Welcome! Andrea - from the Willow Cottage Quilt Company - and I are delighted that you can join us to create our fabric ode to the festive season and the joy of gifting in our latest block of the month programme.
Over the next ten months we will be making all twelve 'gifts' from the traditional Christmas song and while we might not be sticking exactly to the quantities - I'm sure you're thanking us for that - we hope the finished design will have you singing along as you sew.
Your parcels will be posted on the second Tuesday of each month and, if you joined us last year, you'll know that there will be some fun extras (we CANNOT wait to share what we have planned this year) and a bonus project or two along the way.
I like to think of this page as our group journal where I can share my top tips with you along with my inspiration for each of the blocks, so be sure to check in every month when you've received your parcel. Each month will be highlighted when the link to the post is live. You can also join our private Facebook group so that you can come and chat with us - and each other - there too.
Andrea and I both encourage you to share your progress on Instagram and Facebook with the #twelvedayssamplerbom hashtag so that we can all cheer each other on.
Scroll down to access the posts for each month...
Month 1: November, Partridge in a Pear Tree
Month 2: December, Turtle Doves & Gold Ring
Month 3: January, French Hen & Gold Ring
Month 4: February, Calling Bird & Gold Ring
Month 5: March, Goose a-laying & Gold Ring
Month 6: April, Swan a-swimming & Gold Ring
Month 7: May, Maids a-milking
Month 8: June, Ladies Dancing
Month 9: July, Lords a-leaping
Month 10: August, Pipes & Drums
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 1
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a Partridge in a pear tree
That most whimsical of carols, The Twelve Days of Christmas, was first published in English at the end of the 18th century, but it’s probably older and quite possibly French in origin. It celebrates the ancient Christian festival of Twelvetide, which commenced on Christmas Day and culminated in the merriment of Twelfth Night.
November seems a very apt month to be preparing your lovely parcels and has certainly got me in the mood to start wrapping Christmas presents. As well as our scrumptious Tilda fabric - always a pleasure to fold - this month's parcel includes the Twelve Days of Christmas pattern book. This will be your guide over the next ten months but I'll also be posting here to share a few fun facts about the subject of our block and exploring a useful tip or technique to help you with your piecing.
So, without further ado, I present the Partridge, nestled amongst golden pears in a block inspired by the traditional Tree of Paradise block. In real life, our Partridge would be somewhat surprised to find himself perched in a tree, being a strictly ground-nesting bird. In French, Partridge is translated as Perdrix (pronounced pear-dree) which may explain things a little, because in the 17th century the French red-legged Partridge was introduced to Britain to supplement our native grey partridges, whose numbers were much depleted by hunting. So, technically, we do have both Partridge and Perdrix.
I have taken a few liberties with the colouring of my Partridge, and should really have reversed those pink and grey prints... but it didn't make such a pretty block, so I hope you'll forgive me my artistic licence. And I have plans for that little pear motif, which I'm looking forward to sharing with you next month in a special bonus project. Because there isn't much to do in December, is there?
There are *ahem* one or two half-square triangles in this block and when I made mine I experimented with a new way of trimming them, which I've shared in the Techniques box {click on the photos to enlarge them}. If you like this method you can put the Quilt-in-a-Day Square Up ruler on your Christmas list.
Until next month, Happy Thanksgiving to our lovely friends sewing in the United States,
Nicola xx
This month's techniques...
Here's an alternative way to trim our HSTs, which I've found quick and effective...
After you've cut your pairs of HSTs apart, DON'T press them open just yet...
Mark the diagonal on your ruler with washi tape and line up with the STITCHING line...
Trim then press open (nip off those dog ears too)...
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 2
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me, two Turtle Doves
This month I have two blocks for you to make: the Turtle Doves and the first of our five Gold Rings. Plus a special treat: a tutorial for a Christmas stocking, adorned with the Pear motif from last month's block. It would make a lovely gift for a last-minute guest, filled with a few essentials for their stay - toiletries, bedtime snacks, a good book, the obligatory satsuma - and left hanging at the end of their bed.
Our Gold Ring is a traditional Wedding Ring block, although it has many other names including - rather charmingly - the Nest & Fledglings, which chimes well with the birds in our quilt. This block is actually the reason that Andrea and I chose the beautiful Tilda Windy Days for our quilt, as we fell in love with the soft golds in the collection and knew they'd be perfect for the Gold Rings. Please note that the background fabric for all five Gold Rings is in this month's parcel, so please keep it safe for later months.
The Turtle Doves are an original block but borrow the half square triangles from the Gold Ring for their fluttering wings. Of course, being Tilda Doves, their plumage is rather spectacular.
If last month's Partridge was alarmed to find himself perched in the branches of a Pear tree, our dainty Turtle Doves will be most put out to find themselves in the frosty Northern hemisphere, as they prefer to spend the winter warming their feathers in Africa. And as I write this on a cold, foggy morning, I think they have the right idea...
Turtle Doves are named for their gentle 'tur-tur' song - absolutely nothing to do with Turtles - and I hope you'll be singing too, this December, and enjoying the merriest of Christmases with your loved ones. I'm sending you my warmest wishes for a happy, healthy and restful New Year.
Nicola xx
This month's bonus project...
Well, it's nearly Christmas after all: my gift to you is a Christmas Stocking tutorial using the Pear motif we made last month...
Find the tutorial for the pear block and the Christmas stocking here...
PLEASE NOTE: There is a small edit to step 1 of the Turtle Doves pattern on page 17 of your book: you will set aside the rest of the teal fabric for the (non-dancing) Mikmaid on page 39 and you may find it helpful to look at the cutting diagram for the Milkmaid's skirt before cutting the pieces for your Turtle Dove. My apologies for the confusion friends xx
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 3
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, three French Hens
A very happy New Year, lovely friends, and welcome to month three of our programme. This month we'll be making the fabulously-feathered French Hen along with another Gold Ring to add to your jewellery box.
The friendly farmyard chicken is so familiar to us that it's surprising to learn of it's exotic origins: our sociable hens are descended from the wild Red Junglefowl of East Asia. Domesticated many thousands of years ago for cock fighting, it is thought that Iron Age Europeans worshipped them as gods. They began to be bred for food in the eastern Mediterranean and were widely distributed by the Romans around their vast empire, including Britain and, of course, Gaul.
While British hens were kept mainly for their eggs, the French kept them for the table and for centuries the Poulet Bresse Gauloise, a 400 year-old breed from eastern France - with its tricolour of red comb, white feathers and blue legs - was considered to be "the queen of poultry, the poultry of kings" making our French Hen a covetable gift.
You will have noticed that my hen isn't white, but a teal and pink chicken isn't quite as outlandish as it sounds. Last spring Italian photographers Moreno Monti & Matteo Tranchellini published Chicken: A Declaration of Love, a beautiful photographic record of their ravishing variety. Chickens now outnumber any other breed of bird, providing us with meat, eggs and, increasingly, companionship. This month's treat, a French Hen enamel pin, celebrates this seemingly humble but rather extraordinary bird.
This month's tip..
How is your quarter inch seam? I almost hesitate to ask, because it's not the most scintillating subject, but just half an hour spent playing with your machine settings - go on, break out that manual - will repay you a million times over in time saved unpicking!
On my Janome I move my needle position very slightly: it makes all the difference!
Twelve Days of Christmas Block of the Month
PLEASE NOTE: Andrea and I have also included the Blue Aella sashing fabric in this month's parcel, so keep it safe until we assemble our quilts.
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 4
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, four Calling Birds
For those of us in the Northern hemisphere this month's block is very timely, as we notice our garden birds singing again to attract a mate in readiness for spring nesting.
To discover the identity of our Calling Bird we need to explore older versions of the song. When it was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, the lyrics listed four Colly birds, an old-English term for coal-black birds, or as we know them today, the common Blackbird. Although there's nothing common about this lovely little bird.
Both colly and calling are equally fitting descriptions, as young males will start singing in late January and are described by ornithologists as 'singing to themselves' in the winter months (apparently practising). In my own garden they lead the dawn chorus and are still singing as dusk falls, so I heartily agree with poet William Henley's beautiful lines...
The nightingale has a lyre of gold,
The lark's is a clarion call,
And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute,
But I love him best of all.
In addition to our melodious Calling Bird you will be making another Gold Ring this month, using the Dusty Red Skyler print and your choice of the two gold prints from previous months. You will also find the first pair in a series of very special treats in this month's parcel...
This month's treat...
Andrea and I have been absolutely bursting to share this secret with you, because this month's treat is the first of our exclusive Christmas Pear ornaments!
I will be sharing ideas for how to use your ornaments over the coming months, so we'll all be very ready indeed for Christmas 2022!
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 5
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, six Geese a-laying
With Easter on the horizon and our garden birds in full nesting mode, it's the perfect month to meet our Goose a-laying and make the fourth of our Gold Rings, with the trimmings from this month's blue Breeze print or last month's coral Breeze print, I'll leave the choice to you.
Geese were a farmyard favourite in times of yore and roast goose was traditionally bought from the September goose fairs and eaten on the feast days of Michaelmas & Christmas, not the Turkey that we are so familiar with nowadays. Beady-eyed, strident and loyal, geese were also the guardians of the farmyard, as well as contributing down for mattresses, feathers for arrow flights and - most fascinating of all - quills.
Which means that when the Twelve Days of Christmas was first committed to paper at the end of the eighteenth century, it was with a quill. We'd been writing with them for more than a thousand years until they were supplanted by mass produced steel nibs a few short decades later.
Our glamorous goose is sitting on a nest created from - what else - a flying geese unit. And In this month's technique box I will be sharing how to create the goose's elegant beak. This is a technique I'm very fond of and, if it's new to you, I hope it becomes a favourite for you too. Also in this month's parcel are two more Christmas Pear ornaments. Look out next month for some ideas how to use them :-)
Click on the photo to zoom in on the following steps: a) trim down the 2" x 3" background piece; b) mark a placement line with the small TS template; c) place the trimmed piece on the placement line, right sides together and stitch ¼" away; d) press out; e) turn your work to the wrong side to trim it; f) ta-da, you've just made a beak!
This month's technique...
This month we're going to be creating a beak - as you do! - with my favourite placement template technique and I thought some step-by-step photos might be helpful...
PLEASE NOTE: Andrea and I have also included the background fabric for the Lords a-leaping in this month's parcel, so keep it safe until we need it for our month 9 blocks in July.
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 6
On the 7th day of Christmas my true love sent to me, seven Swans a-swimming
Our April block, the regal swan, seems very fitting given that her Majesty the Queen celebrates her 96th birthday this month. But did you know that amongst her many titles she is also the Seigneur of the Swans? Let me explain...
In medieval times swans were the centrepiece of Royal Christmas banquets - Henry III ordered forty for Christmas 1247 - and could only be kept by noble families, who marked their swan's beaks to show their ownership. Any unmarked swans belonged to the Crown. Even after they fell out of culinary fashion in the 19th century, it remained an act of Treason to kill a swan until the legislation was repealed in 1998.
Although I am pleased to say they are still protected, in fact the Queen has an official Swan Marker - resplendent in gold-trimmed scarlet blazer with a swan's feather in his cap - and every summer he leads the Royal Swan Upping on the river Thames, collecting data and checking on the health of the resident swans and their cygnets.
Our swans are suitably marked with elegant Tilda prints - I'm sure her Majesty would approve - and we will also be making the last of our Gold Rings, with the teal Breeze print in your parcels. Finally, in this month's technique box is the first (and probably the most obvious) way to use your Christmas Pear Ornaments...
Click on the illustrations to zoom in on the following steps: a) mark a stitching line on the back pieces to leave a 3" opening at the centre and stitch together with a ¼” seam, pressing the seam open; b) fold the twine in half and glue baste to the top of the ornament; c) place back and printed front right sides together and sew a ¼” away inside the perimeter of the pear (you will see it clearly from the wrong side of the printed ornament); d) trim away the excess fabric to leave a ¼” seam, turn right sides out and stuff, before slip-stitching the opening closed.
This month's technique...
Using your Pear Ornament to make a stuffed Christmas Tree decoration...
In addition to your printed ornament you will need 2 3¼” x 7" print pieces for the back (not supplied) and a 7" piece of red twine (in your parcel).
PLEASE NOTE: Andrea and I have also included 1¼” yards of background fabric in this month's parcel, which we will need when we assemble our quilts in August, so keep it safe until then.
POST SCRIPT: If you are ready - and would like - to assemble the centre section of your quilt, download an extract from pages 61-63 of the Twelve Days of Christmas pattern book, with a partial cutting guide HERE. Thanks for the suggestion, Angie!
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 7
On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, eight Maids a-milking
Having met all of the birds from the song for the centre of our quilt, this month we move on to the borders, starting with the busy milkmaids with their yoke and buckets.
In days of old cows were milked by hand in the field. The pails of milk were then carried to the farm dairy by the milkmaid using a wooden yoke - fully laden they could weigh more that fifty kilos - where the cream was skimmed and butter was made. Twelfth Day festivities would require plenty of both, so a team of milkmaids would be rather useful.
As well as being valued for their hard work, Milkmaids were also admired for their beauty and good health. Qualities that were based on one fascinating fact: exposure to cowpox gave them immunity to the devastating ravages of smallpox which, if it didn't kill it's victims, left them badly scarred. A fact that inspired 18th century Gloucestershire doctor, Edward Jenner, to use a cowpox lesion from the hand of a local milkmaid to develop the first reliable smallpox vaccine. Definitely worth singing about!
This month's parcels include a teal solid fabric for the milkmaid's bodice, navy ribbon for her yoke and the Tilda Doll Fabric we'll be using for all of the figures in the border. You will also need some scraps of the grey print we used for the Goose's nest and some print scraps for her skirt (I chose the teal print we used for the Turtle Doves).
Those of you using the dark grey background will also need two 2½" x 4½" cream scraps for the milkmaids' aprons. We had every intention of popping those into your parcels but forgot to: please accept my apologies for that oversight. Needless to say, you have a second parcel winging its way to you!!
No self-respecting Milkmaid would be without a clean apron...
PLEASE NOTE: Andrea and I have also included the remaining yard of background fabric in this month's parcel, which we will need when we assemble our quilts in August, so keep it safe until then.
This month's technique...
This month we will be embellishing our hard-working Milkmaid with cotton satin ribbon, which will be appliqued onto our block.
I glue basted my ribbon in position and then machine-appliqued it in place.
Next, I changed my usual ivory thread and bobbin for navy, then reduced the tension in my top thread - down to 1 on my machine -which allows the ribbon to 'sit' on the surface of the fabric and stops it puckering.
Lining the ribbon up with the inside edge of the presser foot, stitch in place (I like to turn down the speed on my machine for this step).
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 8
On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, nine Ladies dancing
This month we're in a merry mood with the dancing ladies. We'll be making ten blocks this month, six ladies and two mischievous milkmaids, but I'm going to keep you on tenterhooks until my final post to explain our milkmaids' bold behaviour.
If you've read any Jane Austen, you'll know that a ball was the highlight of any young lady's social calendar, mainly because she hoped to meet her future husband at one. Dancing was, if you'll forgive me, the first step to romance. The favourite dance of the day was the Cotillion, an energetic series of formal, interlacing steps between four couples. It remained popular for decades (still surviving in our country dances and Scottish reels ) until the introduction of the Waltz at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with it's daring close hold, caused a scandal. Even Lord Byron (no stranger to scandal himself) thought it a bit racy.
Balls required not only a lovely gown and a working knowledge of complicated dance steps, but stamina: they started at nine in the evening, supper was served at one o'clock in the morning and the dancing went on all night, with breakfast served at seven before the weary guests headed home. No such luck for the milkmaids though.
As well as making your blocks, this month you're going to become dress designers, as we'll be using all of those beautiful 7" x 9" scraps saved in previous months to fashion the ladies' gowns - no one wants to be wearing the same dress after all - so have fun mixing and matching prints.
This month's technique...
Here are a few more ideas for using the Pear Ornaments in your parcels...
Bunting: applique the motifs to a rectangle of contrast felt then cut 1/8" away around the edge before stitching to a length of ribbon
Napkins: machine or hand applique the pear motifs to the corner of a plain napkin. Use this lovely tutorial to make your own
Gift Bags: make a plain gift bag - you might like to use my tutorial - and applique a motif to the front before assembling the pieces
Gift Tags and Cards: use a dab of glue stick to position a trimmed pear motif to a plain gift tag or greetings card and straight-stitch around the perimeter
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 9
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, ten Lords a-leaping
The partying continues in our sewing rooms in this, the penultimate month of our programme, as you create ten lords to gallivant around your quilt borders.
The majority of Lords in merry olde England derived their wealth from vast agricultural estates. As winter weather slowed the pace of farming life, their hardworking tenants were granted time off over Christmas - the whole twelve days in fact - although there was no such luck for the servants, who would be busier than ever preparing for the many parties he gave to impress his friends and neighbours. But even they were given the day after Christmas off, indeed their Lords would gift them all a 'box' of money and food, which is why we call it... Boxing Day.
All very expensive, no wonder they were hopping mad.
As we're making ten leaping Lords, you will have the opportunity to chain piece your blocks (although please make a test run with some scrap fabric first). The red tunics are made in the same way as the Milkmaids' harness, so take another look at my month seven tutorial. The trousers are made in a similar way to last month's dress skirts, apart - of course - from those trouser legs: I thought a separate photo tutorial would be helpful. Check your seam allowance, have a practise, take your time and save the dancing until you've finished ;-)
This month's technique...
This month I'm sharing another step-by-step photo tutorial to help you tailor the perfect pair of trousers for a leaping lord. There are lots and lots of photos, so CLICK HERE to access it.
Please note that there is a drafting error in the Large TS Template at the back of your book. It won't affect it's usefulness, but it won't quite reach the top of the trouser unit.
PLEASE NOTE: Andrea and I sent out the background fabric for the Lords a-leaping in your Month 5 (Goose) parcels. This month we have also included the red binding fabric, so set that aside for now.
Twelve Days of Christmas: month 10
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, twelve Drummers drumming, eleven Pipers piping...
We're making the last two pairs of blocks this month and rather fittingly they're musical, because it's time to gather all of our blocks and celebrate Twelfth Night.
In the 18th century, Twelfth Night revels featured riotous games, lashings of punch and sumptuous food. A special Twelfth Cake - the forerunner of today’s Christmas cake - was the centrepiece of the party, adorned with almond paste figures and a gilded crown. The earliest printed recipe for Twelfth Cake was published in John Mollard's The Art of Cookery: Made Easy and Refined (1803) when they were at the height of their popularity.
A dried bean and a dried pea were baked into the cake and a slice was served to everyone in the household. The man receiving the slice with the bean was named King for the night, whilst his Queen received the pea. Even a servant, like our humble milkmaid, would then be acknowledged by all - including the Lords and Ladies - as their Twelvetide sovereign.
By the Regency period, every guest played their part, quite literally: a variety of popular characters were written on slips of paper and put into a hat for guests to pick at random. Then King, Queen and guests stayed in character until the stroke of midnight when the merriment ended and the world returned to normal (and milkmaids returned to the dairy).
And so, alas, our block of the month must come to an end. But it isn't 'midnight' just yet, so I have one last treat for you all: the members of our Facebook group were kind enough to share their favourite festive foods with me, so lets tuck in to a Twelfth Night Feast...
This month's technique...
Pieced borders are as near to dressmaking as we quilters get: they need to fit! Here are my favourite tips: -
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Measure, measure, measure. Especially as you're going along: a slightly-off seam allowance will soon multiply (ask me how I know...)
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Use lots of pins when attaching the pieced border. It takes a little extra time, but will stop all those little seams misbehaving.
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if there is any fullness in the seam - either in the pieced border or the inner border - feed it through your machine full-side down: the feed dogs with distribute it evenly so you won't have any puckers or pleats.
My final tip is to take a break if things aren't going to plan. Make a cup of tea or come and have a chat in the Facebook group. And when you've finished that final seam, allow yourself a little dance for joy!
Our table would be laden with roast beef, turkey wellington, chicken pithivier, gumbo, salt cod, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, cabbage rolls, Norwegian leftse and scrapple (you may have to look up those last two), followed by Christmas pudding, trifle, peppermint cheesecake, sour cream raisin pie, gingerbread, shortbread, brownies, homemade toffee, fudge, marzipan, divinity (I had to look that one up), brandy beans, every kind of mince pie - with or without candied peal and frangipane - a slice of Christmas cake, German stollen and Italian pizelles.
I couldn't contemplate Christmas without chestnut stuffing (my lovely granny made it best) and for Andrea, Christmas starts with a batch of browned butter sugar cookies. And both of us love them even more when we share them with friends and family.
Finally, we're raising our glasses to you all with a toast: to good friends, thank you for your company!
…ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five go~ld rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree…