Happy Holidays!

There's nothing like undertaking an "emergency" quilting project right before the Holidays. My family draws names for gifts and I had drawn my sister's name. She wanted something "Christmas-y" and I debated for a loooong time on a homemade vs a store bought gift. Finally, I came across this pattern in an older issue of American Patchwork & Quilting and decided to go for it. I was sewing like crazy (and cursing myself) up until 2 days before Christmas.

Fabrics are all from my stash.



Oh, and why not attempt needle turn applique for the first time on a tight deadline? Actually, I used freezer paper technique for the leaves, and used a running stitch around the berries with the thread drawn in over the template to make the circle shapes. This was supposed to yield a perfect circle, but mine were still pointy in spots.

Backing and binding fabrics (Heather Bailey's Garden Pop) I had originally intended to make into an apron, but I thought worked well here -- not to Christmas-y as I didn't use any specifically Christmas-themed fabrics on the front. I used Mono-filament thread to quilt in the ditch around the squares and white thread for the freemotion design in the center applique square.



Of course, Axel had to get in the action.