Here Comes Santa Claus

Last year as we were packing up Christmas and purging things for the upcoming move this stuffed Santa pillow was in the purge pile.  PH came in the house and said, "Santa stays." Now, this Santa was always disrespected around here. He was unpacked each year and propped in a corner and forgotten.  He's kind of big, too. Nobody even remembered he was there till it was time to pack Christmas away and then he wasn't even given a box.  He was just tossed in with whatever.  Little did I know he was an integral part of PH's decor.  So. To keep both of us happy I unstuffed him, cleaned him up and then carefully basted him front and back (so they lined up) with a green pinstripe ticking looking fabric.

 Then I bordered him with my F A V O T I T E  Santa print.  I'd been keeping this print for just the right project. He is the Santa from my childhood and I couldn't use that fabric on just any old thing.

Quilting was a little tricky.  If you notice, the body lines up front to back but the belt goes up in front and down in back.  There's a face on the front but not in the back. And I didn't want to mess up the Santa face border.  This was harder than I thought it would be.  But I used BIG stitches with perle cotton for a casual soft look, worked on it every night  and it was done in a week (so says my calloused finger.)