Christmas table runner and pillow

A couple of days before my friend Els went back to Holland, we visited Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg together.  It is one of our favourite quilt shops in this area :-).  Els bought a charm pack of winter fabrics featuring cardinals.  We rooted around on the internet to find a pattern for them. We came across sotak. (the same site where the instructions for zippered pillows comes from).  She had a free tutorial for a modern table runner using 2" squares.  We cut the charm pack in half twice to make 2 1/2" squares and adapted the background size to fit.  

That triggered a memory that I had some Christmas mini charm packs (candy) in my stash somewhere.  I found them and had two packs (you need 52 or so squares).  There was also a lovely Christmas tree print which worked great for the back. I searched around in my solids and found this lovely Pepper Cory shot cotton in a shimmery grey. (click on the photos to enlarge them for a better view)

The finished runner

Close up of the fabrics and quilting lines (the white trees on red in the lower left is also the backing fabric). I quilted it 1/2" apart.  The pattern said 1/4", but since this was larger, I think 1/2" was perfect.

Binding was also done in the red and white trees.

The completed runner on the design wall

I had auditioned a white with red snowmen fabric for the background of the table runner, but figured it would be a little busy.  But, the leftover squares were still on it and I needed a handmade gift for a Ladies Conference I attended last weekend.  And, I really did want to try quilting 1/4" lines as I love the texture.  I had just enough little squares left to make a 20" pillow.

Love the way the pillow turned out with the 1/4" lines.  It was a lot of sewing, but worth it.

I used a turqouise Aurafil thread from a little thread set given to me by my friend Lynn last year for Christmas.

I found these Basic grey snowmen in my stash which went perfectly.  Of course it got a zippered closure as well :-).