Sunday, February 14, 2010

Christmas Creations

I had a fuel of creative sewing frenzy at the beginning of November, and I planned more projects than I had time to make before Christmas! But at least I was able to make special items for my mom, my mother in law, and my nieces. I just love looking at other people's creative ideas, it sparks my creative process and gets the gears turning.
When I went to Utah in October last year, my family took a day trip to the wonderful little place Gardner Village. I love the quilt shop Pine Needles there, and what a host of ideas I gathered on my visit! My mom especially loved a pillow that looked similar to this harvest one I made her. I knew she was busy with work, so I wanted to have something special for her as a surprise. It turned out pretty cute!
My mother in law's birthday happens to fall right after Thanksgiving, so I decided to make her a special quilted Christmas table runner. Thanks again to ideas from Pine Needles, I fell in love with a Christmas applique quilt done in this same line of fabric, called "Figgy Pudding" by Moda. Because of the woodsy feel of the prints, I decided to do an applique tree table runner. I thought I would make one for me too, but once I saw how much I loved the end result, I decided to make an entire quilt with three separate applique panels. Needless to say, I will finish that for next Christmas! But the whole thing turned out delightfully.I had hopes that I could make a special pillow for each of my nieces and nephews for Christmas using the embroidery feature on my machine. (Which I had not even tried out until November!) So a project was born to use the feature: personalized pillows. I didn't make it to my nephews' however. But the nieces' pillows turned out darling!
I love the little trees and birdies fabric, and I am a sucker for stripes and flowers. I embellished the pillows with a quilted double flower, piping trim, and a pleated ruffle.For this next one, my little niece Emi has a pink and black room. I found some pink and black flowers and stripes (like I said earlier, gotta love flowers and stripes!) and I found a darling fabric flower embellishment that I wanted to try here. The ric-rac edging and trim also turned out very cute. I am quite happy with the flower, and would love to make some for my daughter now!
My leftover projects I had better get started on now if I want them done for next Christmas!