I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along: Extra Blocks

There are 12 blocks in the I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along.  I decided that I would rather have my final quilt be 4 x 4, so I needed 4 more blocks to bring my total to 16.

My bonus blocks

The first bonus block that I made was a candy cane.  I used this tutorial from Inspired by Fabrics and added extra fabric on the sides to make my block square instead of rectangular.  Adding the holly was my idea and I used the template from the lantern block (block 10).

Next I made the mittens from Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  This block was part of her Have a Jolly Little Quilt Along and is already the same size as the I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along blocks.  In fact, Lorna's quilt along was ending as the other was starting and she mentioned in a blog post that the blocks were the same size and could be used as mix-and-match if desired.

I think my favorite of the bonus blocks might be the dove.  I used a free pattern from Craftsy that is actually meant to be an embroidered ornament.  I made the original a little bigger (I think 170% on the copier) and still made the dove in 3 pieces: body and two wings.  I freehanded the olive branch, and let me tell you, "I drew this freehand" is not something you will hear me say very often!

My final bonus block is the gingerbread man.  My original plan was to trace my cookie cutter but the one I have is much smaller than I remembered; the big one I was picturing must actually be my mom's. So I found a printable coloring page and used that shape outline for my gingerbread man, though I did enlarge him a little on the copier.

I still have two of the original twelve I Wish You A Merry Quilt Along blocks to make and then I can finalize my layout and start assembly.  I am doing quilt as you go and my method of joining blocks involves some hand sewing, so the assembly may take a while.  While I would love to finish the entire quilt in December, I'm not sure that's realistic.  My goal for the OMG linky party hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts is to complete my blocks and assemble each of the four rows.