Finished Christmas Pillow

After quite a bit of 'erring and arring' I finally set to work yesterday to finish this pillow I had an itch to make.

I had hoped to finish it faster, but that darn math issue popped up and I could not make my brain work hard enough to figure what I wanted. So, some of those 2.5-inch squares that border the pillow are in fact just whacked off where convenient for fitting. Ah, the best laid plans...

Ii is very likely that no one would have even noticed, but now that I've called attention to it, well... I do like how this turned out. Very nice that I made two stars while I was in construction mode; the next star will be placed on point thanks to DH's recommendation. That will look quite nice, I think.

Two treatments on this pillow differ from what I have been doing on pillows lately. First, I tried my hand at free-motion quilting on my older Bernina. What a different set of skills that requires! I attempted wavy vertical lines with occasional little loops along the way. It was fun; I need to practice this more, and on little projects like this pillow, it works very nicely.

Another different treatment involved the zipper on the back. I have no pictures of this one, but I watched a YouTube video on line which I am sure you all would enjoy. It features Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life, and shows how to add a flap over the zipper which she places on the back of the pillow. Looks really nice, and I found it much easier to achieve a neat finish than what I'd been doing by trying to put the zipper in the seam at the bottom. I will show mine on the next pillow I share here.

One last picture of this one.  I might do several more of these; they work up so fast (if you don't obsess over the measurements of the border blocks). I enjoy trying out a variety of star patterns, so changing things up is very likely a possibility.

Happy Quilting, Friends!