Hi Quilting Friends,
Welcome to the 2025 “Virtual Cookie Exchange” hosted by our friend Carol from “Just Let Me Quilt”. We’re excited about sharing the joy of the Holidays with all of you.
Sharon here. I have several projects to share today, all made from my vast collection of Christmas fabrics from my stash and my scraps.
My first project is a set of pretty pieced place mats, featuring foundation pieced Christmas tree blocks in two sizes. I chose traditional red and green for the trees, with a pretty ivory and gold snowflake print for my background fabric.
I designed the “Christmas Trees” place mat set to coordinate with the “Ornaments” and “Gifts” place mat sets that I designed and made in 2023. Our family keeps growing, and I needed more place mats for a festive holiday table. Because I’ve used the same fabrics for the background and borders on each set, they can be mixed and matched to accommodate up to twelve guests.
As I was working on the Christmas Tree place mat set, I happened to place the finished tree blocks side by side on my sewing table, and I was inspired to create a coordinating table runner. I love these pretty green trees!
Look what happens when you flip the runner upside down! What could be more fun than red trees?
The patterns for these new designs are available for purchase. Click the button to see more!
I’m pretty sure that I will never use up all of my scraps and leftover block parts, but I’m going to try! To that end, I had some fun playing with my Christmas fabric scraps a couple of weeks ago, and I stitched up these cozy Christmas coats for Astrid and Freya. I drafted the coat pattern myself, based upon their measurements.
Our Frenchie girls aren’t even a little bit spoiled. If it ever gets cold here, they’ll have nice warm quilted coats to wear when we play outside. Astrid (R) looks very happy with her new coat (not!), and Frey (L) just looks confused because it was at least 85 degrees outside when I took this photo and everyone knows that you don’t need a coat when it’s hot outside. (Duh!)
Isn’t this a fun picture of Astrid in the Santa hat? I loved the hat, but she clearly did NOT.
Last year I found our hat under the Christmas tree, torn into several pieces and beyond repair. This guaranteed that no dog will be tortured by wearing the “evil” Santa hat, ever again. Grrr!
This is Astrid’s new crocheted hat, which I love and she despises.
To be fair, Freya also has a new crocheted hat, equally hated but equally adorable.
The hat pattern is a download that I purchased from a little shop on Etsy, HERE. It was quick and easy to crochet.
I will enlist some help with another photo shoot in the next few days, in an attempt to get a better photo of the two girls together, since I’m hoping to include a picture of them wearing their hats for my Christmas cards. (Wish me luck!)
Did someone say “cookies”? Yes, I believe that cookies were part of this blog hop, and I don’t want to disappoint anyone. This is the recipe for our family’s traditional “Cookie Day” cookies.
And here are several pictures, from Cookie Days Past, since our 2025 Cookie Day has yet to arrive.
Thank you SO much for stopping by today! We hope that you’ve enjoyed seeing the projects and photos. Please leave a comment; we enjoy hearing from you! We hope that you’ll have a warm and merry holiday season.
Happy quilting,
Sharon & Susan
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Ms P Designs USA (You are here!)
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Stop by each day, from now through Christmas Eve, for a bit of holiday joy and inspiration!
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Ms P Designs USA 
Such a smooth idea to have a basic background so pacemats can be added as needed, or when tastes suggest. Very clever Sharon, I’ll keep that im my hat. And the girls, whell they look so sweet in their coats, bring them north and they will surely appreciate your efforts. They are adorable! Your sugar cookie recipe is sure to be a hit every year, I know ours is . Have a great holiday, and thanks for being here.
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Thank you, and Merry Christmas!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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Your place mats are beautiful! Love the runner too, nice that the design is good either way. Those cookies look yummy, are they shortbread-ish? When is your cookie day? I want to be there – lol! Your Frenchies are just adorable.
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Thank you! I’m having cookie day 3 times this year, Dec 6, 14, and 20. Each time with a different set of cookie decorators. Such fun!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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I do love your placemats and the concept of being able to match up the different designs is wonderful. As a mom to 2 frenchies myself I wish you the very best in getting a cooperative photo for your Christmas card.
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Thank you! It will be a miracle if I can get a good photo, and I will need to bribe them. Frenchies; what can I say!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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Oh my goodness, those girls and their hats and coats. Those are priceless looks on their faces in the hat photos. LOL!! The cookies sound wonderful and those placemats are so much fun. Great way to spark up a holiday table.
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Oops…almost forgot. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!
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Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you too!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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I sure like all of your placemats with the focus block in the middle. The tree runner is really neat too! I made some similar to that last year and the reversible up and down is really cool. Thanks for the cookie recipe! Looks like a good one!
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Thanks, and merry Christmas!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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Cute placemats and table runner, and the pups in their finery are adorable. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Thanks, and merry Christmas to you too!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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Love your placemat and the tree runner is so much fun! I can’t tell if the pups like the hats or not? Some dogs seem not bothered at all by those things and others really are! Thanks for the fun cookie recipe, too!
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Thank you! The dogs like the coats, but hats aren’t popular at all. Merry Christmas!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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Your dogs steal the show here…too cute! The placemats and table runner turned out so nice. I love the way the runner can be viewed in both directions. Clever! Thanks for always inspiring us with your creations. You two are such a bonus to my life! xo
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Thank you! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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Overachiever!! LOL Love the new runner and mats. And Freya and Astric are adorable, even if they don’t care for their new duds! LOL
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Thank you! Merry Christmas!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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All your projects are beautiful and your dogs really like their hats, cute.
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Thank you, and merry Christmas!
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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What a fun problem to have – to use up Christmas scraps. 🙂 You have certainly found some excellent ideas with the table topper and the placemats and you’ll find lots of super ideas, I’m sure. That recipe you shared is a wonderful recipe and one I’ve used over and over again. Thanks for the creative time.
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What a fun problem to have – to use up Christmas scraps. 🙂 You have certainly found some excellent ideas with the table topper and the placemats and you’ll find lots of super ideas, I’m sure. That recipe you shared is a wonderful recipe and one I’ve used over and over again. Thanks for the creative time.
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Thank you! I’m having lots of fun with the scrap bins.
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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The placemats are really fun. and so is the table runner. Bet they make for a very festive table, though everyone is probably more focused on the food!
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Thank you! You’re right, the food is always the star of the show.
Ms P Designs USA
http://www.mspdesignsusa.com
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