WiP Wednesday – Gifts

 I love giving handmade gifts. For me – it’s much easier to think of something to sew or make, than to spend hours traipsing through the shops, trying to find “the perfect gift”. Plus, hello. Sewing is fun. Enough said.

I’m rather thankful too that my family like handmade gifts. It might be a problem if they didn’t. My mum has requested a couple of things this year – mainly to give me ideas of what to make. So I’m making them all. Because, why not?

Starting with some pretty new cushion covers for the lounge. Currently Mum has blue lounges, with some old faded green cushions. It’s not a pretty look. She’s even hidden the cushions these days. So it will be nice to bring them back out with some pretty new cushion covers!



I had this pattern in mind as soon as Mum mentioned cushions. I think it’s simple but elegant. I tried to kind of line up the stems in the smaller squares so it looked like it was all part of one branch, just looking at it through the window.



The fabrics are from Terry’s Fabrics – rather a heavyweight fabric which is perfect for cushion covers. They should stand up to do decent wear and tear.



I’m not sure about quilting these or whether to just leave them plain. Still thinking on that one.
Along with these cushion covers, Mum also asked for some new placemats for her table. I pinned a bunch of quilted placemats and asked her which one she liked. She settled on this one. So I used it as my inspiration for the placemats.



I decided on reverse applique for these instead of applique though. It really is such an easy technique! These I do plan to quilt – I’m thinking vertical straight lines in the blank area on the right, and perhaps echo quilting around the applique.



The request was for “warm colours”. But i couldn’t help it. The green kind of snuck in to make 8 placemats. I figure if my parents aren’t so keen on the green, well they have 6 other placemats they can use and make the green ones potholders or something!

So I am really putting my new machine through its paces – bag making, piecing, quilting, binding, reverse applique, zippers (soon!) and am loving every minute of it! No hiccups or hassles. I cannot say the same of my old machine if I subjected it to these kinds of tasks. So I am a happy quilter!
And that’s how my WiP list is looking!