Handmade holiday, part 1

I really enjoy making gifts for people. I may fret and stress a little bit about what to do and how it's going to look, but the feeling I get when I give something handmade that I've spent time, blood and tears over, is what keeps my booty in the chair by the sewing machine.

Although, I have a dirty little secret this year: I haven't finished making my handmade gifts for Christmas yet! And I might not have started on a couple of them, yet, either. I know, right?! Please don't spread that around; it might ruin my reputation :)

Since a couple of them are in progress, I'll just share what I've gotten finished so far! This is the year to finish up some projects, and these placemats were just begging to be finished. The pattern is from a magazine, and the fabrics are all from Joann's. I love how cheerful and summery they look together, and hope the person I'm giving these to will use them to eat outside in the summer.

I did straight-line quilting on both styles of placemats, and I think the one that is more densely quilted is my favorite. I just want to keep running my hand over the texture of it!

I machine-sewed the binding on. I think I still prefer to hand-sew the binding on to the back, but machine-sewing it just goes so much faster! I made a set of four and hope that she actually gets some use out of them!

 

The backing print is my favorite!

 In other news, here's my progress on my Holiday Frost quilt:

It's all cut out, but that's about it!  Maybe next year, it will be done by the time the holidays come around again!