Christmas Gift Exchange Quilt

Christmas is just around the corner. Well, it feels like it for me, anyway, as Christmas is a crazy time at our house and we have so much family to see (and so many presents to buy!). Presents at our house are totally my responsibility (my husband only buys for me- how did he get that deal?). I like to be organized so I plan- and buy- early. I have about 1/4 of my shopping done, but so much more to go!

With thoughts of Christmas racing through my head, I started planning what we might contribute to a Christmas gift exchange we do with all the adults at my mother-in-law's house. There are usually about 12-14 of us (sometimes more) and we all contribute a (non gender-specific) gift worth $50 for a game involving drawing numbers. First person gets first pick, second person can steal the open present or choose to open another one and so on.

I decided that though a quilt is worth more than $50, I want to make one for the exchange. The problem comes from the non gender-specific part of the rules. What guy will want a quilt? I decided to go with it anyway since the only single man in the group is my brother-in-law. If other men end up with it, I think their wives will appreciate the quilt (at least I hope so!).

And so here is the stack of fabrics I chose for this quilt. They are all from my stash, and I think the colours work for both men and women and for multiple generations (we have people in their 80s and people in their 20s in the exchange, and everywhere in between!).

I am also using a solid white for strips between the squares. I plan to use that brown and white fabric (not the Pearl Bracelet in Chocolate, the other one) for borders. And I am making my own design for this quilt. It involves 5" squares of the pattern with 2" sashing between blocks and rows. Fingers crossed it turns out well! Toes crossed that whomever in the family gets it in the exchange will give it love!

Lynn (aka Buttons)