I suck when it comes to online sewing challenges. I’ll see a great challenge on a blog or social media and think to myself, I should really try that.

Sometimes, I even gather my supplies and make an enthusiastic start.

But then, life happens… or other commitments suddenly appear… or I just plain forget - until it’s over.

I saw the Timber mini quilt on Facebook the other morning. Quilt Jane had just put up her gorgeous version of the mini quilt, designed by Bonnie Christine, for Aurifil’s monthly designer challenge. I followed Jane’s links and came across the blog post and interview by Pat Sloan on the Aurifil blog – including the free pattern. BTW: I’ve included the link to this free printable pattern at the end of this post.

Now, I don’t think this is actually intended by the designer as a Christmas pattern… but I made my version into a Christmas one. I used up some old strip pieces from a previous project and appliqued these onto a tone on tone white background fabric.

I then “wiggle” quilted it with Aurifil 50wt in white (# 2024). Wiggle Quilting is one of my favourite ways to quilt a mini. It’s just a wavy setting on my Bernina which is adjust to a larger stitch length and longer waves.

I added some small stitched hand quilting all around the trees and within the binding border with Aurifil 12wt in my all-time favourite red (#2250). I’m a sucker for red stitches.

What do you think about the scrappy binding? I didn’t measure it at all, just added these scrappy pieces (from a previous strip set project) to the red strips. When one of these scrappy sections ended up on a corner, I though “oh no this isn’t going to work out well”. But I really love the scrappy corner effect. It is a little bulky, but I like the wonky result.

If you’d like to create your own Timber mini quilt, here’s the link to the original pattern.