Why buy when you can make?

 For me – making presents is a lot easier (and more enjoyable!) than going to the shops and staring at the shelves, overwhelmed with choices and possibilities. Plus I can do my Christmas “shopping” in my pyjamas if I make the gifts. There’s a total bonus right there!

It perhaps helped that Mum made requests for what she’d like – so she ended up with quite a few handmade gifts for Chrissy! I shared the quilt I made her here, and bookmarks here, but this post is about the other bits and pieces that went with them!

I shared my plan for these cushions what feels like yonks ago, but was actually only a month or so! Now that they have been gifted and are currently in use on my Mum’s lounge, I think it’s about time to share the finished result!



I’m rather happy with how they turned out – and more importantly Mum loves them! Oh and her lounge is blue so they look much nicer on her lounge than on mine! (My lounge does not have cushions thanks to children who believe cushions belong on the floor. Why, children, why?!)  I used a simple square pattern to piece the tops – trying to sort-of line up the tree branches so it looks as though you’re seeing them through the window.



I do love a stuffed cushion. I tend to make the cushion covers just a smidge smaller than the insert so they fluff up nicely. The fabrics here are from Terrys Fabrics and are a heavier home dec weight fabric– almost canvas in the case of the blossom print. I’m figuring that ought to work nicely to make durable cushions. And hoping that means they have magic dog-fur repellent properties ;)



Mum also requested some placemats for the dining table.I made her some Christmas ones well over a year ago and she has been using them year-round! Definitely time for something new!



I pinned a bunch of placemat ideas then sent Mum the link to my Pinterest board so she could pick which one she liked best. She liked this one, so I used it as inspiration for these. The colours were all chosen by Mum – wanting oranges, reds and browns. I couldn’t resist adding a couple of greens in there though. They are all Sketch or Color Weave prints. Love.



I used reverse applique to add the colour sections to these – I prefer reverse applique to regular applique. Not sure why. I just do. Then I got busy with some FMQ. Well straight lines first on the plain part of the placemat, then some echo quilting in the “leaves” with some stippling to quilt the rest of the placemat into submission. Sure I could use more practice, but I’m happy to have at least attempted some more FMQ! The new Bernina certainly makes it a lot easier with that fancy pants BSR!



I’m rather happy with the finished result – though the one thing I wish I had done differently is the binding. Ugh binding 8 placemats was a pain in the bum! Why oh why didn’t I think to add more backing and just fold it over to the front for a fake binding?! That would have saved so much time! Lesson learnt.

So Mum’s house now bears my quilty mark in rather a number of rooms. I will have to get creative with what to make her for future gifts! And it’s sad to admit but I think she has more quilty stuff on display in her house than I do in mine. I may have to remedy that!! One day.