Special Christmas Designs 

2015 - Flocons de Neige (Snowflakes)
It is a strange old world, as my father used to say; and the older I get the more I am coming to agree with him.

I fancied designing a Christmas quilt, just for ME - a little piece of indulgence I felt I deserved.  And when I saw French General's 2015 Christmas range 'Joyeux Noel' everything sort of slipped into place.  Now, normally I do try to rein in the level of difficulty I put into my designs, to save my poor customers' sanity, but as I intended this just for myself, I allowed my fantasy full rein and came up with this. Yes I DO like flying geese!


As is my wont, I showed a couple of quilting buddies the design.

Buddies:  "OOoooo, when are you going to make a pattern for that?"
Me:  "I'm not, this is just for me"
Buddies: "Awwww, go on..."

Now, I had absolutely ZERO belief that anybody else would want to do this design. I love it, but let's face it, I love intricacy; it's not everybody's bag. So, as a sort of experiment, I floated the idea of making this the Modern Welsh Quilts Christmas offering for 2015 on the Facebook Quilting Bee - and was utterly gobsmacked by the response.  Several cups of tea later, I'd accepted the inevitable, and the page 'People crazy enough to make Flocons de Neige' was born:  designed as a space for us all to meet up, hopefully have a laugh and seek advice in the course of making the project.  It's not a formal page, there's no set time in which to complete the quilt, it's just THERE, like your favourite coffee house :-)

The pattern is $6.99, like all my standalone patterns - please email me if you would like it as I haven't uploaded it to the site yet!

If you would like to take part in this project, please come and find me on Facebook, or drop me a line on zelda@modernwelshquilts.com and ask to be added to the group.  The design would work with other ranges from French General, should 'Joyeux Noel' sell out!  I'm really happy to help as much as I can with this - let's face it, I LOVE talking about fabric! - so if you would like to do the design but have concerns about the fabric you can find in which to do it, please don't be shy and come and ask me. I'm always interested to see how people adapt my designs away from the original!

Joyeux Noel indeed!!
2016 - Sarabande
As Flocons had been a big hit in 2015, I decided to design an intricate quilt to mark the festive season in 2016 too.

I wanted to call to mind the sort of stately courtly dances which everybody enjoyed over the Christmas period in olden times. The piecing itself is not too taxing, although there are some small pieces used. However, some care is required with regard to placement - but I have done my best to explain this as completely as possible in the pattern.

Again, there is a special Facebook group for anybody making this design, so we can socialise - because that's partly what makes the holiday period special, isn't it?

The pattern is $6.99, like all my standalone patterns - please email me if you would like it as I haven't uploaded it to the site yet!
"Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed. But here a small boy says: "It snowed last year, too. I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea."  = Dylan Thomas "A Child's  Christmas in Wales"