North Pole Tour

Welcome to the North Pole is a pattern designed by Piece O' Cake.

I made this quilt over a decade ago and I still hang it every Christmas. I used needle turn applique and machine quilting. I did machine piece some of the smaller units, like windows, before I appliqued them onto the block. I used lots of buttons, ribbons, and beads to embellish it. I also did some inking on the signs. It was very ambitious for a fairly new quilter at the time, but it remains one of my favorite quilts.  

The Reindeer barn has some butttons and beads and I probably changed it up a bit as I did with all the blocks.

My mom loves to bake cookies for the kids so she got this block.

The clear seed beads along the roof look like lights, but don't photograph well. I found the "let it snow" button and had to include it! And yes, flowers do bloom all year at the north pole.

My husband loves to snow ski but will happily participate in any snow sport. I tried to keep this block fairly masculine for him.

Again, I edited this block, it was supposed to have a santa, but I thought the one at the top of the quilt was enough. I also knew my children would ask about why there is more than one. I just fussy cut the fabric for the pole and ball, cute but easy!

This was a really fun block to make, but I could do a much better job of those circles now. Still impressed with myself that I tried them!

A few extra trees with beads.

My mother in law knits so she had to have this block.

My father in law was a professional soccer player in Europe in his younger years.

My step daughter is a gifted singer and loves music.

I used snaps for the truck wheels and I think the button fell of the door of the doll shop.

Obviously, this needs no explanation! ha

The star button is from my good friend Mary Ruth.

The sleighwash was fun to make with some fuzzy ribbons for the brushes. My boys LOVED going to the carwash and watching the cars go through. They were obessed with it for a while.

My dad always loved to make home made ice cream for his grandkids.

An extra filler block.

I changed up this block a bit too, I loved the stripe fabric for candy canes.

It's hard to see in the photos but each block is quilted in a different overall pattern for the background. I did lots of in-the-ditch quilting in the blocks. I also made a fun piping for the binding, but I learned a lesson with binding on this quilt. I put this binding on before I embellished the quilt and it was square and flat. Then I added a half ton of beads and buttons and it stretched the quilt with all that weight. The binding was then too "tight". Next time, I'll embellish first, THEN bind. Lesson learned.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of my north pole village!

Enjoy every stitch!

Diane