If you want a handmade holiday, you need to start early.  Have you seen all the Christmas in July promotions from craft stores?!?  Whether you want to make a Christmas quilt for a loved one or a smaller home decor project for holiday celebrations, Nancy Scott’s e-book, Christmas Collection, is the perfect place to start. (available on Amazon, shop with my Affiliate Link)

I thought the Mistletoe Magic Pillow would be a lovely accent for my holiday decorations. I chose a charm pack from my local quilt store and quickly pieced the required blocks.

This pillow combines two classic quilt blocks – nine patch and snowball. These are two of my favorite traditional blocks and they play together well.

The center of the snowball blocks provides a great space for embellishment.  This open area would be a wonderful spot for some free motion quilting, but I was in the mood for some handwork.

To prepare the blocks for the embroidery, I first basted a piece of muslin on the back. Once I found the designs I wanted (from free clip art on the internet), I traced them with a water soluble fabric marker.  Then it was a simple matter of using small stitches of red DMC floss to create the holiday images.

Following the pattern, I put the blocks together and prepared the piping.  Diagonal stripes add a special touch to the project and really bring in that holiday spirit.

I kept the quilting very simple – wavy lines to echo the redwork, and X’s across the nine patch blocks.

For this pillow top, I decided to use a basic envelope backing.  I stitched a basic hem on two identical pieces of fabric.  Place the quilt top and backing pieces right sides together.  The hemmed backing pieces will overlap to create the envelope for the pillow form.

Stitch all the way around the pieces, then turn it right side out.  Add a pillow form, then sit back and enjoy your holidays!

Thanks, Nancy from Masterpiece Quilting, for a well-written pattern and the inspiration to start my holiday sewing before the typical last-minute rush.  The Mistletoe Magic pillow will brighten my living room from now until Christmas!

Here are some of my  projects from Christmases past (read the blog posts here and here):

To see other variations of the Mistletoe Magic Throw and Pillow, and all the other fabulous patterns Nancy designed, visit Masterpiece Quilting and follow the bog hop.

Have you started any holiday sewing projects? Please let me know in the comments!