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Winter Deer Christmas Cushions

Posted on: December 11th, 2015 by Lorna McMahon

Thanks to these little Winter Deer quilted cushions, I am well on my way to accomplishing my goal of making a Handmade Holiday! This pair finished at 14″ x 14″ each and were inspired by the larger cushions I made earlier….

But never really blogged about until now! I had previously used my 12″ Santa’s Reindeer block to make a pair of cushions for my sister for Christmas. These finished at 18″ x 18″ each.

This set of quilted cushions was made using two prints from the new Sea Salt Sandy collection from Island Batik. And an anonymous cream tone on tone for the background.

Then quilted them using my signature organic wavy lines. I chose this variegated Fantastico 5005 October thread from Superior Threads and I love how it looks against that neutral background.

For the backing I found this text print hanging around in  (my stash) from way back in July of 2013 when I finished this Oh, My! Scrappy Stars quilt. And once again, I turned to this tutorial by S.O.T.A.K Handmade for making those hidden zipper closure for the backs.

The “Santa’s Reindeer” quilted pillows each finished at 18″ x 18″
and were the 68 and 69th use of my 100 labels
ordered from Ikaprint.

Because of those Santa’s Reindeer cushions, I was then inspired to make another set using the 8″ Deer block found in the Forest Friends quilt pattern to make a smaller set of cushions – a gift destined to grace the sofa of my dear mother in law.

The Deer block is part of the Forest Friends quilt pattern which can be found in my pattern store here. These Winter Deer pillows were a really quick make. Hope my mother in law likes them as much as I do!

I quilted the panels for the front of the cushions using my walking foot in organic wavy lines using plain white Guetermann polyester thread.

The deer were pieced using Daysail by Bonnie & Camille for Moda. I was so pleased with those prints when used for my Winter Mittens runners I showed you last month that I dug them out again to make these too! Kona Snow for the background. How appropriate!

For the backing, I used a light blue Kona cotton solid to match the aqua in the prints from the front. I love that perky striped binding!

The deer block pattern would be great for making all kinds of  other cute projects. Great for gifts! Like mug rugs, placemats, table runners and mini quilts. Each deer block finishes at 8″ x 8″.

The “Winter Deer” quilted pillows each finished at 14″ x 14″
and were the 70 and 71st use of my 100 labels
ordered from Ikaprint.


Looking for a quick Christmas gift idea….
You can find the Forest Friends pattern here!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday with
Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

Keep On Quilting On!
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10 Responses

  1. SarahZ says:

    Both sets are adorable! I love that the second set say Winter as much as Christmas 🙂 I see a couple of these for each of my boys…avid outdoorsmen 🙂 thanks for the inspiration and an awesome pattern! 2016 is gonna be such fun in the sewing room! 🙂

  2. I love how these came out. Can you recommend a good tutorial on adding a zipper to the back of the pillow? I usually do an envelope style, because I haven't figured this out yet.

  3. Lara B. says:

    Such cute little deer – they made great pillows Lorna! A handmade holiday – What an accomplishment! \”M'stash\” hahahah… Love that!

  4. Kay says:

    These are fu for Christmas, I particularly like the aqua set. x

  5. Oh! Those winter deer are oh-so-cute!! I'll definitely need to come up with some winter animals after I finish a \”regular\” woodlands quilt! 🙂

  6. These are so adorable!! In other news, I received the fabric I won from the DGC quilt along and I just love it! I'm going to be blogging it soon. Thank you so much! 🙂

  7. Great pillows. Love the deer pattern. And I love that text print for the backing.

  8. Izzy says:

    Oh my goodness – these are just so cute! I just love your patterns. These pillows are going to be loved for sure!

  9. You never cease to impress me! The reindeer are so cute and I've stashed away your pattern in my \”to make\” pile for next Christmas. I didn't get to it this year but I LOVE them so I'll definitely make some reindeer in the future!