Yay! I've finished piecing Have Yourself A Quilty Little Christmas! Now I really want to take it off of my design wall and have it quilted!

The stocking and wrapped candy just might be my favorite block. I spent awhile auditioning fabrics. The pink candy fabrics were easy. But the stocking has several seams so I stayed away from large prints. That meant pulling every single red fabric out of my closet. And then putting them all away. I love the dimensional hanging loop.

Now can we talk about the border? It took days to piece! It's made of four-patches mixed with alternating squares. The four patches measure 2" finished. It's constructed in a really interesting way - I didn't actually sew 1 1/2" squares. It started with a large pile of small squares...

And a few days later, four borders were finished and attached! I love this border with scrappy, controlled fabrics and 360 pieces.

Now for the specifics. Have Yourself A Quilty Little Christmas was an online quilt along designed by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet. It measures 34" x 46". Many of the block patterns are in her book Quilty Fun. The specific Christmas-themed blocks were designed just for this quilt along, and the instructions for those blocks were posted by Lori on Instagram. They do not appear in a print version. You can find the free instructions for the tree, present, gingerbread cookie, stocking and ornament by checking Lori's feed on Instagram (it's @beelori1) or by scrolling through #haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas. It was fun sewing along with many, many other quilters. We all encouraged each other, and I think that it became competitive, but in a fun way. There are lots of different interpretations of this quilt, and they all look fabulous.

My fabrics are a big mishmash of everything in my stash! The only new fabric that I bought was a fat quarter bundle of Sugar Rush by Josephine Kimberling for Blend Fabrics. I used just six of those prints, but they established the mood. So there's plenty of everything else from my stash. I added anything that matched!

Ok, I'm ready for my next project!

I've joined the "Have Yourself A Quilty Little Christmas" sew along!

Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet is hosting the sew along on Instagram. It's a fun way to use the Quilty Fun book to make some cute, quick blocks for Christmas. This might surprise you, but I had exactly ZERO Christmas themed fabrics in my stash! I quickly ordered a bundle of Sugar Rush fat quarters . I don't normally use novelty fabrics, but I'm breaking free of that and I'll have a retro/vintage/kitschy Christmas!

That's my little gingerbread house! I love the easy simplicity of making just one of each block. The fabric placement is the best part. I'm mixing nearly anything in my fabric stash with the Sugar Rush fabric - Bunny Hill's Winter Wonderland, Lori Holt's Flower Patch, Bonnie & Camille's Miss Kate, Pam Kitty Picnic... anything that works together. No rules!

Lori even created a special Christmas tree block that isn't featured in the book. I just had to use the blue and green swirly peppermints here!

Many of us are sewing along with Lori, with absolutely no idea how many blocks we'll sew or how large the finished project will be. That's a lot of trust, but it's been fun so far! And you can join us! Specific block info can be found on Instagram by following @beelori1 and under #haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas. While you're there, be sure to see what I'm up to by following me at @greydogwoodstudio.