Karen's Quilts, Crows and Cardinals: Throwback Thursday Redbird Christmas Pillow 2013

Greetings all and happy week after Thanksgiving!!

We have much to be Thankful for in our family -- aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren included.
As our parents watch over us from heaven, we continue to nourish the relationships we have with one another on earth.
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving too!!

Today I want to highlight an old favorite tutorial - one that comes together quickly using 2.5" fabric strips and a bit of wool.

Remember the free tutorial for the
*** Redbird Christmas ***
envelope pillow?
It's the perfect accent for your holiday decor!

Redbird Christmas was based on a free design and tutorial that I shared on the Moda Bake Shop, the Family Tree Quilted Envelope pillow.
Family Tree was my first tutorial for the Bake Shop and jump started my designing career.
I'm very thankful to the the Moda Bake Shop for taking a chance on me and allowing me to share what I love through their awesome program.

You can peruse all of my free patterns and tutorials by clicking here.

The Redbird Christmas pillow design is holiday oriented but generic enough to display after Christmas.
It includes a cotton background with a tree and bird wool applique focal point and a log cabin style block to finish out the pillow front.
I added a little extra batting behind the bird and the tree to make them pop!

It was quilted free motion and top stitched on my domestic machine using Aurifil 50Wt Mako Cotton thread.
***
I LOVE Aurifil thread for quilting!!

When I created the Family Tree and Redbird Christmas pillows I had yet to try Aurifil 12Wt cotton thread so I used another brand of embroidery floss for the wool applique.
If I were to make them again today, I would be sure to dig into my Auri-Stash and use Aurifil 12Wt thread.
The Aurifil 12Wt works perfectly for wool applique and for beautiful top stitching!

Instead of using 2.5" strips for the back of the pillow, the Redbird Christmas pillow has a two piece envelope back. The envelope works perfect to switch pillow covers from one season to the next.

If you're interested in making Redbird Christmas you can see the original Moda Bake Shop Recipe by clicking here.

The tutorial is available as a PDF download at the end of the Bake Shop post.

If you're interested, you can read the Family Tree excitement and announcement on my blog by clicking here.

To convert the Family Tree tutorial into the Redbird Christmas pillow, just download the Redbird Christmas tree and bird template by clicking here and follow the original tutorial for the Family Tree pillow.