Snowflake Cushions

I found this beautiful free Snowflake pattern from Kathy Schwartz, a Canadian who blogs at Tamarack Shack and is half the design team behind Highway 10 Designs.  Snazzy Snowflake was originally designed in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday.  I had three pieces of batik fabric which I thought would look great as snowflakes.  I made the snowflake block in the light and medium fabrics and put it on point by adding four triangles to the sides to make it big enough for a cushion.  I used the dark fabric for the back and binding.

I only had a limited amount of fabric since I was working from stash so I made the envelope backing a half inch larger on all sides so I could use it to self bind the cushions.  I sewed the binding down and then sewed another row of stitching in the binding ditch to make the seam stronger since this was the only seam holding the whole thing together.  I didn't quilt the snowflakes.

Here's a picture of one cushion in a rocking chair I am painting teal.  I only have one coat of paint on it so far so you can still see the black paint through it.

While I was making these cushions I was wishing that the contrast between the snowflake fabric and the background fabric was more crisp so the snowflake design was more clear, or maybe it is just because of the mottled prints, but I began thinking of them as snowflakes in a snowstorm!  I gave two to my sister and one to my d-i-l's mother for Christmas.

2 More Gift Bags

Yesterday I showed a picture which included a drawstring giftbag.  I made it for my father's Christmas presents.  He's already given it back to me so that I can fill it up again for next year!

I made the gift box block using this tutorial and pattern from Tiny Orchard Quilts.  I then turned the gift block into a drawstring gift bag based on this tutorial from Jeni Baker of In Color Order.  I fussy cut the ribbons on the gift box block from a striped fabric.

I then made another gift bag but fancied it up a bit by making the bow on the gift bag in 3D.  I followed this Missouri Star Tutorial on making 3D pinwheels but only used two sections instead of four for the bow.

Here's the gift bag I made for my sister's Christmas present.  I added some of the striped fabric around the top of the bag too.

I made my sister's gift bag before I had fully decided what I was making my sister for Christmas, so it was a tight fit, but I managed to get it in there.  It made it more compact for mailing.

It might be better next time to know what size bag is required by making the present first!  You can see a sneak peek of my sister's present behind the gift bag which I'll talk about in my final Christmas sewing post.

Christmas Placemats, Napkins and Table Runner

I made placemats and napkins for my cousin and her spouse.  The napkins were made following this tutorial by Donna Jordan from Jordan Fabrics.  You can see stitching lines on the opened napkin which gives you guidelines on how to fold the napkins.

I made some Christmas Tree blocks and partial blocks following this tutorial by Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet and turned them into coordinating placemats.

I also made a placemat for my father who is 92 with some fabric showing vintage toys and decorations.

I also made this table runner based on a quilt pattern again by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet called Bringing Home the Christmas Tree which can be found in her Vintage Christmas Book.  This picture taken without flash shows the true colours of the runner better.  When I was little, we had a red station wagon, without the wings, but this reminded me of it so I had to make it.

This picture with flash shows the texture of the quilting much better - snowflakes, of course!

This picture shows the runner and a few other Christmas projects from previous years.  I'll blog about the bag in a future post.

Sorry about the dullness of most of these pictures, but we were having rather dull rainy weather when the pictures were taken.

3 Christmas Quilts - Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Along Finishes and 2 Matching Gift Bags

 I didn't plan to be away from the blog for this long, but all of the sewing I was occupied with was for Christmas and mostly presents for people who look at the blog and I didn't want anyone peeking!

First off here is a finish to the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Along I was working on as the clues were being given out.  This is a picture taken today on our deck with just a recent skiff of snow.  I kept this quilt for ourselves and it was on a chair in the living room, but we had a green Christmas this year and it was quite warm so no one needed to snuggle under it, maybe next year.

I quilted it with snowflakes, of course, and it has a nice soft plaid flannel backing.

I then made two more totally in flannel on the pieced fronts and the solid backing and binding.  The pink quilt has polar bears in hats and scarves and was made for a four year old and the red quilt has penguins in hats and vests and was made for a six year old.  Both girls are my s-i-l's nieces.

To gift these two quilts, I made two flannel gift bags lined with cotton fabric to make their insides a little more slippery and a little sturdier.  I based the gift bags on this bag tutorial from Jeni Baker of In Color Order.  Sorry, I didn't realize this photo was blurry until after the quilts were mailed so could not retake the photo.

I plan to make two more of these flannel snowflake quilts before the winter is over for gifting to my d-i-l's niece and nephew.