Ring-a-Ling... A Christmas in July Quilt Project

Can you believe the midway point of the year is approaching quickly in a few days? And, that means Christmas in July will be upon us soon, which makes it the perfect time to start planning and creating your holiday projects. So, what better time than now to share a great project idea to use with the Jingle Bells collection by Lindsey Wilkes for Riley Blake Designs.

Hey there! It’s Kelly here and I’m thrilled to be sharing my latest project featuring the fun, cheery, and a little nostalgic fabric collection, Jingle Bells. The Jingle Bells collection includes some adorably precious nostalgic graphic prints, along with some classic prints, plaid, and tossed stars.

When I first saw the Jingle Bell collection, I couldn’t help but think about Christmas time growing up and the traditions my family held. One of those traditions was to watch the movie Claymation Christmas by Will Vinton on Christmas Eve. My favorite segment from the movie was the “Carol of the Bells”. 

Being inspired by the movie and the bells within the Jingle Bell collection I designed a bell quilt block, Ring-a-Ling, which you can get by clicking here.

While planning out the placement of the fabrics for the Ring-a-Ling blocks, I decided to keep the body of the bells all in white background fabrics. Then, selected hued fabrics for the other elements with a contrasting background fabric to surround the bells. Also to keep some cohesion across the three Ring-a-Ling blocks, I used the same print per the different color SKU’s from the Jingle Bells collection. For example: all the bows used the Plaid (C14836) in Multi, Green, and Red to represent a realistic bow. To enhance the bows even further, I used the Riley Blake Designs Confetti Cotton solids (C120) in Scuba, Holly, and Tomato.

Initially, I had planned on making three separate wall hangings or large throw pillows with the Ring-a-Ling blocks. But, after they were pieced I thought it would be nice to piece them all together to make a bed runner to help keep your feet warm at night. Or, as a table runner or runner to hang on a staircase (if you have a table or house large enough to accommodate the 26x78” runner).After deciding to make a bed runner, I made an appointment with my local long arm. Like I typically do, I had preselected some different edge-to-edge pantographs for us to pick through and discuss. I knew a lot of what I didn’t want, but wasn’t finding something simple enough that let the Jingle Bells fabric and the Ring-a-Ling blocks speak and be the stars. Soon all my preselected pantos were tossed out and we had to pivot. That’s when I remembered a plaid pantograph that my mom had used a while back and thought it would play nicely with the fabrics. So, I decided to use the pantograph, Scottish Plaid - Diamond Cut by Patricia E. Ritter, along with a honey gold thread color. This thread color blends so nicely across all the different fabrics from Jingle Bells.Finally, to finish off the Ring-a-Ling bed runner I selected the Plaid in Multi for the binding, because it represented the whole color story of the Jingle Bells collection.

Now it might be a little too warm outside to be enjoying a bed runner, but time does fly and before you know it winter will be upon us. 

So, will you be making a Ring-a-Ling bed runner during Christmas in July? You can get your Ring-a-Ling Quilt Block pattern by clicking here!