Two Big Bellies

On Instagram I alluded to making two new cushions, both of them bellies. The first is Santa Baby, designed by Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation. I've intended to make one since I first saw her post back in 2018! 

You can read Kelly's post here where she gives you a diagram with finished measurements to make your very own pillow.

Here is the back, a beautiful vintage 😉 print called Elegance by R.E.D. Designs that I bought at Fabricland many years ago. It's gold embossed, with rich lush colours, and has a beautiful soft hand.

I always bind my cushion covers, but this one, being a belly, was better without a binding, so I just flipped it after stitching it right sides together. Super-fast! As always, I did the envelope-style backing.

I did Kelly's scrappy improv style for the large squares as per her design. I used up every one of my small red scraps (I have a small ziploc bag in each of my scrap boxes just for small scraps) as well as all but two of my red strips! I even cut a few chunks off larger red scraps to have enough for the four squares. I love the scrappy effect. I also just had to work in the bit of Henry Glass Fabrics Santa fabric in there! There are two small chunks of it. It's a bit more white than red, but it's just too cute not to add in.

I quilted this one and the snowman one on Avril.

I used a Coats and Clark red variegated cotton thread, a Sulky white rayon, and an Exquisite polyester black. Avril loved them all. I love her so much! I left the gold lamé buckle unquilted because I liked the way it poofed out. I also did minimal straight lines on his black belt which makes it puff out a bit too. Wool batting makes for lovely texture over the entire surface.

As soon as Dayna saw it she said she wants it! I said she can have it when I croak, but in the meantime, I'll make her one.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 18" square
Fabric: various from stash

Batting: Quilter's Dream wool

Backing: Elegance by E. K. for R.E.D. 

Quilted: on Avril: 10 403  stitches 

Threads: pieced on my Bernina with Mettler cotton; quilted with Coats and Clark cotton, Sulky rayon and Exquisite polyester

The other belly cushion is a snowman by Pen + Paper Patterns. I think I saw it in Hawthorne Threads newsletter? Anyhow it's a free pattern.

Yay! We had some snow yesterday that was still on the deck this morning AND the sun was out! Hello sun my lovely friend; haven't seen much of you for the past month.😢 So fitting for a photo shoot, and to show off these lovely Kona colours. Don't ask me which ones they are, just got some in my stash that were close to the pattern, maybe Mulberry, Capri, Baby Pink, and Watermelon? The white is a Kona 'ready for dyeing' I've had with that very thing in mind and never done it, so decided to just use it up on a couple of projects.

Here's the back, another gold embossed less vintage than Santa Baby's back but still: a 2015 Cotton and Steel. Half a yard was all I'd bought and it did the trick - just - for this 20" pillow!

I just had to pull out some of my Sulky metallic threads for finishing details on this one.Here's how I got the Holoshimmer green on the outside of the finished edge:

I turned the raw edges under ½" twice, and then I could easily see the ridge from the top side, so I carefully stitched that seam down.

A look at both sides and the spool of fabulous thread. I love love love my Bernina, like fierce love for how she handles all threads without a hitch. I used a fine polyester in the bobbin.

I used the last bit (phew! had just enough for two 2 ¼" strips) of the white Kona for the binding, and had the brainwave to stitch it down on the back with Sulky Metallic, picking up on the gold in the backing. Again, absolutely perfect tension with the loops of both threads evenly buried between the layers. I was holding my breath a bit because of the white front of the pillow, but not to worry, it was perfect.

Here's a look at the quilting before I stuffed the pillow form inside. Unlike the pattern, I did FMQ swirls on Frosty's body, and then more FMQ back and forth lines on his scarf. I also did stitch-in-the-ditch around all the outlines of his scarf. This way I could also use those lines to travel for the swirls. Polyester batting gives it nice loft.

Sorry - it's hanging off the edge of the table so I didn't get any shadow on it!

Here is my Christmas cushions corner!

I have three more not shown, my Christmas House, which is in with the House Block Tutorial on Etsy, a Merry Quilter's Christmas one on my bed, and my Grandma’s House bench pillow in the Rainbow Neighbourhood pattern. 

Quilt Stats:

Size: 20" square
Fabric: Kona from stash

Batting: Pellon Quilter's Touch polyester

Backing: Holiday 2015 by Melody Miller for Cotton + Steel 

Quilted: on Avril: 16 994  stitches 

Threads: pieced on my Bernina with Gütermann cotton; quilted with Sulky rayon

Reminder!