TGIFF - Quilted Cushions and Nathan's Ornament

Welcome to the first TGIFF party of 2024! I have a couple of small finishes to share today.

When the childcare littles first arrived in September after the summer break, the now 3 year old immediately started telling me all about the purple unicorn birthday party she was soon going to have. She talked daily about that purple unicorn party until the end of October, when she finally had her birthday. Long before the birthday happened, I had decided her Christmas present from me would be a purple unicorn cushion, or 'scushion' as she calls the ones I have.

I found a free clipart unicorn outline and printed that to use for my applique shape. I worried it would be too fiddly to stitch around, but most of it wasn't bad. It was really only the horn that was too narrow to stitch well, but I did the best I could.

The 1 year old little is only just starting to talk. She gets so excited whenever there's a duck in a book, and calls them all, "Quack quack! Quack quack!" so she got a rubber ducky cushion, also using a free clipart design.

For both cushions, I quilted around the applique shapes, then did a dense stipple for the rest of the cushion, all in matching colours of Aurifil thread. Then I added a label and an envelope style back. I got the label upside down for the unicorn cushion. Turning things right side out always messes with me, no matter how much I think I got it right when layering all the pieces to be stitched together. Oh well, I doubt the little unicorn lover will care.

I made my own cushion inserts, too. I used solid fabric from my stash, then stuffed them with the innards of a pillow I bought a year or so ago. When I bought it, I thought the pillow would be nice for sleeping, but just went super flat as soon as you lay on it, so it never got used. It had just enough stuffing for two 12" cushions, though.

Aside from the Merry Mini quilts I made, the cushions were the only Christmas gifts I made this year. 

I also made Nathan's annual ornament, of course. I started this project in 2002, for Aiden's first Christmas, and each year I made an ornament for him, then one each for him and Zach, then for all three boys, featuring something special from their year. Aiden and Zach have since 'aged out,' since my plan was always to continue until they graduated high school, so now I only have Nathan's ornament to do. Last Christmas, Nathan asked for money to put towards a telescope, which he got in March, with the addition of his birthday money. We've taken it out quite a few times since then, and it's amazing to look at the moon through it, and to see the rings around Saturn. I found this telescope cross stitch pattern by EmbroDIY, but realized after starting it that it was much too big for an ornament. The same pattern also included this planet with rings, which was a much better size.

I chose colours to imitate pictures of Saturn, but I should have gone with something darker than the pale yellows. When it's hanging on the tree, you can hardly see the planet from a distance. I can't believe there will only be three more ornaments to make for Nathan (Christmas 2024 and 2025, and his graduation).

In case you want to make some ornaments yourself, I wrote a tutorial in 2018 for how I finish small cross stitched or embroidered designs into ornaments. 

Those are my finishes 😊 What have you finished lately? Link it up below, and be sure to visit some of the other links to celebrate their finishes, too.

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