Santa Claus Banner

The next installment in our outdoor decoration series is Santa Banner. This quilt is just in time for the Holidays. The design incorporates paper piecing, applique, and custom quilting.

Santa Banner

After the completion of Dr. Covid, it was time to turn my banner efforts to the Holidays.

Santa Banner Creation

Like with most of my projects, I started with an idea and Electric Quilt 8. This quilt is actually one of two that I designed at the same time. Because I have a spot on either side of the front door, I wanted a pair of holiday banners to show off.
 
I will admit that I did not begin that 2nd banner for a month or more due to a very busy quilting schedule for others.
 
Using a standard center size, I created the outside of Santa Banner using paper pieced blocks. The color scheme for this banner is red and green. I decided on a Santa for the center.
 
After designing the blocks and layout it was time to consider the applique in the middle.
Santa Banner Paper Piece

Santa Banner Applique

From the start, I was committed to Santa for the focal point of this quilt. As you can see from the gallery of images below, I used a specific santa image I found on the internet with some changes.
After drawing him out, I realized that he would sit alone in a large sea of white. The applique needed something else.
 
This is when I gad the idea to add Rudolph looking over Santa’s shoulder. I loved it – almost.
 
Now that this problem was solved and the applique sewed down, I realized that I had way too much white! No turning back now. I solved this with the addition of custom stitching around the applique. Not a perfect solution, but worked well enough for me to be satisfied.

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Santa Banner Pieced

Custom Quilting

I knew that this piece had to include custom quilting. Not only would it be fun, it would carry on the effort to make Santa and Rudolph stand out.
 
I began with a cute pattern on all the paper pieced blocks.
Santa Banner Block Quilting

Next came the center quilting. I began by putting motifs in each corner, then went to work with fill. Pebbles, clamshells, and feathers complete the work on Santa Banner.  All standard Edge to Edge patterns can be found on our website.

Santa Banner Custom Quilting
Santa Banner Custom Quilting 2

Santa Banner on Display

Complete and on display, this new banner now greets visitors and seems to watch cars going by. I wonder if he is thinking “naught? or nice?” as folks speed by.

Santa Banner On Display

Now that all the Holiday orders for folks are done, it is time to start on the next quilt in this series – Snowman Banner.

Quilt Stats

Quilt Name: Santa Banner
Size: 60 x 40
Quilting Pattern: Custom
Thread: 10002 Super White Glide