This Year's Christmas Card

I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself with it being only February and Christmas a long 10 months in the future, however, this was going to be my 2011 Christmas card and when I got into the planning I realized it just wasn't going to get done on time. So now it's 2012's Christmas card.

I planned it out as I would any of my landscape quilts, with a watercolour painting first, a plotted pattern, and the choosing of fabric. What's different about this one is that it is only 7 inches by 8.5 inches in size. So my pattern pieces are miniscule and some I couldn't even pick up with my fingers; I needed tweezers. It became apparent that I couldn't sew the fabric together as I do with my larger landscape quilts and I had to find another way of putting it together. I chose to use a product called Heat 'n Bond which can be ironed onto the back of fabric where it leaves a residue that when heated with an iron will adhere the fabric to something else. So instead of sewing the pieces together I glued them using my iron onto another piece of fabric. Once that was done, I treated it as I would a large landscape quilt and thread painted on top to enhance the design. Then I placed batting and a backing fabric and a border on it and quilted the whole thing.

To complete the card I will manipulate the photograph in my computer, possibly putting a caption on it, then print off the photo and glue it to card stock, add an envelope and I'll be ready for the Christmas 2012 mailing.