176. Let It Snow

 During the last several months of 2017,  I was working on a very achievable challenge of sewing with the fabrics I have on hand rather than purchasing more. So when I saw the pattern, Happy Christmas, I decided to pull out all my fabric with snowflakes, or those that looked like snow falling. These fabrics had made it through many extensive fabric destashes, so I told myself there must be a good reason why they were still hanging around.

I cut and sewed, and trimmed endless half square triangles. I put the blocks on the design wall.

And then had a big moment of disappointment. It just didn't look as pretty as I had envisioned in my head. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I loved the fabrics individually, but together they just didn't "wow" me. Hmmm...

At first I thought it might be that some of the low volume backgrounds were too gold or too brown. And one of the green fabrics in the tree had too much blue in it. What was the problem? I pulled all those fabrics off the design wall, and put the question out to Instagram--keep them in  or make them go away?

Interestingly, it was nearly unanimous that the fabrics I pulled out should be added back in--it gave more texture and interest. So back they went.

The next change I made was to eliminate the lowest two rows of the tree, which made the quilt smaller, a size I was much happier with. It was feeling more festive. But I still wasn't in love with it. One of my good friends said it didn't look like a "Cindy quilt." I knew what she meant by that--I would have liked it better in all solids. Ha! 

And then our "bonus" granddaughter, Stacie, texted and said she loved it! I knew then and there that the quilt had a home.

My very favorite part is the blue star--you will never see that knit-look fabric in any destash ever, as I will be using every.single.piece.

Darby did her usual fabulous job of quilting--a snowflake pattern that is just perfect. I changed the name from Happy Christmas to Let it Snow.

When it was completed, Mark and I took it on a little photo op excursion.

It was high noon, so we had to deal with less-than-ideal light--too bright.  But you take what you can get. First up was city hall.

 I liked the water fountain in the background kind of blurring the wreath.

Next we went to a favorite shopping center, Fig Garden Village.

 Have you seen the latest trend in trees hung upside down?

We had just read an article in the local newspaper so of course Mark wanted a picture of the quilt upside down.

It was such fun to gift the quilt to Stacie. These are typical "Stacie" photo poses:

A 9-year-old boy jumping in the way.

A 6-year-old boy making snow angels on the quilt.

Finally, the best picture of a happy girl.

Which made this quilter very happy. 

Title: Let It Snow

Pattern by: Holly Lesue (Maker Valley)

Date Completed: 2017

Quilted by: Darby Myers