Holiday Candle

One of my UFOs was this holiday candle pattern called Candles Aglow by Castilleja Cotton designs. I'd purchased a yard of a beautiful gold star fabric for the border when I bought the pattern. Even though the guild UFO challenge for 2009 officially ended last month I decided to work on this anyway because I wanted something new to hang on my front door as part of my Christmas decorating. The hard part was selecting the fabric. Believe it or not, I do not have an extensive collection of Christmas fabric. But once I got past that it took no time to trace and iron on the applique pieces. There are only 9 of them. So I got the top made and quilted the background and candles. I used a gold metallic thread to quilt flames in the background. I had to fool around with needle sizes to prevent the thread from shredding and then it was pretty smooth.

This is how far I got by Saturday afternoon:

But when I went back to work on it on Sunday I looked at my leftover gold fabric and realized I had enough to make a second one, or even a couple of small versions. And here's what I came up with:

The "big" one measures 14" x 24". This smaller version is only 10" x 13.5" and does not have the heavy background quilting. I made 2 of them and finished them up tonight. One will be a gift for a friend. The other will be my very first blog giveaway! So, if you read all the way to the end of this post, be sure to leave a comment by 0500 GMT Saturday morning (midnight Friday night U.S.--EST) and you'll be entered in a random drawing to win. I will ship outside the U.S. Last I looked I only have a couple dozen readers of this blog. So the odds of winning are excellent. Good luck!

Comments

  1. Tara MarieDecember 15, 2009 at 6:21 AM

    Beautiful. Your Christmas fabric is lovely. Christmas time is always so hectic, it's nice you had time to create something so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DianaDecember 15, 2009 at 12:52 PM

    Oh, Phyl, I love this pattern...great job! I'm so glad that I decided to quickly check your blog, now I can be entered into your contest...yay!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cheryl St.JohnDecember 16, 2009 at 1:08 AM

    You are so talented!

    Your photos crack me up. We're all obsessive about *something*, aren't we?

    LOL
    Cher :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lusty ReaderDecember 17, 2009 at 12:25 PM

    oh my god phyl, seriously these are absolutely gorgeous (and im not sucking up to help win ;) hand made decorations are 90 million times more special, and what a joy for you to be able to make something like this for yourself! even buying something hand made in the store isn't as nice.

    ReplyDelete
  5. PhylDecember 19, 2009 at 12:27 AM

    Thank you so much ladies for your kind words about my candles!

    Thanks to random.org, the winner is Tara Marie! Congrats and I hope you enjoy it. Please email me at phylqb [at] gmail [dot] com with an address for me to send it to. If I hear from you soon enough you should get it by Christmas.

    Thanks to you all for stopping by my blog.
    Merry Christmas!

    True Random Number Generator

    Min: 1
    Max: 4
    Result: 1
    Powered by RANDOM.ORG

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tara MarieDecember 23, 2009 at 4:42 PM

    Phyl,

    I just emailed you :) Thank you so much. I've been off line for several day--trying desperately to be ready for Christmas on time :)

    Tara

    ReplyDelete
  7. HolySocks, the sub-dudeDecember 25, 2009 at 4:56 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Janet WebbDecember 26, 2009 at 11:18 PM

    What beautiful beautiful Christmas quilting masterpieces -- thanks for bringing them to life! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. PhylDecember 27, 2009 at 10:55 PM

    Thanks, Janet! As always, they were fun to make. I've finished the larger piece and as soon as my Christmas Camera is delivered I plan to post a picture.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ChristineDecember 28, 2009 at 8:19 PM

    Hi Phyl,
    Sorry I haven't been by in a while. This quilt hanging is so beautiful! Congratulations to Tara Marie. I'm sure it will look nice wherever she displays it.

    I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas, Phyl! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. PhylDecember 29, 2009 at 11:34 PM

    Thanks, Christine! We had a great time visiting my side of the family. The time went by too quickly. Hope you enjoyed being in your new, enlarged house!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tara MarieJanuary 3, 2010 at 5:28 PM

    The quilt has arrived and it's beautiful :) Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. PhylJanuary 3, 2010 at 10:53 PM

    You're so welcome, Tara Marie. And thank you again for letting me know it arrived safely.

    ReplyDelete

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