Make It Merry — More FMQ

Overview
When I last left off working on this quilt, I had FMQ'd all the green areas (post for 10/8/26), leaving the red bow and the cream background areas undecided. I FMQ'd those areas and posted pictures of the results in this post. But I am not quite finished yet. It will still take me one more post before this quilt is completed. I will need to fill in any FMQ bare areas, decide a name, make the labels, bind the quilt, and take photos. These are certainly enough topics for a final post.

Bow
I next FMQ'd the bow. I chose to stay with green thread although I did contemplate using red to match the ribbon color. Red would have provided texture only and camouflage my imperfections. But as I practice my FMQ skills and grow, I need to be brave and use a non-matching thread color, even if it does show up my goofs. I chose parallel stitching lines, narrow at ¼" spacing for the "reverse side" of the ribbon and wider at ½" on the front. Yes there were a few wobbles which were horrendous when I first did them; but some must have readjusted themselves overnight because when I looked at the bow the next morning, they were not so obvious. My hesitancy to self-quilt lessened once I told my self I could always pick out what was hideous. But then a wise quilter once asked me to decide if I wanted to get better at quilting or get better at picking out. That choice would help me apportion my time accordingly.

Borders
Next up was the borders and for those I did decide to change thread color to a cream and quilt a different pattern on each fabric. Circles, a zig-zig, and a grid were my three choices for the three borders.

I have done circles before and, although they are time consuming since a use a ruler, I like the results. Two examples are my Christmas Cars quilt from 2020 and my Quilt by Number quilt from 2022.

Still in place on my HQ Sweet Sixteen, here is the beginning of my FMQing the innermost border with adjacent circles. The circles are 1½" diameter nested between two lines each ¼" in from the edges of the 2" wide border with the tiny cherries print.

The next border to quilt is on a really low volume fabric with subtle stars. I chose a zigzag here since the background is so plain and would benefit from a bit of excitement. Rather than angling the triangle sides at 45°, I spaced the base at 3" to echo the spacing of the 6" blocks and let the angle fall wherever within the 2" wide border. Interior to each resulting triangle I placed a ¾" diameter circle. As I sewed, I chanted to myself, "Angle, Stem, Circle, Stem". 

                                     

This pattern was very time consuming because I had to remove the circle ruler between every triangle in order to do the straight lines for the angle and "stem". I just went slowly, unable to switch to something simpler once I had started. Perhaps a lazy "L" instead of a circle on a stem would have had a similar effect. Also, I could have tried stitching the circle freehand without a ruler but I do not think that would have looked as crisp. Oh well... 20-20 hindsight. I still like the overall look. It took me four sittings to get it all done, but I am pleased I persevered. Here are the Handi Quilter and Angela Walters rulers I used: HQ Mini Circle Template and Slim.

The outermost border I decided to quilt a diagonal grid as printed on the fabric. I auditioned every diagonal (upper option) versus every other diagonal (lower option) but chose the closer spacing. Denser would be twice as much effort but the sparser one looked like something was missing.  I did use a straight ruler to stay between the wiggly lines of the grid. It was actually more efficient since with the straight guidance I did not need to be so carefully slow. 

After stitching the grid in the outermost border, here is how the three borders look. The tiny puffs in that outer border made the labor-intensive denser grid worth it.

Wreath Center
The last section to quilt was the very center of the wreath. Since the center is background to the wreath and not the focal point, I wanted the quilting to be mainly texture. A secondary pattern emerged when I'd quilted the green wreath blocks. It was an X (or a rotated plus sign). I thought echoing that shape might be interesting. When I auditioned echoing though, the shape invaded the central space for texture (left photo). I chose to leave the echoing out and fill the space with four arcs around each square. A secondary pattern of overlapping circles pops out which seems to relate back to the circles in two of the outer borders. I proceeded with this preferred option (right photo). 

The FMQ in the central wreath area is shown in the next photo. I am pleased with the pillowed textured look. However, those four "arrows" in the crotches of the X seem to need something extra. I will switch back to the green thread and fill each in... maybe with an echo, or an isolated snowflake, or a stand alone circle, or perhaps a holly leaf? Stay tuned. The end is in sight!

Here are the previous posts for this Make It Merry wreath quilt

• 06/14/25 Make It Merry Month ONE star with nine-patch centers (8)
• 06/21/25 Make It Merry Month TWO  3x3 grid stars and 4x4 grid stars (4+4)
• 08/16/25 Make It Merry Month THREE crosses (6+2)
• 09/01/25 Make It Merry Month FOUR on point four patch in center (6), loops on bow (2)
• 10/24/25 Make It Merry Month FIVE  pluses for center (4), red central diamonds (4)
• 10/27/25 Make It Merry Month SIX ribbon tails (2)
• 10/08/26 Assembly and FMQ quilting in green and red areas
• 10/20/26 More FMQ (this post) quilting in white areas 

Make It Merry Assembly and FMQ

My goodness. It has been nearly a year since I posted about this quilt. My last post was 10/27/25 where I had completed the sixth month of the blocks and was ready to assembly them all. I'll admit to dragging my feet a bit when it came to assembling those 36 blocks in the center. Would my points meet where I wanted them to? I was nervous for no good reason. I methodically made three columns of six pair each, sewed the pairs into six rows, and then joined all the rows (minus the ribbon ties) into a a central section. Even those eight pesky perimeter blocks with a four patch as a diamond in each center from month FOUR trimmed up square with a bit of ruler magic before joining. This next photo was taken 11/20/25, and then my progress on this quilt came to a screeching halt. 

Apparently I added the border but never blogged about it because now I am deciding the FMQ. I have no photo assembled and with borders despite the fact that the flimsy hung over the railing in my living room for months. I reviewed my past posts to jog my memory and generated a diagram to help me decide how to FMQ the blocks. I knew I did not want to quilt an allover pattern.

• 06/14/25 Make It Merry Month ONE star with nine-patch centers (8)
• 06/21/25 Make It Merry Month TWO  3x3 grid stars and 4x4 grid stars (4+4)
• 08/16/25 Make It Merry Month THREE crosses (6+2)
• 09/01/25 Make It Merry Month FOUR on point four patch in center, (6) loops on bow (2)
• 10/24/25 Make It Merry Month FIVE  pluses for center (4), red central diamonds (4)
• 10/27/25 Make It Merry Month SIX ribbon tails (2)

I draw on clear sheet protectors with whiteboard markers to preview candidates for the FMQ. Month ONE block was the sawtooth star and I decided to echo-quilt the star shape. Echoing on only the inside seemed insufficient, so I also echoed ¼" on the outside as well. I started by FMQing the blocks in the green portion of the wreath with green thread beginning with the ONE star blocks,

A go-to FMQ shape of mine is petals from Angela Walters book. Petals worked with month THREE both singly and double outlined. 

Petals also seem to work with months FIVE (left) and FOUR (right) again with an extra outline of echoing to fill in the shape.

Here are the star on ONE and petal option on FIVE side by side having been FMQ'd.

Looking back at the crosses of the block from month THREE, I decided to try a design of my own — holly leaves in the arms of the X's — and it seemed to work.

I liked the holly experiment so much I planned for it on the block TWOs even they are are basically stars like the month ONE blocks. For the four TWOs at the wreath corners (left), I did one leaf and two half leafs, avoiding the diagonal white half of the block. These were a 4x4 grid. For the four TWOs at the extreme corners of the quilt itself (right), I did three complete leafs, omitting a fourth leaf that would extend into the white corner square. These were a 3x3 grid so I needed to guess more where the points of the holly leafs would fall. In practice I had to leave my cell phone on nearby displaying a photo of my clear auditioning sheet marked with critical dots as a reference.

Here is that holly motif stitched in the eight TWOs: four 4x4-grid TWOs at the wreath corners, and four 3x3-grid TWOs at the exterior corners. 

I pillow stitched inside the two bow loops. I did not agonize at all over this choice.

Now I pause again to make decisions. 

• How should I do the borders?
• Treat them as long lines, not a series of blocks?
• What pattern in the border? 
• Maybe something different in each of the three border fabrics? 
• The outermost fabric lends itself well to a diagonal grid. 
• I could do feathers ignoring the different fabric bands, but feathers seem too formal.
• Perhaps a curved band of holly leaves in lieu of feathers? 
• Should I switch to cream thread so contrasting green does not distract from the wreath?
• What about the ribbon and bow? Should they be in stitched in red?
• Perhaps just parallel lines in the red bow and what spacing? 

Maybe I can make my quilt labels while my mind is making these decisions. But what name shall I give this quilt....? Too many decisions!  Sigh. To be continued... and hopefully sooner than one year!