With Christmas only weeks away, I've happily jumped on the Christmas sewing wagon. I shared my Spirit of Christmas Table Runner through the week which was fun to make - especially as I got to revisit the disappearing 9-patch block.

I've got a couple of festive mug rugs to share with you next week during the "No Ring November Blog Hop". I really love how they turned out and I'll be including a free pattern incase anyone would like to make their own version... but more on that next week.

Today, I'm sharing my Poinsettia Candle Mat, created with my Crafters Edge Crossover II machine and the large flower die set.

Poinsettias are traditional Christmas plants and flower in winter (Northern Hemisphere Christmas). Living here in the Southern Hemisphere, flower growers create the ideal conditions for them to bloom during our summer so we can have these beautiful flowering plants too. They're so clever!

To make my candle mat, I used the two largest flowers in the die set. I balanced it out by adding four green leaves rather than only one as per the picture. 

The background was sandwiched and quilted first. I then fused paper to the back of my red and green fabrics and cut them with the Crossover II. When I was happy with placement, I fused them in stages and appliqued with matching Aurifil thread. 

I have a lot of different Aurifil thread colours so it's nice to have projects where I can use more than my standard white, cream or grey.

I had intended to make this project into a pot holder. As I was making it, I showed a progress picture to my friend Lianne who suggested it would make a good candle mat. Yep, she was right. Candle mat it was. That middle just calls for a candle to be centred there.

I had previously used the Crafters Edge Large Flower Die Set in this project, which you can read about here.