It's that time of year! Snow and Christmas trees and frenzied making. Cookies and cocoa and stress. It's all there. In the midst of it I hope everyone gets at least one moment to step back and appreciate their favourite parts.

My favourite part, as long time readers know, is the tree. Not so much the tree up and all sparkly and covered in handmade ornaments, but the getting of the tree. Last year I celebrated that with a quilt. A fun, modern quilt honouring the tree and my son's new found obsession with Christmas. The obsession with Christmas and the quilt hasn't changed.

Modern Patchwork, a lovely magazine, asked me to contribute the quilt to their latest Winter issue. I was happy to oblige. I offered them an alternate colour way, but they chose the original. I still made the other colour way though. In this great line from Dear Stella, Mount Snow. Mittens and trees and bikes. It really is super sweet.

For this version I picked out the low volume, soft prints from the line and paired them with a few random, coordinating prints from my stash. Originally, my plan was to make the whole thing low volume, with soft contrast for the trees. But that felt too soft. So I grabbed the red Net print, also from Dear Stella, for the background. I love, love, love low volume paired with red.

The pattern itself is quite simple. The hardest part being the cutting of the angles for the background pieces around the trees. Last year I went from start to finish on this quilt in a few days. This year I have this top done but it won't get quilted, unfortunately.

Now is the time to slow down and celebrate, to make the cookies and take in special moments with the kids. I hope you have the chance to do the same.

Pick up a copy of Modern Patchwork at your local quilt shop, magazine rack, or online.