Am I the only one crafting last minute, unplanned Christmas gifts? Probably not! Although there will be organised individuals who had all their gift projects planned on 1st January and carefully scheduled them to fit with other activities throughout the year to ensure a stress-free run up to Christmas 🤩

Anyway, carrying on my need through November to finish projects, I have been busy crafting my way towards Christmas. I picked up a mix of old and new mini cross stitch projects to stitch before using them to make a set of greetings cards (all of these were kits that came with magazines).

I took these along to a local craft fair on 13th December – sold none of them 🤷‍♀️ But I was able to give the aurora Christmas hedgehog card to a friend who rescues hedgehogs, loves Christmas and saw the aurora borealis for the first time earlier this year ✅✅✅

Inspired by an off-hand comment by my Mum I found myself plunged into the excitement/madness of unplanned projects… She happened to mention that to keep her legs warm in the evenings she wraps herself in a bath towel warmed through on a radiator. Well! No self respecting patchwork-quilter could be unmoved by such a picture! A towel? Really?! Visions of a cosy fleece-backed lap quilt danced around my brain… And if I were to make such a thing for my Mum then surely I should make one for Dad too?

My Mum is 85 years old, weighs about the same as a sparrow and has little upper body strength so I decided a warm but lightweight lap quilt would be required. I therefore chose a duo of anti-pil polar fleece and Bosal poly wadding. For the patchwork design I chose to work with Color Girl Quilts Classic Curve ruler to create 8″ blocks in colours I hope will appeal to my Mum (I know she loves turquoise). I added wider borders at the top and bottom of the quilt to create a a bit of a rectangle measuring 38″ wide by 41″ long.

I used the same background fabric for Dad’s lap quilt to create a bit of ‘his & hers’ vibe. I chose a pattern from Allison Harris’ book, Growing Up Modern. It appealed as I was so short of time. A few fabrics combined with strip-piecing construction techniques enabled me to make the patchwork in one day. I added narrow borders, the finished quilt measures 41½” wide by 48″ long.

Both quilts are backed with a turquoise fleece:

I made binding for each of the quilts using 2½” strips of the quilting cottons. I kept the walking foot on my machine to stitch the binding to the back of the quilts. For Dad’s quilt I then switched to a quarter inch foot to stitch the binding down to the front of the quilt. This seems to have been a poor choice as the edge of the quilt is rather wavy and doesn’t lie flat. Should I have stuck with the walking foot? I’m not sure, I’d be glad of your thoughts on this. But overall I am happy with this quick project and I’m looking forward to gifting it to Dad. For Mum’s quilt I stitched the binding by hand to the front. The edge of her quilt lies much flatter than Dads. I decided to take the unusual step of stitching by hand to the FRONT of the quilt rather than the back to avoid having to hand stitch into the fleece.

So there we have them! My last minute, unplanned Christmas gift projects. I’m glad to have made them all – creativity and finishing projects have been good therapy for an otherwise rather turbulent end to the year. I’m now turning my attention to de-cluttering my sewing room… I’m hopeful that by doing a little bit at time through the comings and goings of the festive season I should be able to start the New Year feeling fresh and ready for some more finishing action!

I hope your preparations are going well and you will be able to relax and enjoy A Very Happy Christmas!

Allison