Be Merry!

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, friends!  I'm posting the party early to give you plenty of time to link up during this holiday week, and because today will be all about Thanksgiving prep over here.  This year, our family is staying home and enjoying a quiet Thanksgiving with just the three of us.  In my family, Thanksgiving dinner is a midday meal.  After we eat, we spend the afternoon watching football and decorating the Christmas tree.  Since I would rather not spend tomorrow morning scrambling around the kitchen in a frenzy, I will be preparing everything today, and tomorrow I'll just have to pull it out of the refrigerator and put it into the oven.

I finished up this fun raw-edge appliqué Christmas pillow just yesterday and I am so happy to share it.  This pillow was so much fun to make, and I'm excited to gift it to my friend for Christmas.

For the background of the pillow, I pulled lots of low volume text and cream scraps, along with a few bits of gold and sewed them together using the method from my book, Stash Statement.  The improv scraps create a great textured backdrop and allow the solid holly sprig and text to really pop.

If you're interested in making your own appliqué pillow, check out my tutorial HERE.  This tutorial is for my Home State Pillow, but once you understand the basic construction steps, you can easily change the shapes, text, and font to suit whatever occasion you desire.  The steps are the same, no matter what theme you choose!    ps-the font in my pillow is American Typewriter Bold.

I used Kona Rich Red and Kona Basil for my appliqué pieces, along with Aurifil 50 wt. colors #5016 (Olive Green) and #2265 (Lobster Red).  The slightly lighter shade of green thread adds some dimension to the holly leaves and keeps them from looking too flat.  I quilted the background with a dense stipple, leaving the appliqué unquilted.

  

I've had this holly print in my Christmas stash forever, and I think it makes a perfect backing;  and the Kona Rich Red binding creates such a great frame for it.  This pillow will be wrapped and under my Christmas tree just as soon as we finish decorating it after dinner tomorrow!

Let's take a look at some of the amazing projects linked up last week!  Liz at Savor Every Stitch shared her gorgeous waterfall quilt.

Look at this mesmerizing Colorwash quilt by Sew Preeti Quilts!

And Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts linked up this fresh and modern baby quilt.

I hope all of you in the States have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, food, and fun!  Be sure to check back here on Friday.  I'll be highlighting some amazing Black Friday sales, including a discount code for my Etsy shop, but for now, mum's the word.  Now, let's party!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

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*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)