Christmas Quilt Kits

Fabric and Pattern Chosen Together, So You Can Start Tonight

A quilt kit is the pattern plus the fabric it was designed around, cut and bundled so that the shopping and the color decisions are already made. For a Christmas quilt that matters more than usual, because holiday sewing runs against a hard deadline and the planning is where most of the time goes.

You will find kits here for tree skirts, table runners, wall hangings, lap quilts and bed quilts, in traditional reds and greens, in modern palettes, and in the whimsical prints that make a quilt read as Christmas from across a room.

Working Backwards From December

The mistake is planning the piecing and forgetting the finishing.

A table runner or a small wall hanging from a kit is a weekend, and there is room for that well into December. A lap quilt is a few weeks of evenings, then quilting and binding on top of that. A bed sized quilt started in the autumn is comfortable if you begin now and tight if you begin in November.

Then there is the part quilters underestimate: if the quilt is going to a longarm rather than being finished on your domestic machine, it has to be in the queue. November and December are the busiest weeks of the year for machine quilting, everywhere, and the queue closes earlier than people expect. If a quilt is a Christmas gift, ask us what our turnaround looks like before you plan around it rather than after the top is finished.

What Is in a Kit and What Is Not

This is the single most common surprise, so it is worth being blunt about.

Most quilt kits include the pattern and the fabric for the quilt top, and usually the binding. Most do not include the backing or the batting. That is not a shortcoming, it is how the industry packages them, but it means a kit is not the whole project.

Read the listing for the kit you are looking at, since it varies by manufacturer, and add the backing at the same time. Our backing kits and wide quilt backing cover the back in a single piece with no center seam, and batting is sold separately alongside them.

Why a Kit Instead of Choosing Your Own Fabric

Two reasons, and neither is that choosing fabric is hard.

The first is time. A Christmas quilt has a deadline, and an afternoon spent deciding between two greens is an afternoon not spent sewing. A kit removes that decision entirely.

The second is that the fabrics in a kit were chosen together by someone looking at the finished design. Value and contrast are what make a quilt pattern read properly, and they are much harder to judge from bolts on a shelf than from a picture of the finished quilt. A kit is a guarantee that the pattern will look like the photograph.

If you would rather build it yourself, all of our Christmas fabric by the yard is here, and quilt patterns are sold separately.

Small Finishes Outperform Ambitious Ones

The best Christmas quilting advice we give every year: make the small thing.

A table runner gets used every single December. A tree skirt is seen by everyone who visits. A set of four placemats takes a weekend and becomes the gift you did not have to think about. All three finish in time, get used immediately, and do not sit half done in a closet until February.

The bed quilt is a wonderful project. Start it in January.

Shop Christmas Quilt Kits at Quilted Joy

Quilted Joy is a destination quilt shop and skill-building studio in Louisville, Kentucky, serving quilters in our shop and across the country.

We are longarm people, which means we think about Christmas quilts from the finishing end rather than the fabric end. If you tell a Quilt Fairy what you want to make, who it is for and when it needs to be done, we will tell you honestly whether it fits, and suggest something that does if it does not.

For the full seasonal range beyond kits, see Christmas fabric and kits, and quilting thread when it is time to decide how the quilting should read.

Frequently Asked Questions About Christmas Quilt Kits

What is included in a Christmas quilt kit?

The pattern and the fabric for the quilt top, and in most cases the binding fabric as well, cut and bundled together.

Backing and batting are usually sold separately. Check the individual kit listing, because what is included varies by manufacturer.

Is the backing included in a quilt kit?

Usually not. Most kits stop at the quilt top and binding, which surprises people who assume a kit is the whole project.

Add backing when you buy the kit rather than later. Wide backing at 108 inches covers most quilts in one piece with no seam down the middle, and buying it at the same time means the fabric is still available.

When do I need to start to finish a Christmas quilt in time?

Work backwards from the date you need it, and count the finishing as well as the piecing.

A table runner or small wall hanging from a kit is a weekend. A lap quilt is a few weeks of evenings plus quilting and binding. A bed sized quilt is comfortable if you start in early autumn and tight after that. If someone else is quilting it, add their turnaround to all of those.

What if I want my Christmas quilt longarm quilted?

Get it in the queue early and ask before you plan around it. November and December are the busiest machine quilting weeks of the year, and quilting schedules fill well ahead of the holiday.

Call the shop and ask what our current turnaround is. It is a much better conversation to have before you cut than after the top is done.

What size quilt do these kits make?

It varies by kit, from table runners and tree skirts up to bed quilts, and the finished size is listed on each one.

If a specific size matters, whether that is a particular table or a specific bed, check the finished dimensions before ordering rather than assuming from the photograph.

Are quilt kits good for beginners?

They are one of the best places to start. The fabric selection is done, the cutting requirements are known to be right, and the pattern was tested against those fabrics.

Choose a kit with larger pieces and simple blocks for a first quilt. The skill in a first quilt is accurate cutting and a consistent seam allowance, and large pieces are far more forgiving of both.

Can I change one of the fabrics in a kit?

You can, and quilters do it all the time. Bring the kit to the shop and we will pull alternatives from the same range so the substitution still works with the rest.

The thing to watch is value rather than color. Swapping a medium for another medium is safe; swapping a dark for a light changes how the whole pattern reads.

Do you have Christmas kits that are not red and green?

Yes. Modern Christmas palettes run to soft pinks, blues, and neutral and cream based designs, and plenty of quilters prefer a quilt that suits the room for more than one month.

A wintry palette without obvious Christmas motifs will stay out happily through February, which is a reasonable argument for choosing one.

Can Quilted Joy help me pick a kit?

Yes, and it is worth a phone call. Tell a Quilt Fairy who the quilt is for, how big it needs to be and how much sewing time you realistically have between now and Christmas.

We would rather point you at a table runner you will finish than a bed quilt you will not.