...or should that be unwrapped? My dear friend Andrea from the Willow Cottage Quilt Company and I hope you will join us for our wonderful new Block of the Month programme: -
The Twelve Days of Christmas Block of the Month will run for ten months, from November 2021 until August 2022. Each month you will receive a beautifully packaged kit containing everything you need to make one (or more!) of twelve original sampler blocks. With your first parcel you will receive an exclusive copy of the Twelve Days of Christmas pattern book. In month ten we will be assembling our quilt and preparing our binding (you will need to supply your own backing and batting).
I have had a few of these blocks in my sketchbook for a looong time but only finally figured out the piecing for a couple of elusive blocks last autumn... and then the whole quilt just danced onto the page. It has been an absolute joy to realise this idea at last! And if you follow Andrea on Instagram you'll know that she adores everything Christmas and decorates her house exquisitely every year, so she was as excited as me to be working on a Christmas quilt :-)
In fact, Andrea was putting the finishing touches to the samples while I was at Festival of Quilts earlier this month and has made not one, but two!
Twilight colourway
Because this year we are offering two background options: Twilight (Moda Bella Etchings Slate) and Snowdrift (Moda Bella Porcelain).
The quilt will finish at 73" x 81" and we will be sewing with Fat Eighth bundles of Tilda’s beautiful Windy Days collection and the new Aella blender prints. Windy Days' richly patterned prints and glowing colours will conjure up an eighteenth century Christmas and be a joy to sew with.
Snowdrift colourway
The Twelve Days of Christmas blocks are conventionally machine pieced and suitable for intermediate sewists. If you are wondering if they’re for you, take a look at my blog posts for the Spellbound Sew-along: the piecing methods we will be using are very similar.
I will be sharing my favourite techniques to add special details to each block, including piecing angles, trimming half-square triangles and adding simple ribbon applique & embroidery. We will be including a very special treat in your parcels this year, which we know you're going to love.
As before, there will be special password accessed blog pages - where I will be sharing my inspiration and guiding you through the techniques we cover - and a private Facebook group so that we can all cheer each other on as we make our blocks. This was a wonderful, happy and supportive addition last year which I know many of you really appreciated.
Please note that there are limited places available for the Block of the Month. There is a £18.00 reservation fee which is non-refundable and commits you to participating in the ten month programme. I will contact you regarding your choice between the Twilight or Snowdrift background options once your reservation has been secured. Reservations are available here. The remaining ten payments will be made by PayPal Subscription and will cost £18.00, plus postage (postage will be £2 within the UK, £5 to Europe and £6.50 to Australia/New Zealand). If you are purchasing in North America, please reference the listing in Andrea's shop, here.
Andrea and I have had the most wonderful time sewing with our block of the month participants over the past two years and we are excited to share this new Christmas-themed project with you, we hope you’ll love it as much as we do!
Nicola xx
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