GIVING JOY: A Collection of Projects for Making and Gifting
- Liz Davis ArtHouse Quilts
- Jan 1
- 5 min read
Greetings and Happy New Year! As we conclude the 2025 holiday season and enter 2026, it's a great time to take a breath, recover, and celebrate what we've accomplished over the past year. In previous years I published "Holiday Gift Idea" blogs just under the wire for last minute gift-making. But this year I've done it a bit differently, allowing myself to prioritize focus on the enjoyment of planning and making the gifts I love to send and bring to friends and family. As quilters have MANY opportunities throughout the year to produce beautiful gifts, these blogs can be referenced at any time for relatively quick and fun project ideas that I begin collating in September and construct from the end of November into the December holiday season.
The photo above shows "Folded Scandinavian Star" ornaments. While there are different interpretations of Scandinavian stars, this rendition is an easy, no sew project, where several can be created in an evening. In preparing for holiday gifts I often find my biggest challenge to be deciding on color combinations. This time around, I included several hand dyes of my own, as well as those I'd previously sourced. The process is then starch (or use your preferred sizing method), iron, cut, fold, and glue. Use your favorite embroidery floss or decorative thread for hanging loops. They make for beautiful and unique projects and are also great stash busters! Just type "Folded Scandinavian Star Ornament" into your web browser and multiple tutorials will populate. Pick your favorite!
These shibori indigo star stuffies are a perfect addition to a goody bag. I send these types of gifts to family and friends in lieu of cards around the holidays. For these, I used a pattern from Tilda Handmade and Happy by Tone Finnanger and a charm pack by Debby Maddy for Moda Fabrics. I love Tilda books, and this one includes patterns for multiple star sizes, as well as hearts and trees. These ornaments could also be made with your own cut out shapes, using either batting scraps or fiber fill, or even walnut shells if you'd prefer to make pincushions.
These little trees are also "no sew" projects, made with styrofoam cones, pins, and a bead topper that can be attached with fishing line or embroidery thread. For my mini trees I used the Folded Fabric Tree ornament pattern by Suzy Quilts. Diving into my scrap bin, I pulled pieces that would give an ombré effect with a snowy top. I started with teals, but then pulled blues, reds, purples, and greens for different effects. These are quite a bit more time consuming than other ornaments I've made, as the "branches" need to be folded, carefully aligned, and pinned into the styrofoam. But the outcome is worth the effort for these keepsake ornaments. For my bead topper I used a 10mm bead. Bigger trees with bigger beads or even handcrafted stars can also be made and many online tutorials are available by searching "no sew folded fabric trees" in your web browser.
The pattern for the Japanese rice bags below were introduced to our guild by a guildmate this past October and are a very fun and super-easy make! I produced quite a few of these and filled them with candles, ornaments, goody bags, etc. for my gift recipients.
The bags have a square base, use fusible fleece for the batting, giving the bag nice body, and include a set of drawstrings that cinch the top of the bag. With most of mine, I went the quick and easy route with only some minor modifications, mostly following the pattern as written. But alternate piecing layouts, adding quilting, inside pockets, embroidery, buttons, beads, hotfix crystals, etc. can be added for maximum effect.
Need a pattern? This can also be found as a free online tutorial. Just type "how to make a Japanese rice bag" into your web browser and pick your favorite.
In my making process, I often end up with leftover blocks, some of which are quite time consuming to make. A few years ago I made a beautiful pillow using Alison Glass + Giucy Giuce Mini Series pineapple blocks. My initial intention was to make a super cool quilt, but with so many small pieces, I decided 6 was enough. I used 4 for the pillow and had two left over, which I was saving for a special project. The opportunity finally arose when I was looking for a quick make I could add to a holiday hostess gift. It was easy enough to simply layer my batting, Insul-Bright, backing and binding, and create two useful and pretty hotpads/mugrugs for my recipient...who also received a Japanese rice bag!
Another beautiful project delivered to a couple of my holiday gift recipients was the Folded Star Table Topper (left), designed by Deborah Miller for PlumEasy Patterns. I purchased my pattern and interfacing templates from Shabby Fabrics, as Jen produced a wonderful detailed video tutorial that walks through all the steps to make them. These toppers finish at 17" diameter. I made 3 for my recipients and kept 1 for myself. I used combinations of Makower UK's "Good Tidings" collection for Andover Fabrics with beautiful metallic gold on reds and greens, along with Kona "Snow" and "Burgundy," Moda metallic Grunge in "Paper Bag," and textured red and green fabrics by Stof Fabrics for striking, high contrast stars.
I was so happy with this outcome and look forward to making more of these for holidays and other occasions.
And finally, my last gift for the 2025 season was the below 22" square pillow, made using a "Hyalite Star" block pattern by Lindlee Smith of Plains and Pine. I used a sourced, hand-dyed turquoise-to-purple ombré, a very glittery white fabric that gave the impression of snow, along with a "Hydrangea" batik, and Kona "Indigo." My concept for this design was a snowflake. I used a cotton wool blend batting, only outlining the star with quilting to retain the puff of the batting, and added some denser free motion quilting for texture in the corners. This was another day-long project that paired with a purchased throw (yes, in lieu of a hand made quilt... for the sake of time and preservation of my sanity!)
As always, I hope these ideas provide inspiration as you plan projects for yourself and others throughout the year. As we manage our daily routines, it's important to find what gives us purpose and pleasure, fuels our creativity, brings joy and comfort to others, and provides an outlet for the challenges life can bring.
With best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!
Liz
Comments