When you think about Christmas in New England your first thought is snow covered fields, a definite nip in the air and the sounds of snow blowers and snow mobiles.  Not this year!!!!  We have had temperatures in the 50's and 60's for the last month.  The fields are still green and I've heard the sounds of lawnmower's, weed wacker's and leaf blowers!!!  So, how can you get into the Christmas spirit with these conditions?
Last year I made a door quilt for our friend, Sue Mesinger.  I call it a door quilt because it's 12 inches square and hangs on your door.  Several months ago Sue wanted to know if I would make another one for her.  I told her that I would.   Being close to Christmas I decided to do one with a Christmas theme.
Coping the pattern that I used for my last barn quilt that I shipped to Illinois, I proceeded with picking out the colors that I would use for this one.  I would also add details to the door quilt, to make it more Christmasy.  Is that such a word?!

I stuck with the typical colors of Christmas for the design which are red and green.  Once the board was painted, I started to think about what type of patterns I would add to it.  I had purchased a package of rubber stamps from my local A. C. Moore craft store.  There was a stamp in the package that looked like a star burst.  But, when I did a sample stamping using white paint, the impression looked like a cluster of snowflakes.  Fantastic!!  I then taped off the dark red and became stamping my impression using white paint.  I was very happy with the result!  I didn't want to leave the white area's left barren, so I thought holly's may look good there.  I went on the computer and search out line drawings for holly and came up with what you see here.  I sized the drawing down to fit the area, placed the design over the spot it was going to go and then, with a pen, I traced over the picture making a line impression onto the board.  That impression became my template to apply the paint.  I did the same thing with the silver bells and the large snowflakes.  This next picture give you a better look at the designs.

 I then finished the board by painting the border.  This border was painted silver to match the silver bells.  
This quilt was a lot of fun to work on.  It gave me a chance to hone my skills on detail painting and my first time using Folk Art paints.  This quilt also got me into the Christmas spirit, even though it's still mild outside and no forecast of snow for, at least, another week or so.
I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!