Category: Quilting
Type of item: Home Decor
For: Home
Style: Traditional, Mod, Casual, Holiday, Cute, Whimsical, Funky, Romantic
Materials
Cotton fabric, metallic fabrics, sequins, beads, braid, thin cotton wadding, buttons etc.
What was your inspiration?
Last year I made a wall hanging (photo in my projects) after seeing something similar at the quilt show where I bought my new sewing machine. I made a few extra little quilts (they measure about 6 by 9 inches, give or take) and gave them to friends as Christmas cards that could be hung on the wall and then put away for use year after year as Christmas decorations. My idea is to make another each year for the same people, with buttons on the corners so that the new quilt can be hung below last year's. I'll make labels to put on the backs with Christmas greetings and the year on them, which will cover up my less than perfect stitches! I started the first ones as my new machine can do decorative stitches and I just had to play with it. As yet, I haven't done any FMQ on any of them as I'm currently waiting for an open-toe free motion foot to arrive. Only one of the quilts in the pictures is completely finished as they need buttons in the corners in order to hang them, and I need to go shopping for some more!
What are you most proud of?
Being able to give something original and unique to my best friends and my family that they can keep from year to year (if they want to). It's difficult to know when to stop when embellishing with beads, sequins, braid etc, and I have to try not to go over the top, although I don't really suppose it would matter much if I did "gild the lily" too much - they are festive decorations, after all! I was particularly pleased to find some ribbon in a cake decoration shop with "Merry Christmas" printed on it.
What advice would you give someone starting this project?
Let your imagination run riot. I intend to abandon Christmas trees now, and go on to to make other pictures - perhaps snowmen, bells, candles - there's no limit to what can be done. After last Christmas a friend's son loved the Christmas one I made for his Mum and asked me to make one of these little quilts with an owl on it - a photo of it is among my projects.
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