New Christmas Quilt

On and off over the years I've seen people make quilts using antique linens (like these) and I've always admired them.  A few years ago I picked up this Christmas doily somewhere thinking it would be great for this type of treatment although I don't have any reason to think it's antique.  After seeing Cindy Needham's fabulous special exhibit of this type of quilt at IQF this year, I was determined to try my hand at it.

I tried the doily on several different green backgrounds.  I had a really hard time capturing the colors in photos, especially for the darker ones, but I settled on a very dark green dupioni silk from my stash (it's the far right that looks almost black, but in person is a lovely forest green).  After a little bit of pre-marking I just started quilting away.

I bound it in a green microsuede which gives a nice soft texture in person.  The Christmas tree I quilted in the middle felt a bit off center to me because I placed it so the widest part of the tree would sit in a wider part of the wreath, so I decided to quilt the words "Lux Venit" (the Light is coming) under it in reference to Jesus' birth on Christmas.

Lux Venit, Shannon Conley, c.2016

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas and I hope you're finding time to celebrate with those near to you this time of year!