Wombat Stew Secret Santa 2013

I love my Wombat Stew girls – my online paper piecing quilting bee buddies! They inspire many a hyperbole-filled blog post from me with their amazing talents. We are two-thirds of the way through our second round, and December was our yearly Secret Santa month off. Last year, Fiona organised it all so she knew who had who. I made a fabric basket for Marieka. But this year, we did a truly random Secret Santa draw – nobody knew who had who and how fun! I was assigned Lara and I must admit to being thrilled to get the one Wombat Stew girl I’ve met. We all provided some hints and ideas of what colours, styles, items we might like to help our Secret Santa. Lara had quite the list with many different options for inspiration! I had so many ideas, but in the end decided that I wanted to make a sewing machine cover for her Bernina 400.

First step was to work out what size and I found this blog post sharing dimensions for her sewing machine cover for a Bernina 400. Very useful as she not only provided the dimensions she used but also said that if she were to make it again, she’d make it a little bit shorter, so shorter I did. I also wanted to make it triply useful – two different “front” options and then becoming a sewing machine mat with pockets when removing the cover to use the machine.

I decided to make the pockets a little sewing-inspired – emulating different sewing stitches and a selvedge* spool in warm colours* inspired by the multi-coloured print in the cross-stitches. The coral-ey watercolour print was the perfect backing print to pick up the softer warm colours.

The other side I bought this gorgeous rabbit print* from Miss Matatabi, and added some rainbow* hexagons* with a low volume backing* to make up the width.

*all these things are tips Lara mentioned that she liked that I managed to work in somehow

I was lucky enough to have my present arrive on Christmas Day! The one decent thing about Japan not having Christmas Day as a holiday is that mail still arrives on December 25th. The beautiful Gina sent 3 presents – a placemat for each of the kids and a pillow cover for me. The kids are modelling so wonderfully (while scoffing down bread and watching The Polar Express…) their placemats – Isabelle’s has a beautifully embroidered one with a girl and a deer (which is actually perfect as Isabelle loves deer!) and Jonathan’s is a large appliqued fox face (which is also another favourite animal around here!).

My heart leapt with joy when it saw this amazing pillow cover! The colours are sooooo me, and the scrappy but geometric play of lights and darks is just perfection. Not to mention the fact that the fabrics are all based around Koi by Rashida Coleman-Hale, which I absolutely adore. Modern Japanese-inspired prints in rich, saturated colours? Be still, my beating heart…

The backing is just as gorgeous with the pennant print peeking out from under the koi. Thanks once again Gina, you truly spoiled me!

Linking up to TGIFF at Sew Fresh Quilts!