Winter Fraulein quilt in Liberty Cottons

My calendar is telling me that it’s March, but I’m having a hard time believing it this year as the weather outside is still looking like early February. So, I decided to make the best of it and take my Liberty Winter quilt out for a photo shoot with the snowy backdrop in the mountains near my home. I started this quilt back in December and never shared the finished version. So here it is!

Are you so proud of me that I finished my Christmas quilt 9 months early? 😉 Well, that is if you’re looking ahead to Christmas 2023. Which I’m going to choose to do in this case, lol, rather than 3 months late for Christmas 2022.

I made this quilt using my Fraulein pattern. It’s a perfect quilt for a scrappy look, but uses strip-piecing techniques to help the blocks come together really fast.

It’s also a pre-cuts friendly quilt pattern and works well with either a Rolie Polie/Jelly Roll or a stack of 10″ x 10″ squares (aka, Layer Cake). One Jelly Roll or Layer Cake + yardage for background and borders is all you need!

I fell in love with the 2022 Liberty Woodland Christmas collection and decided this would be a really fun way to play with them. I stuck with the black/white/red/green colorways of that collection. Other prints are random oldies from my stash.

For my background fabric I used a black and white woven cross weave fabric – kind of like a gray chambray – that I’ve had in my stash for ages. (I can’t for the life of me remember where it came from, so I’m sorry I can’t point you in the exact right direction on this one, but I have some similar suggestions below).

I love the added texture that a woven fabric brings. This piece has been in my stash long enough and this was the perfect way to use it up!

I love the way the colored prints – including the black – pop on the gray background.

For the backing I used this woven brushed-cotton plaid from the JoAnn’s Plaiditudes collections. Mostly black, red, and white, but with a hint of green too. I love the weight and softness of these plaids – they feel like a nice flannel – from JoAnn’s and you can frequently find them on sale. Super soft and warm and gives the quilt some extra weight – perfect for snuggling in the winter.

I did use batting – a 80/20 Cotton/Poly blend. The quilting was done by Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting. I chose one of her new pantographs, called Flourish. A nice spin on a traditional Orange Peel design and I like the floral elements in the middle. They look like snowflakes on this quilt.

You can find my Fraulein pattern available in Paper or PDF versions in my shop. And it’s on sale 20% off this week (until March 12) – already marked down, no code needed.

You can find the same black Liberty cottage fabric that I used for my border here and here on Etsy.

I found a similar black and white bias gingham print here, similar to the one I used for my binding.

Here are some options for the woven gray chambray/shot-cotton:

Lt Gray Chambray from Connecting Threads

Studio E Peppered Shot Cottons in Tweed

Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Black or Graphite

Moda Crossweave in Cement

Riley Blake Cotton Shabby in Granite (this is a printed cotton, not a woven fabric)

So there’s the end of my winter sewing shares for the season. After this, it’s all spring/summer inspiration coming your way!