Oh Christmas Tree!

Spring has finally come to New England. You may have been enjoying warmer weather for a while now where you are, but it’s only in the past few weeks that the forest around From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters has turned lush and green.

That’s not to say I’ve forgotten about the winter past. We New Englanders were scarred by the record snowfalls of early 2015, not to mention the coughs and colds and missed school days that came with the snow. It was during this past winter that I decided to tackle curve piecing with projects that ranged from potholders to journal covers, throw quilts to pillows.

Perhaps my favorite project from that period is my Oh Christmas Tree mini quilt ...

Featuring a variety of fabrics from my scrap bin and based on a design from Rachel Hauser (Stitched in Color), this mini measures 18.5 inches by 19.5 inches. I look at this project and think how I never would have made anything quite like it just two or three years ago. Back then, I didn’t have solid piecing skills for straight lines, let alone curves. I also didn’t have the confidence in fabric selection to put together what you see above.

If you follow my blog, you know that the most intimidating part of quilt making for me is the quilting itself. Despite that, I’ve quilted all of my projects, big and small, myself. My plan of attack is usually to do as little quilting as I can get away with in a project! I’m not to the point where I think my quilting, to date almost exclusively straight-line quilting, adds anything to my creations.

This project is the exception. The quilting here adds something to this mini. It brings movement and life to an otherwise simple Christmas scene. The final product would be something altogether different without it, don’t you think?

To celebrate this little beauty and show Mother Nature that I harbor no hard feelings about the winter of 2015, I’m submitting this quilt to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival in the mini quilt category.

There’s a lot of inspiration on display during the Blogger’s Quilt Festival—I highly recommend checking it out! To view the other quilts, go to Amy’s Creative Side. Voting opens on May 22 and wraps up on May 29. The other quilt I’m submitting, my Dogwood Blossom Quilt, can be found here.