There I was, minding my business, avoiding looking at the news, when out of nowhere, BOOM! Christmas quilt ideas hit me.
Specifically: “What if I recolor Vortex to look like a Christmas tree??”
So of course I dropped everything and opened up EQ8. Literally minutes later, I had THIS:
Oh wow. We have a winner!
The great thing about this is that it’s just a recoloring of the Twin/Throw size of the Vortex pattern, so you just need to choose the right fabrics!
I used Libs Elliott Phosphor and Stealth for this mock-up (with an assist from Almost Blue, for some bling in the sky), but how cute would it be with some ornaments fussy cut in the diamond centers on the tree, bows in the centers on the 4 presents, and maybe adorable little chipmunks in the snow blocks at the bottom?? And little angels or stars in the sky?! Be still my fussy-cutting heart!
I created this FREE supplement to help you plan your fabrics to make this version. It does not replace the pattern! To make this quilt, you will need the full pattern instructions.
AND THEN… My thoughts turned to tree skirts.
Because that Vortex swirl would make a perfect peppermint! This one took some more fiddling. But that fiddling led to:
BOOM! Snowflake VortexOMG! This is a snowstorm that I can look forward to!
The cutting and assembly instructions are different, yardage is totally different, the layout is different, and then there’s the tree-skirt-ification. TOTALLY different pattern. Also, 3 sizes!
There’s the Medium, the Large (with sashing), and the Mini, all of which can be made as tree skirts or as hexagonal quilts. The mini would make a cute wall hanging or table topper!
So this took a bit more time and testing.
I’m super stoked about it though, and basically rescheduled everything to fast-track this one. I can feel the sewjo flowing through my veins again!
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I just completed the Vortex Christmas tree. In order for the quilt to look like your layout I had to make a total of 6 sky partial blocks as I could only use half the block at the top of the quilt. I would also have had to make 4 white partial blocks but only made 2 and alternated the half blocks on the bottom
Ah, yes good point. You’d need to use the “bottom” half as a “top” half and vice versa. Not a big deal if you’re using all black fabrics, but if there’s more contrast, it could end up looking “wrong”.