E.P.P Stars Pillow {final finished Christmas gift}

Now that Christmas is over, I can share my final handmade Christmas gift. This one took FOREVER!!  I don't know how my Great Grandmother managed to make so many quilts using EPP (english paper piecing).  I clearly am not well suited for a lot of hand sewing.  I told my husband when I was finally done that I could have made 3 quilts within the time it took me to make this one 24" pillow cover! Although it did seem to take way too long, I'm happy with how it turned out and now realize that I will most likely NEVER make an entire quilt using this method.

For the stars I used a few strips from a batik jelly roll.  They were the perfect width for my 2" finished 6 point diamond templates.  I love all of the colors against the black background.

I had hoped to also do the quilting by hand, but after I finished 5 stars, I just had to rip it out.  Trust me when I tell you that it did not look good!  So, I took the pillow top to my machine and echo quilted every other star in each row.

For the pillow back I selected some of the leftover strips from the jelly roll and pieced them together along with my favorite zipper method.  I think the back is almost as pretty as the front and can make this somewhat reversible :)

The best thing about this gift was the recipient.  I gave it to one of my brothers who has always been so supportive of my quilting efforts.  I'm happy to say that he loves it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend time with your loved ones.  I am super excited that I was able to take off this entire week and next week from work.  Hopefully I will have some new projects to share on here as a result :)

Thanks for stopping by,