Friday, December 12, 2025

Quilts of Christmases Past / Beauties Pageant 316

 

As a kid, I loved seeing all the Christmas trinkets my grandmother would unearth every December, from her vintage reindeer candles to her manger scene. Those items were as much a part of the celebration as the tree or the desserts she contributed to the holiday spread.

Although I appreciated the familiarity of my grandmother’s holiday decor and enjoyed revisiting those objects year after year, it took me decades to realize that I’m not much of a seasonal decorator. And I have tried! I have bought some beautiful and meaningful objects over the years, most of which are still (even on December 13) in boxes in my attic. A few years ago, though, I started making quilts with Christmas and winter themes. Finally, I found my way of celebrating the season.

What you see here are the wintry quilts that live at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters. It’s worth noting that I enjoyed making them so much that I sewed three of these four patterns twice (the twins were gifted years ago).

All of these patterns have their strengths. From top to bottom, the Christmas trees are a great stash buster, Kate Spain’s Chalet pattern makes the most of fat quarters, Camille Roskelley’s Norway design features big, bold blocks, and Gingiber’s Merrily quilt is an interesting way to use panels of a certain size. To read more about these projectsand to see some of their backsclick on the links below.

If you’ve encountered a winter-themed quilt pattern that you’ve loved enough to make twice, I’d love to hear about it!







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  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
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  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Friday, December 5, 2025

Seeing Stars / Beauties Pageant 315

I have few self-imposed rules when it comes to designing a new quilt pattern. One guiding principle is simple: no star quilts!

Don’t get me wrong—I love a good star quilt. The thing is, so do many other designers, and they’ve done a great job developing some fabulous star patterns. (Camille Roskelley’s Patchwork Sky, Cluck Cluck Sew’s Brightly, and MMM Quilts’ Pop Star come to mind.) 

Of course, rules—even self-imposed ones—were made to be broken. My book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts, features two star designs: Myriad and Five-Star Experience. (See pics at the bottom of the post.) Another star pattern of mine, called Twin-Star Cabins, will release in January.

The idea for Twin-Star Cabins originated in Folk Heart, a quilt I designed for the Ruby and Bee challenge for QuiltCon 2025. My quilt was not accepted into the show, but I love it! I am crazy about the palette and the irregularity of the sashing and cornerstones.

Because the average quilter doesn’t like heart blocks the way I do, I started playing with the Folk Heart design and came up with the idea to replace the hearts with sawtooth stars. 

The throw size that I am sewing requires 50 stars. I am making them in candy-colored hues I pulled from Melody Miller’s Carousel collection, which is featured in the mockup at the top of the post and will appear in my sample quilt as well.

All this talk of star quilts begs the question, What’s your favorite star design? I’d love it if you enabled a project for me in 2026 ... Share your recommendations in the comments!

Myriad from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts

Five-Star Experience from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts



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The pageant rules are simple:
  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
  • Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter