I'm working on a Christmas quilt this week. I am using fabrics with fanciful mushrooms, and some elves, which I've been collecting for a while. Our family lived in Europe when I was a child. As transplanted Americans, our family was delighted by the red mushrooms with white polka dots on their caps which are used as Christmas decorations throughout Europe. These mushrooms are Amanita muscaria and they really are beautiful. (The results of a quick google search to learn why Amanita muscaria are used for holiday decorations: The child-friendly explanation is that they are a symbol of good luck for the New Year and a tribute to nature).
Photo by hansenn/iStock / Getty Images: Amanita muscaria
I thought this story was worth the addition of a licensed photo so you can see these amazing mushrooms their natural habitat! Doesn't it look like a fairy might peek from the back of one of these mossy tree trunks at any moment? You can see why this mushroom species captures the imagination!
For the quilt, I picked a template for a single block quilt in Electric Quilt 7 (EQ7). It's a star block. The finished quilt at present will be just over 50 inches square. I'm trying to add some Modern Quilt elements to this quilt--a bit of a challenge since I'm using Christmas and fairytale fabrics!
I decided to build this star quilt as if it were a medallion quilt.The photo above is the center of the quilt. The paper pieced tree is a design from the EQ7 block library. I hadn't planned to use the fabric with the little trees, but it was in my stash and echoes the center tree so well that I had to include it!
Here are a couple more elements in the quilt that are pieced and ready to use. Can you find the Amanita muscaria in the 4 patch blocks? The polka dot red mushroom is featured in the fabric on the right as well.
I'm still working on the other blocks in this quilt. More to come in a later post!