Cheater Christmas Pillow

I found the cutest Christmas print at Joanns a few weeks back and thought I could use it to knock out a quick pillow for the holidays.

 

I figured I could knock out a pillow quick if I just traced over the prints as a quilting guide- famous last words, right ;)

 

 

Turns out switching colors all the time and lots of tracing can also equal lots of time.

 

 

 

The end result was definitely worth it.  It may be hard to see in the photo, but tracing over the snowman's features really gave him some nice depth.

 

 

 

As I was going along with the other squares, I got bored with tracing and started free handing.  First up was a Christmas Tree.

 

 

Second up was some holly leaves.  Both of these designs were found in the book Doodle Quilting. 

 

 

I still have lots of work to do on the "quick" pillow, but with Christmas fast approaching and a sudden gift to make, I think this will have to be put off until next year (or until the Summer when I start itching for Christmas to come around again :)

 

 

 









Ribbon Star Pillow

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Christmas holidays are in full swing down here in Florida!  Continuing with my goal to add more festive pillows to our couches I present you with my newest finish-

I used a tutorial from Freshly Pieced for the Ribbon Star block.  The block has way more pieces that I typically will handle (I think I counted 49 pieces, I usually don't look at blocks with more than 5- I like a quick finish!) but the end result was so worth all the extra pieces.  I also need to give some Major props to Lee for the awesome tutorial- all those pieces and I NEVER used the seam ripper!!  Unheard of!  (My 5 piece blocks normally need a seam ripper, lol!).  She literally showed you how to lay out the pieces so that you would not get confused. 

As for the quilting, I am in love.  Inside the start I did a little dot-to-do quilting a la Angela Walters and it came out exactly how I envisioned it would- looking like a snowflake inside the star.  Perfect for this Christmasy pillow.  Inside the green ribbons I quilted a swirl and in the red just a simple stipple- hoping it would give the feeling of snow floating down. 

And, though it is not the best photo, it only feels appropriate to show a photo of the pillow on my couch with the Christmas tree in the background-

 

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday over at QuiltStory.

Tis The Season

I'm one of those people- I begin decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween (and really, that is only because the husband puts the kibosh on doing it any earlier :)  I put out my Christmas quilt, table runners, and pillow the other day.  Wait?  What?  Pillow?  Singular??  Yes, somehow I only have ONE Christmas pillow!  Obviously that was not going to do.  Enter my finish for this week-

 

I found some red and cream strip sets left over from the trimmings of a Christmas tree skirt I made a few years ago and paired them up with a green holiday fabric I had.  I also learned (once again) that I am horrible about using scraps.  I am so worried about getting as much fabric out of extra bits of fabric as possible that I mull over ideas again and again- and ultimately a pillow this size take 3 hours.  Oh, I can procrastinate like no one else!  I just stare at the scraps, like I am looking at a puzzle and trying to figure out how to use them effectively without cutting into them too much.  Anyone else like that? 

 

And here is the new pillow with the one I already had.  I am loving the pops of color on the couch.  Hubby teased the other day that he must be in the wrong house, because he could sit on the couch without having to move pillows.  Well that won't do :)  Off to go make more!

 

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at CrazyMomQuilts.