (not every pattern block had a moon)
Odd numbers. I have odd numbers of stars in the sky. I have odd numbers of gifts in the blocks. Odd numbers are more pleasing, so I would add/subtract an item to get an odd number of the same thing.
Some hand stitching:
All of the pieces are hand stitched. I’m not gonna lie, this was a tough quilt to stitch. Each of the blocks is heavy because of the wool and it was awkward for my small hands to stitch at the centre of the blocks. The 14” block was just a little too large to comfortably stitch in the middle. And, as you can imagine, it was a number of tiny little pieces making up each of the blocks. Some of the blocks, I didn’t go through all the layers with my stitching.
I used a variety of threads - all picked for texture and for colour. Too many to list!
I stitched beyond the marked line on the quilt block borders, so I could have options when I sewed the blocks together.
All of the wool pieces were edged with blanket stitch.
I did not add a pattern/design to the wallpapers. I think this would have been cool, yet it was my decision to not make the inside rooms more busy.
For any of the lines of stitching (the tree branches), I did not use a backstitch (as suggested in the pattern). Instead, I did a stem stitch. It’s personal preference - I like how the stem stitch is a smoother line of stitching.
I couched around pieces for additional texture (Santa’s sleeves have a sparkly white thread couched on around the brim of his hat and all of his cuffs on his outfit).
For the holly leaves, I stitched down the middle of the leaf - leaving the edges raw. Doing this meant the edges of the leaf could rise dimensionally off the quilt.
For the shutters on windows, I stitched on the window side of the shutter to synch it to the window and have it look dimensional on the quilt. The shutter edges were just tacked on the one side but I like how they look like they are opening out from the edge of the window. The wool allows for some raw edges.
Any short lines (whiskers and pine boughs) are just an up and down stab stitch. Nothing special.
I used Transfer-Eze to add the printed letters to the block and some of the larger tree branches. I copied the pattern on the smallest amount of Transfer-Eze I could. I pinned it to the block and stitched through it with green Valdani thread (the same thread I used on most of my Christmas/pine trees. This was the final thing I did, to complete the block. I then washed the block with cold water to get rid of the Transfer-Eze. I used a small piece of Transfer-Eze because I didn’t want to wash the whole block.
Any dots (the tittle for an “i” or “j”) were five-wrap French knot.
I eventually outlined the green on dark print in yellow, so it would stand out on a darker background.
Bling
I loved adding beads, buttons and extra stitching to the blocks to make them even more fun. This is good and bad:
The good
It added character and charm to the blocks.
It was a cool texture to the quilt (see the reins for the sleigh on two of the blocks).
It added sparkle to some of the elements (all of the stars have a sheer thread stemming from the star, to show streaming light emanating from the star.
Over 12 years making the quilt, I was constantly searching for cool buttons to add to the quilt.
The bad
The bling makes the quilt even heavier!
The bling hurt the quilting effort by my long-armer (see quilting notes).
I collected buttons, beads, fuzzy embroidery threads (Santa’s fuzzy cuffs on his suit and hat). Most of the bears have bead noses. All of the trees are decorated. I found charms, buttons, clock faces - all sorts of things to add bling to my version of this quilt.
Project - rescued
Have you ever had to answer the question: what would you take with you in an emergency? For me, Calgary experienced a flood in 2013. My husband, two dogs and I were evacuated from our home as we live in the river valley in Calgary’s downtown core. We were more concerned about getting the dogs, our computers and one project (who knew how long we would be out of the house!).
I took this quilt.
I had six of the blocks started, in a state of disarray, or almost finished. I don’t think I had ANY of them complete. And it wasn’t the easiest project to take with me, as many of my supplies were left behind. And it was HEAVY! Because we billeted at three different homes, I regretted carrying the wool blocks to each place - it seems so silly to have this heavy piece in tow.
In hindsight, it may have saved the quilt. Although we did not actually experience flooding from the nearby river - our home is on a weird little high plain on our block which benefitted us and our neighbour - we did have 1m of sewage water flood our basement.
This meant I lost a number of projects, a lot of supplies and a ton of fabric. I owe a lot to people for going through all my craft stuff (sewage water makes this extremely gross), sorting and carrying things out of the basement and taking fabric home to wash (they had working washing machines - mine was ruined in the flood, besides we didn’t have electricity for a while). I was so glad I’d saved this quilt!
The Bells - Dave & Kathleen, Zoe and Daisy - at a billets' home during Calgary’s 2013 flood.
Let’s get it done
So why is it 2020 and I’m JUST finishing this beautiful quilt? A number of excuses. None of them good! I did finish a few blocks over the years and redid block 7. Turns out, I did leave one block in my home. The block was thrown away (because sewage water is gross and discolours fabric) - I restitched it completely.
My local quilt store had kitted 10 of the 12 blocks, so when, in 2019, I had fresh ambition to get going on finishing this quilt, I started the year on block 10. As I was excited to see the end of this wonderful project, I ended up buying the patterns and made them on my own with wool felt I had.
In 2019, I had all 12 blocks stitched.
Sashing and border
Stars vs cornerstones
I thought the quilt was busy enough! I didn’t love the cornerstone suggestion that Sue Garman added to her pattern. The stars I sewed were 2” finished in the middle. The 14” sashing had the star points on each end. As you can see, I made 20 stars in total.
Borders
I didn’t like the idea of ending with the stars as the edge of the quilt. It was a little too narrow. I wanted to give the quilt a little larger of a frame. I decided to have a darker border on the outside of the quilt. Although I had plenty of the blue swirly fabric, I chose to have a patterned darker blue fabric for the 3” border. My thought was, it pulled in the navy of background from the outside blocks (1, 6, 7, 8 and 11).
Quilting decisions
I did not want an all-over quilting design. Yet it is too important a piece for me to confidently quilt. I definitely wanted custom quilting.
Love Shack Quilts in Airdrie was generous to leave the bling on the quilt(some quilter will cut off anything to get in their way!) but it definitely impeded the quilting progress. What Sharon ended up doing, was:
a 1/4” background up to the main pattern on all blocks
an outline of the main pattern
an outline of the sashing stars
gorgeous feathers in the sashing and in the border
Gorgeous feathers quilted in the borders. Click on the image to see an Instagram post - how Sharon quilted this part of the quilt.
Advice to my younger self
I love this quilt and am extremely proud of it. But if I’ve inspired YOU to make this heirloom, here’s what I would do differently:
Wool on wool applique is too heavy for the whole block. Make the background a cotton/fabric. This will give more structure to the block. Cotton is lighter too, so the whole quilt will be lighter.
Fabric backgrounds will give you the option to have a bit of help with the texture and colour because of the choice of fabrics. Starry nights can be created with starry fabrics. Wallpaper or indoor walls can be interesting little prints/stitched designs using fabric with a pattern.
Ensure you have enough fabric for the different blocks where there are repeats. I was o.k. for Santa’s outfit (the red wool held out); Santa’s sleigh is two different colours because I didn’t have enough wool to make the larger sleigh.
Take a black and white photo of your block when you are laying it out (before you fuse it), to see if you have it balanced - lights and darks looking pleasing and balanced - before you start to stitch.
Be consistent with your layout. That means have a line where the block ends (a basting line of stitching is a great idea). You can see that I am not consistent with the placement of the words on my blocks - they end up at different positions in the blocks. Some lower, some higher.
Collect bling! There’s some cool beads, buttons and extras to purchase to make the quilt your own. The internet is your friend on this one - you’ll find a ton of fun things to add to your quilt if you always have it in mind.
The blocks are big - 14” square finished. I would quilt the blocks individually, then sash them the same way. All you’d have to do, is outline all of the pieces with a walking foot and clear thread. Then the custom quilting could be the gorgeous feathers by your long arm quilter. Much cheaper. Much easier to quilt.
RESIST adding the bling! until the end. Or, at LEAST resist adding the bling to the quilt until the block is quilted. I do love how mine has all of the bling inside the quilt, but the buttons and ribbons should have been added later. I couldn’t resist, so the quilting suffered. Love Shack Quilts did an amazing job. My fault for making it a very hard quilting project.
And maybe, don’t take 12 years to make this beauty!
Happy holidays.
Kathleen
Dec. 26, 2020