A little holiday sewing {a finished project}

I’m not sure what exactly motivated me to get hopping on some holiday sewing, but recently I’ve started a few fall & winter projects and have one all finished to share today!  Maybe it’s that reality has set in and I know I need lots more time to finish everything I want to, so I’m getting a head start?

More free motion quilting and even some feathers of sorts (my first ever!!!).

The fabrics are all from my stash—the quilter’s linen (not actual linen, but quilting cotton) is by Robert Kaufman.  The green polka dots is from that awesome shopping trip in Maine from earlier this year.  I thought it was Amy Butler or Kaffe Fassett, but it happens to be by Hoodie, not sure who exactly that is!  And all the low volume background prints are from my stash.

The backing is an Aunt Grace polka dot from years and years ago.  It is from one of the very first quilts I ever made—back before I even had a blog.  That was when I thought you really needed 5 1/2 yards of fabric to back a twin sized quilt.  Ha ha, how times have changed!!!  

And the binding is the same, from a box of bindings I made years and years ago before I started making my binding slightly larger (usually I cut it 2.75 inches wide).  Many of the 2.5” squares came from my scrap box.

I’m counting this as scrap project #3 of 52. 

Have you started any holiday sewing?  Do tell!

Two Pillow Finish

This past week I’ve finished up two Christmas pillows. 

Katie of SwimBikeQuilt posted a modern Christmas tree wall-hanging/pillow on the Free Spirit blog this week.  The tutorial was easy to follow. 

It was amazing to see how the texture of the straight line quilting changed the total look of the Christmas tree.  I decided to bind the pillow after adding the envelope back.  This gray polka dot fabric is one of my favorites. 

This Ho Ho Ho pillow is straight from the book “Pretty in Patchwork Holidays” by Quilt Dad.  I am giving away a copy of the book and 16 fat quarters here, and there are a few more hours to enter the giveaway.

The fabrics are mostly Connecting Threads and a few favorites from my stash thrown in.

I used Finca Presencia Perle thread size 8 to quilt around each letter.  I didn’t have an embroidery hoop at first, but I bought one after doing two of the letters and it made the stitching a lot easier.

The Santa buttons were the perfect finishing touch!

The pattern suggests using linen for the back, but I substituted this cute bird fabric I’ve had in my stash.

So now I think our living room is sufficiently decorated for the holidays!

What have you been working on?  Any Christmas projects?  Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.  Have a wonderful weekend!