Fair Isle Quilt

It’s been a long time since I wore a Christmas sweater, but my kids think they’re great.  The Ugly Christmas Sweater trend seems to be everywhere, and still going strong.  And oh, my, are there some truly ugly ones out there!  This Fair Isle quilt is like a Christmas sweater on a quilt.


The Fair Isle quilt pattern is by Lee from Freshly Pieced.  I purchased it five years ago (ouch) when she first released it, and it’s been a start/stop project ever since.  For the most part, it was a fun pattern to make, and not too difficult.


The quilt comes together in rows, and the pattern is well written with clear instructions for cutting and sewing.


At first I resisted just cutting all the pieces, but ended up doing it and keeping them in separate ziploc bags while I worked on it.


Honestly, I stalled on the reindeer.  I wanted to piece them in longer strips instead of all those one inch squares.  It seemed like more work than necessary and my reluctance to just follow the pattern and sew them together in squares is most of the reason why it took me so long to finish this quilt.  When I finally humbled myself and just did it, I found that they came together quickly and easily.


My advice if you make this pattern is this:  just follow the instructions and it will all turn out great.  I have no idea why I needed to learn this lesson again.  If I’d done this at the beginning, we would have been enjoying this quilt for the last few years.


I found a fun fair isle style fabric to use for the backing, and it inspired me to add some blue to my quilt top.  I quilted straight horizontal lines and added solid green binding to complete the quilt.


The Fair Isle quilt is a happy, cheerful quilt that was fun to make in spite of my starts and stops over the years.  I hope we enjoy it for many years to come!