This is Holly Clarke from Holly Clarke Design on the blog tour to share the quilt I made with the adorable new Christmas fabric collection called “Twas” by Jill Howarth. You can find out more about me and my work on my website at https://hollyclarkedesign.com and over on Instagram at @holdmyseamripper.
I have proclaimed my “fan girl” status of Jill Howarth’s fabric before, but this new collection has me leveled up to uber-fan-girl. The adorable retro-inspired Christmas print recounts the classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (a.k.a “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”) showing Santa trimming the tree, laying out gifts, and coming down the chimney. Other prints include twinkly stars, stockings, Christmas mice, and a snowy village on Christmas Eve. Some of the prints have sparkly silver details that give it a festive glimmer.
I chose to use this collection to make my new Avant Garden quilt pattern. The oversized daisy petals have a star-like quality to them and make me think of retro holiday ornaments and holiday glitz. I selected 16 prints from the collection and added a red and a pale pink solid to round it out. For my background fabric I used a deep forest green.
The pattern is pre-cut friendly and can be made with fat quarters, rolie polie strips, or yardage. It’s constructed with many, many “flower petal” shapes which are pieced together in 3’s to form triangle shaped blocks.
It is so fun to see the flowers “grow” as you add more blocks to the layout.
I quilted it with simple vertical stripes to contrast all the curved piecing.
I chose to use the red Sugarplum Stripe print for my binding. It adds the perfect finishing touch to the quilt. For my backing fabric, I used Swiss Dot on White Christmas.
If you’d like to make your own version of the Avant Garden quilt, the pattern is available in my shop, click the button:
Here is my finished Twas Avant Garden quilt. I can’t wait to cuddle up under it when the weather gets cold.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my process of making my Twas “Avant Garden” quilt. For more inspiration and to see more of my work, please visit my website at https://hollyclarkedesign.com and on Instagram at @holdmyseamripper.
