Christmas in July!

I love the whole season of Christmas,  don't you?!  I know it has become ridiculously commercial but the main reasons I love Christmas are because: it is a reminder of the birth and love of Christ and his reason for being born; and, I love all the joy everyone shares; and I love all the wonderful smells from cooking and candles; and I LOVE all the most beautiful Christmassy fabrics!  I had a chance to enjoy one of those beautiful fabrics as I finished a quilt that will be hanging in our local quilt show in mid-August.  It is jut stunning.  I love the Cardinals!

Black, red and white seems to be popular at this time of season!  The quilt is to be used for snuggling so the quilting was kept somewhat simple.  The middle bird blocks were quilted with swirls, but not too small.

The black border surrounding the birds and then used as the inner border, was quilted with a very simple and loose squiggle to keep the quilting open and not distract from the fabric.

I switched up just slighty and had to do something else fun for the piano key border so the middle of each strip has a simple serpentine line but I felt the quilt needed a little more for stability so rather than stitch in the ditch, I did a small squiggle on the seam line.  Different but interesting.  I figure it matches the large one in the border.

The back was a large black plaid flannel.  Nice and snuggly feeling!

The quilting actually showed up quite well on it.

This quilt was a joy to complete because I just love working on a Christmas quilt, especially my favorite, Christmas birds.  I think after I finish my current client quilts, I will take a break and start my hunter star quilt I am so eager to do for Christmas.  More about that later!

Have a glorious week and join me as I link up with http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com, http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com, http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.