Santa’s Hat Shop Christmas Quilt Along; Design Tips
Welcome to week one of the Santa’s Hat Shop Christmas quilt along! We are kicking things off by chatting a bit about design suggestions for your quilt. We will discuss fabric choices, color value, and alternate layouts. Let’s Go!
For those of you who have joined, I’m so excited to have you on this quilt along! The Santa’s Hat Shop pattern is one of those “easier than it looks” patterns since it’s made primarily from the same quilt block.
Once you get the “hang” of creating that block the rest will go quite quickly (I’ll also be sharing some suggestions to speed up your quilt piecing).
Before we begin a little housekeeping…
How to Get the Pattern
The pattern is in my shop. It’s in PDF and printed format. In addition to my shop, many other quilt shops around the country are carrying the pattern, so ask at your local quilt shop!
If you are in a VAT country you can purchase it on Etsy (they take care of the VAT issues for me).
A few of you have asked if the pattern will be going on sale during the quilt along. It won’t. I don’t want to discount it out of respect for those that have purchased it in the past, including local quilt shops.
Christmas Quilt Along Schedule
Here is the schedule for the quilt along. With links to the blog posts in the series so far.
Design Ideas
All of the fabrics shown are from my Santa Claus Lane Collection.
First, let’s chat a bit about some of the design choices you have when constructing your quilt.
You do not need to make any of these decisions just yet, you have until the assembly steps to do that.
Option 1: Square
You can make your quilt in a square layout as shown. It measures 60×60 when stitched up this way.
This quilt is made up of 36 quilt blocks in a simple grid.
Option 2: Rectangle
If you like, you can rearrange those 36 blocks into 7 rows of 5 instead. You will have 6 blank blocks and 29 Santa Hat Blocks.
Your quilt will measure 50″ x 70″ if you do it this way. Which makes it a nice “couch cuddling” quilt since it will cover your toes! As I already have one of these quilts, I’ll be making mine in the 5×7 layout.
Adding the Santa Belt Block
If you wish to add the Santa Belt Block, the pattern for that will be shared in an upcoming week. I would recommend waiting until you’re done sewing to see where it will look best in your quilt. Here is an idea if you decide to add that block.
Fabric and Color Choices
I’ve mocked up the quilt with a few different background color choices.
You can make the quilt out of “scrappy” green fabrics as shown above.
Another option would be to create the quilt out of the same background fabric (vs. a scrappy look in the above mockup). The fabric in the mockup is a Blossom Basic by Riley Blake Designs.
I love pink for Christmas and think the quilt would also be adorable with a pink background.
Then there is always an aqua background as shown in my original quilt.
A few tips:
- As you pick your background fabrics, make sure that they “stand out” from the red hat fabric and the white fabric on the pom-pom and brim. If you look closely at my aqua quilt, you may notice that there is not enough contrast between some of the aqua prints and the white.
- There is no reason that your quilt has to have red hats. You can choose any fabric or color combo that you wish. A striped green fabric would make the hats look like Elf hats!
- This quilt was designed to be scrappy. Be sure to “shop your stash” before you buy fabric for it. 1/4” yard or 1 fat quarter of fabric. There are 28 Santa Hat Blocks.
- It’s ok to “think” outside the box. Erin from House on Hill Road created my Halloween Haberdashery quilt out of a variety of colors. I love how it looks! The hats don’t all have to be red!
Piecing Choices for the Quilt Blocks
I know that many of you LOVE Foundation Paper Piecing! Just as many of you also seem to dislike it! This quilt pattern includes instructions for BOTH traditional piecing and foundation paper piecing of the Santa Hat Blocks.
If you don’t want to Foundation Paper Piece this quilt, you don’t have to! The only elements in the quilt that are purely FPP are the JOY blocks. But for this quilt along we are making the version of the quilt without the JOY blocks, so you’re ok!
That’s all for this week. If you have questions be sure to leave them in the comments section and I’ll answer them as they come in. Come back next week for piecing tips including an instructional video!
