Santa Pillows

Continuing my love affair with Lella Boutique pillow patterns, I kept with the seasonal theme and set out to make the Sew Jolly Santa pattern.  

I pretty much kept close to the suggested color scheme for the pattern, but instead of gray for the background I went with a pale blue swirl, like whirling, curling snow. This brings to my mind the lyrics from the Let It Go song from the movie Frozen... "The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside". For the white, pink, rose, and coral of Santa's face I stayed with solids. For the hat trim and hat pop-pom, I picked a bit more adventurous print with a white-ish/beige-ish background. This print will also be the backing of the pillows. I am proud to brag that all fabric came from my stash.

Once I cut out the pieces, my tray looked like controlled chaos, an improvement over past Lella Boutique reindeer pillows. It  may seem obvious, but it made a huge difference to clip the Alphabitties to their respective pieces so they did not slid around and under other piles on the tray. The Fat Quarter Shop sells Alphabitties with an integral clip, but my method worked just fine using Wonder Clips with simple Alphabitties.

My biggest struggle was selecting the fabric for the fur of the hat trim and the pom-pom. I wanted white but it needed to be distinguished from Santa's beard and eyebrows. Then of course I thought and rethought and overthought how to fussy cut it for the fur parts. I wanted the pom-pom to coordinate them with the brow trim. This approach worked for two of the three Santas but not for the one on the far left. It had a dark green portion of a Christmas tree in it that weighed too prominently. For that Santa I took out  half Christmas tree pom-pom and substituted in a fussy cut round starburst reminiscent of those peppermint candies. Not it looks like a pom-pom and not half a pom-pom. The time invested carefully picking out those four seams was well worth it.

I especially love the backing fabric. I think my 2026 New Year's resolution is to use fabric that I love now and not save it for some mythical "something special" in the future. There will always be more fabrics that I love that I then will have room to buy. Plus, what I love changes with time and I would hate to pass up a "window of love" only to have a future "window of indifference".

I have pieced three Santa blocks, each about 18" square. I have FMQ'd those I am sending off as gifts but the FMQ of my own I have put on a back burner. One has a clamshell pattern oriented to look like garlands and the other has waves intended to look like rolling hills of snow. I used a very pale blue thread, instead of white, to hint at snow drifts. One has a pom-pom like a red starburst snowball and the other has a pom-pom like pine tree needles. 

I just mailed them off this morning, so now I can spare some time to finish off my own Santa pillow. Since I am undecided on the FMQ pattern, I may try something unique and different. I am considering swirls; I am not very good at those, so this just might be the right-sized project to practice on.

Two Reindeer Pillows

The Lella Boutique seasonal pattern of a reindeer put me in a merry mood. I had such fun with a Frank pattern by the same designer that I'd made four Franks. The process and photos for the Franks are in my posts for 9/24/25, 10/1/25, and 10/18/25. Now I am switching from a Halloween theme to Christmas one with this Merry Reindeer pattern.

I pretty much kept with the suggested color scheme for the pattern but chose a slighter stronger variation. For the brown of the reindeer's coat I picked an orange-toned rust. I picked a darker gray background that had colored dots that look like confetti snow. Some of the orange dots are like the reindeer and the overall darker tone will make the white antlers pop. Once I cut out the pieces, my tray looked like chaos, but it was a controlled cacophony. I am proud to brag that all fabric choices came from my stash.

For a second reindeer I learned that if I cut the background fabric first, (the later letters M thru W of the alphabet), the rust fabric pieces I needed to access initially to sew up the face would not be buried. The main rust fabric for the reindeer was letters A thru G. Here are two reindeer assembled. The leftover triangles from their chins made up into a cute pinwheel. Pinwheel destination is TBD; I just like to collect random pinwheels from cut-off corners.

When I looked in my supply for some pieces of batting I found I did not have any the correct size. On small items I do not mind piecing the batting so I did. For short seams keeping square is not an issue and the zig-zag joint does lie flat.

Then I needed to decide an FMQ pattern and decided on waves using my HQ F-wave ruler with a wave height of 1.5 inches and a wavelength of 4". Waves are like the undulating hills of snow over the river and through the woods on the sleigh ride to grandma's house. To set the spacing between the waves I drew a wave with a viewgraph marker on each of three plastic sheet protectors. I then stacked them and shifted them until I found a spacing that looked pleasing to me. It turned out to be 1.5", which makes sense considering the wave height is 1.5".  Then I put tape on the ruler to help me keep a uniform spacing relative to the previous wave.

For the second reindeer I used a HQ Clamshell template. On my Frank pillow I had used a 2" size but, for the reindeer, I went a bit larger to a 3" size, on the bottom, and oriented them so as to be reminiscent of garlands. I worked the clamshell rows on the second reindeer from the top down.

I then made these 17½" squares into pillow coverings by adding a back. Rather than the overlap method, I install a zipper in the bottom. Inserting the zipper is not hard since I do that bottom edge first while the covering is flat. Later I sew the remaining three sides. This method also takes less fabric than the overlap technique and I am able to use a fat quarter. I select fat quarters with a cute print that would get lost if cut up into pieces for patchwork. I used the clothesline print on the left for a pillow for my daughter. I liked how the white tree silhouettes seem to imitate the white antlers. The snow globe print on the right is for the pillow I am keeping. The orange, red, and blue of their bases echo the multi-colored paint splatters in the reindeer background fabric.

I use a 14 " zipper and a pre-made 20" pillow form so it is extra plump. I add a label diagonally in an upper corner, placing the label higher rather than low down so as not to add extra bulk to the zipper area. Here is the front of my pillow followed by and the front a back of the unstuffed reindeer to go to my daughter. My daughter will add the pillow form at her end. It is much easier to ship that way.

Yes, I really do enjoy this pattern; but no, I do not intend to make six more reindeer to bring the total to eight. However, there very well may be some other Lella Boutique patterns in my quilting future. A jolly Santa perhaps...?

Cuddly Construction Vehicles

I had two large graphic fabric panels of construction equipment that I wanted to sew into throws rather than wall hangings. My son works in the design/construction business and his son is just emerging from a toddler's crazy-about-building-vehicles phase. True, the Minecraft video game has somewhat superseded my now seven-year old grandson's big equipment infatuation. I am slightly late in sewing to meet his peak interest level. I may have missed my window, but I just could not let these big graphic panels go to waste. These were the two panels I had by Riley Blake Designs: A CAT® Dump Truck and a CAT® Excavator. Each is 36" tall and 43" wide and is digitally printed. Reluctant to abandon these stunning fabrics, I justified my belated sewing of these panels by couching them as a father/son throw duo. As throws they needed to have a soft backing and soft borders in order to be cuddly and tactilely desirable. Thinking snuggly fabrics for the backing would be appealing, I bought some minky in camel for the dump truck and some minky in ash for the excavator and wrapped it around to the front. 

Hoping to expand my skills by doing the wrap-around self-binding technique, I suspected the corner miters would be my challenge. As it turns out, they were a piece of cake when I found a YouTube tutorial from ShabbyFabrics for a baby receiving blanket. Using Cuddle® by Shannon fabric for the backing was my waterloo. Per the Missouri Star Quilt Company:

The term minky refers to any plush microfiber fabric made from 100% polyester fibers. Cuddle is the brand name of minky fabric by Shannon fabrics. While you may find minky fabric for sale that isn’t made by Shannon, the truth is, Shannon Cuddle fabric is the highest quality minky fabric around. 

I had purchased Cuddle® minky for the plush, and so skimping on fabric quality was not an issue. I knew to be cautious with this project because I remembered I had sewn with a minky fabric before with not-particularly-stellar results as described in my 11/16/17 post. One of the four mitered corners on that project had been a disaster. This project all four of my miters were great. It was sewing the Cuddle® to the cotton along the four straight edges that was a struggle. The difference in stretchiness between a flexible minky fabric and a woven cotton fabric was a challenge to be conquered when seaming the two together. I pinned the dickens out of the seam, and still had problems. Here is my analysis of the issue.

Cuddle® is 60" wide and is very stretchy perpendicular to the selvage (white words in previous diagram) but — to my surprise — very non-elastic parallel to the selvage, even after cutting off the selvage. The woven cotton panels were the opposite; stretchy perpendicular to the selvage (black words in previous diagram) and stiffer parallel to the selvage (black words in photo). The flexible Cuddle® direction against the straight of grain of the woven I could handle with sufficient care, which as it turns out, were the shorter, vertical sides. I eased in the Cuddle®. The crossgrain of the woven against the unforgiving Cuddle® direction was a disaster, which as it turns out were the longer, horizontal sides. I tried with the woven fabric against the feed dogs and the Cuddle® against the feed dogs, either configuration to no avail, even though I had been scrupulous with cutting the two fabrics equal lengths. Easing in the woven was not working. I finally clipped tiny snips along the length of the Cuddle to introduce a bit of give and tugged my heart out. It did not come out perfect but certainly very acceptable. The  following photo is before any pressing or quilting. Closeups of the lower left and upper right corners reveal that the mitered corners were not a problem.

The ash-backed excavator went more smoothly than the camel-backed dump truck. I knew where the trouble spots were and that they were not at the miters where I was concerned. I'd cut the Cuddle® bigger by 11" on all fours sides of the woven panel. The wrap around borders were a generous 5½" wide. The finished throws measured ~54" wide by ~47" tall.

The next step I feared was quilting the center region. My plan was to just outline the truck and the excavator to hold the backing and front fabrics together and call it good. Mainly, I just wanted to smooth out those wrinkles. Theoretically, since there are no feed dogs on my long arm, there should be fewer issues. I practiced first with some Cuddle® scrap and the test worked out smoothly enough that my concerns were not justified. I also added some freeform lines contouring the clouds, or more specifically, the billows of stirred up dust. As a finishing touch, I did add a label with my name and the year on the lower front corner of each throw, using dark brown grosgrain ribbon.

Father and son both liked the gifts. Dan and William snuggled up together to watch football. Then my grandson decided he liked both throws and appropriated his dad's excavator as well as his own dump truck. William wrapped the dump truck around himself as a cape when he climbed the stairs to bed.

Seeing the reception the throws got, I was glad I had persevered in making them, even though I was at the outer reaches of a child's window of interest. Grudgingly, I even admit that the fluff and furry bits scattered throughout my sewing room, left behind from the Cuddle® plush, were worth the mess.

Make It Merry Month Six

At last, the sixth and final month of my Block of the Month commitment is here and I have completed Block #10 and Block #11.  Only one of each bock was required. The first five months had eight blocks each and this month had only two blocks. I still have the assembly and quilting of 42 blocks ahead of me, but 100% block completion is still a milestone I wanted to acknowledge. 

Theses are the two blocks, each measures 6½ "

In make the HSTs for these blocks I wound up with these four extras. They would make a nice pinwheel block although I do need to decide if I want the same red blades opposite each other or the same white blades opposite each other. I cannot have both. That is unless I make more HSTs and I certainly have enough leftover fabric to do so.

Can you locate Block #10 and Block #11 from Month Six? That is not very hard since they are each part of the bow.

I am super happy to have reached this block assembly phase on time and under budget. I purchased no more fabric nor tools. Assembling, adding borders, and FMQing will be the topics of future blog posts. My goal is to complete this quilt for Christmas Season 2025.

Make It Merry Month Five

In Month Five, the Make It Merry assignment was to make four Block #8's and four Block #9's. I just got a notice that my Month Six installment is due to arrive in the mail this weekend, so I better started on Month Five so as not to get behind. I am reminded of a saying by Karen Brown of Get It Done Quilts that, "My main goal for myself this year is to stop feeling like I am behind." A large part of the truth in that sentiment is attitude. But also, part of it is staying aware of those " _____ of the Month" things I signed up for. 

Block #8 had a lot of cream/tan and very little red. The cream/tan has subtleness in the use of three varied "white" fabrics. I liked that difference from past blocks. Variety is the spice of life. (As a bit of irrelevant trivia, per Wikipedia, Variety is the Spice of Life is also the name of 1939 comedy film. The plot is that when her composer husband loses interest in her, an ordinary housewife turns into a seductive vamp to try and win back his affections.) Also there were only four HSTs per block which is a relief. Making them a bit oversize is great for accuracy, but the trimming them to size can become tedious.  Here are the four 6½ " blocks, rotated as they will appear in the quilt.

Block #9 had a lots of greens and was overall dark, in stark contrast to Block #8. Once again, variety is the spice of life and an aspect of this project that kept it interesting.  This block had A thru G to cut out and so went a little more quickly than Block #8 which had A thru I. If you noticed there is an "0" instead of a "D" in this tray you are very observant. My "D" went AWOL. I am not concerned. My "C" had been gone for a couple weeks before showing up between two stacked trays. I could have used the "D" from my blue Alphabitties but I rationalized that "0" looks somewhat like a "D" but with the sharp edges smoothed over. 

These are the components of the basic nine-patch layout of Block #9 followed by an image of the four blocks assembled. This was an interesting approach to getting a square (red), within a square (mint), within a square (medium green) look. I've photos for this intermediate step for Block #9 but not for Block #8. Different stages of my step-by-step my assembly process for earlier blocks can be found in my posts for Month One (6/14/25), Month Two (6/21/25), Month Three (8/16/25) and Month Four (9/1/25).

Can you locate the four Block #8's and the four Block #9's from Month Five? Hint: Four blocks are central and four blocks are on diagonals. I kind of gave it away the way I photographed the Block #8's all gathered together; but you will still have to hunt some to find the Block #9's. And YAY! I finished Month Five before Month Six arrived!

Halloween Ornaments

I was tidying my sewing room and found eight ~4" squares with a Halloween theme in one of my many piles. They were leftovers from Raven and Pumpkin Placemats panels designed by Andrea Tachiera for Northcott Fabrics. I'd made the placemats five and six Halloween seasons ago as described in my blog posts for 10/24/20 and 10/23/19. Four squares on each of the two panels were intended for coasters, which I do not think are needed when there is a placemat. Anyway, I intended to repurpose those "coasters" as ornaments, and yet, they lingered on for years.

It is still Halloween, but even if it were not, I decided to stop shifting those squares around between piles and sew them up. My inspiration was a thought that kept trailing through my brain like an ear worm. The phrase "Give your self the gift of getting this done" is from a YouTube video of Just Get It Done Quilts by Karen Brown. Within the first 3½ minutes of the video Karen showed items she'd been pleased to complete that fit this "gift" category: a pin cushion kit, a decorated tray, a heating pad insert, a small kit she'd been given, and a notebook cover. Sewing something fun and quick is indeed a gift to yourself.

When I cut the images out of the panel, I stayed an ⅛" beyond the outer edge and used a ¼" seam to sew them face to face. Initially, I futzed around in my stash to find a suitable backing a material. I did find black and white checks, like one of the pumpkins, and a few other golds. (I could not help noticing, though, that I had created more piles to clean up.) Then I talked some sense into myself. Just make four ornaments; you do not need eight! I cut 4½" lengths of black grosgrain ribbon to use as hanging loops, centering each at the top between two face-to-face images.

Once I'd sewn along the edges, leaving an opening at the bottom, I turned the ornaments right sides out. I pressed the ¼" seam along each side of the open edge before starting to stuff. That crease makes it easier to whip stitch the opening closed afterward. The spider and bats squares are shown clipped in preparation for the whipstitch phase.

Here they are — SPIDER, BATS, PUMPKINS, and RAVEN — ready to be hung on the china cabinet near the placemats. PUMPKINS is my favorite. SPIDER is my least favorite... ewww!

Today, I should have been using my time to read my book for book club, which meets three days from now. Instead I discovered, cut out, sewed, stuffed, and whipstitched these ornaments and published this blog post. The experience was a guilty pleasure that was indeed a gift I gave myself. I will undoubtedly have to lose some sleep to finish that book before the club meeting, but today was worth it.