Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Snowflakes

It's snowing!  At least it's snowing in my living room with these adorable snowflake pillows.  I'm feeling pretty good about checking a few handmade gifts off my list.
I made these pillows using a paper pieced pattern by Amy of During Quiet Time.  I downloaded the pattern from her Craftsy store.  The pattern includes the block in three sizes (6, 9, and 12 inches).  The small pillow above uses the nine inch size.  I finished the pillow with a self lining envelope back, using a tutorial by AmandaJean and some cute polka dot binding. The fabric on the back is Laurie Wisbrun's Brrr! from a couple of years back.
The lumbar pillow (16 x 26) uses three of the six inch blocks.  I decided to quilt it with white thread, and I like how the thread blends into the snowflakes but stands out on the red fabric (Kona Rich Red), creating a pinstripe effect.
 
With two gifts finished, I decided to make a Christmas pillow for us to keep.  I went a little crazy with my scraps and made improv letters and a strata background.  It's wonky in a festive way, don't you think? 
 
I got to play around with a new free motion quilting design I learned in a Craftsy class I'm taking by Christina Cameli.  The pebbling is a fun contrast to the hard lines of the piecing, and I love the little touch the asterisk pebbles add.  I'll be back soon with a full review of the class!

6 comments:

Judy said...

What neat Christmas projects!! Thanks for sharing them with us.

Debbie said...

boy I am coveting these! ;-) They are downright gorgeous and I love your clever idea of quilting with the white so it looked striped on the red - I may need to make some too.

Kathy said...

Love the quilting on Noel

Lynette said...

Really love the bold simplicity of the snowflakes!

Linda said...

How beautiful!

SewPsyched! said...

That Noel pillow is pure Genius!!!
I love that kona rich red! I offer to wrestly Debbie for these pillows!! Lol! XX!