Are the holidays over?

I know most of you (and me) are ready to leave the holidays behind us and move on to 2011.  As usual, I’m a little behind.  I finished the third pillow in my holiday pillow series and have to let you see it before I put this project aside and move on.

For the quilting on this one, I sort of echoed the trees in the top part of the pillow.  I drew a few basic echoing (is this a word?) lines and then filled in quilting about every half inch from the original lines.  Below the trees, on the ground, I did horizontal lines about every half inch.   This pillow is more densely quilted than the other two, but I like the variety.  You can see the quilting better in the bottom photo.

I used the same fabric for all the trees in this pillow – I actually cut them out as two individual shapes.  In order to give the individual trees a little more definition, I used a silver rayon thread to applique them and continued the satin stitching between the trees.  I don’t often use rayon thread, but this came out quite nicely.  The only disadvantage was in trying to bury the threads on the back.  I use a self-threading needle to bury my ends, which works well with a cotton thread, but the rayon thread broke going into the needle more often than not.

Here is a last shot of the three pillows together and I promise I am on to other things 🙂

6 Comments
  • Liz in Ypsilanti
    Posted at 11:00h, 05 January Reply

    I really love these pillows! They speak to the holidays without getting overly sentimental. They have an air of sophistication.

  • jill/marny
    Posted at 01:22h, 05 January Reply

    Love the simplicity of the design-very effective graphically. Your quilting supports the whole idea beautifully.

  • kwiltmakr
    Posted at 23:01h, 04 January Reply

    i like your new pillow. Those self threading needles have never been a good thing for me. I always break the thread(cotton) with them. Not sure if the one I have has a rough spot or not but I get frustrated with them and now don't use them. Glad they worked out for you.

  • Ethne
    Posted at 15:14h, 04 January Reply

    Oh this is working up to be a super set of cushions – I look forward to seeing more added later this year when you decide to revisit them

  • BaileyGirl5
    Posted at 15:12h, 04 January Reply

    I love these pillows! I'm putting these in my "Christmas in July" folder. Hope I really do it!

  • PioneerValleyGirl
    Posted at 14:50h, 04 January Reply

    My area has a large Puerto Rican community, where 3 Kings Day (the day the wise men got to the manger with the gifts) is the significant celbration. So, by that count, you've got 2 days to spare. Or, I'm just good at rationalizing pillows. 🙂

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