Holiday Lane

Today is the day I get to share my Holiday Lane pillow with you.

I already had a pillow form I wanted to use so I made some changes to the pattern so that it would fit my 12”x22” pillow form. I omitted two houses and I also did the “flange” differently. I don’t really care for big fluffy, floppy pillows. I like a more streamlined look. If you want your pillow to look like mine you can just do a regular quilt binding. I was tempted to go all out with the quilting but I decided to keep it simple. All of the quilting was done with my walking foot. I wanted to show my “31 Days of Walking Foot” readers that walking foot quilting can be more than straight lines.

My applique was done differently than most. I use a stabilizer on the back as a “sew in template.” Once washed the stabilizer becomes softer with each successive wash. I can write up a tutorial if you are interested in learning this technique. 

 

I like to glue everything in place and layer the quilt sandwich so that my applique stitches also become quilting stitches.

I backed the sandwich in a random blue that I had lying around since this goes in the middle of the pillow no one will ever see the blue. I quilted the “sky” in a design I’m calling “windy clouds.” It is a combination of “waves” and “water.” The difference is that instead of curving back gently like I did in “water”  I chose to pivot back in a sharp point. I quilted in the ditch around the houses and outlined each of the applique items (trees, windows, doors.) I like the puffiness of the houses so I choose to leave them without quilting.

Here is closer shot of the front so that you can see the stitching I did in the sky.

 

Remember the mini zig zag I shared with you before Thanksgiving? Well I threw it on the back just for funsies! Each HST unit measures a measly 1” and it wasn’t really that fun working with that much bulk in a tiny space. It sure looks cute though.

 

A special thanks to Pauline & Madame Samm for organizing our blog hop, and Jill for sharing her pattern (get yours here- free!)
Go visit the other hoppers for today!

 

For now the pillow is living on my bed until the Christmas decorations go up. Usually we do the tree on Black Friday because we don’t partake of that particular tradition :) I hate crowds! We had company this weekend so the decorations will go up this week. Is your house all decked out already?
~ Norma

 

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