Merry and Bright Cushions and Present Quilts

I had been wanting to make one of these cushions for a few years having seen several made by different people whose blogs I read.  I did a bit of embroidery this summer so felt I was now up to the task!  The pattern is by Amy Sinibaldi of Nana Company and can be found here.  I had so much fun making the first one that I made a second one too.  Since I gave them both away, I can see a third one in my future to keep!

Here is the first one.  I was working with 1.5" left over Christmas fabric scraps so luckily sewing 4 of them together gave me the required 2" finished squares the pattern called for.  The white fabric has tone on tone white snowflakes.

And here it is embroidered.

 Here is a close up of the fabric I used to make an envelope style back and how nicely the glue basted binding corner turned out.  I washed it once it was finished to remove all traces of the washable school glue.

Here's a picture with the nicely stuffed cushion and a bit of the Christmas tree showing in the background.  I should have turned the tree lights on.....

If you go to my very first blog post of 16 January 2017, you can see some Christmas items I made using owl fabric for my son and his fiance.  I still had a bit of that fabric left so decided to make a second cushion since the strip of owls fit the dimensions of the cushion pattern perfectly.  Here it is pieced.

And embroidered and bound.

Here's the envelope backing.

I was able to use the same binding fabric and embroidery thread on both cushions and they matched each cushion perfectly!  Here's the finished owl cushion.

The first cushion went to my daughter and her husband and of course the second went to my son and his fiance.  This is definitely a make again project and the embroidered wording could be changed to anything you want!

The two Christmas Present quilts I made were also given to my children and their partners. 

Ainsley and Jack opening their quilt Christmas morning.  Their cushion was made with the scraps from their quilt.

Bryan and Catherine snuggling under their quilt Christmas morning and with the Owl cushion.

You can see another quilt I made a few years ago beside them on the rocker called Cardinal Red.

I told them I wanted these quilts to be used so was glad to receive this picture from Ainsley with her and Quincy titled "Quilt wearing-in in progress".

I think this blog post has gone on long enough so will say goodbye until next year!

Peppermint Twist Table Runners and Coasters with Baskets

I used a tutorial by Twiggy & Opal called Peppermint Twist Table Runner to make two table runners, one for my sister and one to keep.  Here is mine pieced.  I love all the different red and white fabrics and the white fabric was printed with tiny white snowflakes.

And here it is quilted and bound.  I was very brave and quilted it free motion with white thread in all kinds of swirls in and between the candy and then matchstick quilting in the borders.  I originally left the red solid border plain but felt it needed something after, so I used red thread and quilted a straight line 1/4" in from each edge.

I even like how it looks from the back.  My sister's had different backing fabric and a binding pieced from all of the red fabrics.

The bonus Coasters pattern turned out quite large, more mug rug size.  The one on the right was made following the tutorial and the one on the left was the size I ended up making.  To make them even easier, I folded the backing over to bind them.

I also created a basket to hold the coasters and made three sets.  One set I gave to my MIL to be and one I gave to my cousin Pam and one I kept for myself.

Here's a picture of mine which also shows a quilt I made several years ago although it is partially hidden behind light fixtures..  You can find more details on this Scandinavian inspired quilt here.

Here's my sister's on her Christmas dinner table.

I had fun making all the cute candy blocks and would make this pattern again.

Merry Christmas!

I didn't mean to be away from the

blog for this long, but everything I was

sewing since mid November was for

Christmas presents and I didn't want

to give all the secrets away..... 

Here's a little taste.

Details to follow.