Quilted Pillows

This is one of those projects that you put off and when you're done you wonder why you didn't get to it earlier? Our couch pillows were looking SAD. Lumpy, boring and needing to be replaced. Quilted pillow covers are such an easy project (well, once you know your quilting basics!) as it's just like doing one really large quilt square. No big commitment of having to repeat a ton of times to make a full quilt plus you'll get to see your handiwork every day.



I chose to do a log cabin pattern. I pulled out all my rust/brown/mustard/olive prints (basically everything that was in my Brick Path quilt plus more). I knew I wanted to make two pillows and I didn't want them to look the same so I decided to make one with the green/yellow prints and the other with the orange/browns. I think they are quite fun! It's so nice to see a great assortment of your favorite prints on display and in use. For the actual quilting I just did a simple shadowing of the seams. I didn't want to distract from the prints or the pattern at all.



The backs are a simple overlap. Since I used regular quilting-weight cotton here, I fused woven interfacing to the fabric to hopefully give it more of a chance of lasting. In a house of two small boys pillows don't just get to sit up on the couch in peace!

Oh and a nice bonus here? This is a quilting project with no binding and hand-stitching to do!

My first finished knitting project - Feather & Fan Shawl

Woohoo! I'm so happy that I finished my shawl! I'm totally hooked on lacy shawls now too. I have few winter things to make and then I'm definitely making another (and another and another...) There are so many amazing lace patterns out there and tons of them are free on Ravelry.com! I think Ravelry is my new home away from home. I'd love to have such a place for sewing too.


This shawl is the Feather and Fan comfort shawl. Yarn is 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn. I just went until I almost about ran out of yarn and bound off. Afterwards I found out about a stretchy bind-off which is essential for making those amazing pointy lace edges, but mine looks decent. :)
Raveled here



MMmmmm I love variegated yarn. This picture was during blocking.

More Quilting WIPs

I got around to the second pillow cover so they are both now ready to be quilted. Here is the orange/brown one:


I had a lot of fun making these log cabins. I could definitely see myself making a quilt with them one day. But I have so many other quilt designs on my to do list first though!

Both pillows together.
I like the orange one, but I LOVE the green. I'm sure they will look pretty different quilted and turned into pillows so there's still hope I will love it all finished.


Speaking of quilting, I got a darning foot for my sewing machine too. Now I can learn stippling! For log cabins though I will stick with straight line quilting following the pattern.
I did get a brief chance to try out the new foot. Not horrible for my first 10 minutes of practice ;)

Quilting WIPs - log cabin and doll quilt swap

I have two quilting woks in progress to share.

The first will be a pillow cover for our living room couch. I wanted a scrappy log cabin though when I pulled out my scraps I had a ton! I decided to do one pillow in green/yellow and the other in orange/brown. I'm so so pleased how it came out!



Some of the prints for the other. I have so many orange-ish prints (I found more than in this pic) I could probably make an army of pillows!


The next WIP is for a doll quilt swap I joined. I wanted to take the opportunity to do a new quilting pattern/technique without having to commit to a large quilt. I first decided to do a zigzag and found this alternate method to piecing (no triangles!) It's super simple, but once I started putting my squares together I realized it was identical to putting together a rail fence (you just cut it on a diagonal after it's pieced). Rail fence is one of the two quilts I've already done, so not a new technique after all. But I definitely do like how it looks and I think it will be the doll quilt back. The fabrics are Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market.


For my second attempt I tried something very different. I think it's definitely a very fun look! The center and outside print is Alexander Henry 2D zoo. I seem to have it in every colorway.


I wonder if I'm the only one who likes the look of a neatly pressed back? Yep, I'm in the press-seams-open camp now.

Crayon Totes

I made these crayon tote bags for gifts for two 3-year old boys. They are actually similar sizes but the denim/Thomas one I put gussets at the bottom and I didn't do that step for the red dot/Curious George one. I'm not sure which way is better honestly. When I don't follow a pattern and make it up as I go it should be no surprise that two of the same item come out quite differently!
There are 24 crayon pockets going around the bag and then I'll include some coloring books and construction paper to put inside. I hope they both like them!



I did a little decorative stitching on the Thomas bag to break up the solid denim. My machine has a grand total of about 12 designs on these 2 big odd disks. So old-school. ;)
I quite like how it came out - simple but just a bit extra detail. Since it's for my nephew no big deal that I can't do any fancy scrolling roses anyway!

Lizzie Dish Table Runner

Lizzie Dish - I just have to say that this is THE collection to make any kitchen accessory. Snatch it up before it's out of print! So far I've made an apron, oven mitts, a trivet and now finally my table runner is finished!



I finished the quilting on it ages ago but since I'm SO slow at hand stitching the binding I opted to wait for my mum to visit and do it for me. Thanks again mom!

I got the idea back last fall from this blog post from Spool Sewing to make a disappearing nine patch for a runner. Paired with the leftover Lizzie Dish prints to make my oven mitts and it was perfect!



Here's a fun little step by step pictoral of how to make a disappearing nine patch square. So easy yet deceptively complicated looking!

First make a basic nine patch square. You can use 9 prints or less like the 5 I used.


Next cut down the center horizontally and vertically:


Next rotate each square clockwise one time (upper left corner will be upper right now). There are other ways to do this step, but I like the results here.


Then just sew it back together! It gets even more fun seeing the squares next to each other and pattern continuing on.

Fun with Fabric

I have way more sewing plans than I have actual time to sew. This means that my to do list is always a million projects long and regularly things get bumped off the reality list and into the wistful "maybe someday" list. I had all these dreams of summer clothes to make for myself and they are all on hold. I did make some cute skirts this spring but the dresses and tunics will wait for now. There is always next summer and at least fabric doesn't go bad. :)



This is actually what my sewing table looks like behind my sewing machine. Stacks of fabric, but I do really enjoy seeing all the time. You can just see some of my Garden Party prints -- still figuring out what to do with those...

I LOVE the planning stage of sewing and particularly quilting. I love pairing fabrics, figuring out layouts and doing the math of cutting and piecing. Again, I plan out more projects than I get to, but it's fun for me. Yes I'm a nerd.
So here are a few things I'm planning out now.

Remember this quilt?

It's in our living room and I recently realized we have very ugly and boring pillows on our couch. So I'm going to make some scrappy log cabin pillow covers! I pulled out all these scraps to make them. Anything brown/orange/rust/mustard/olive/forest green went into the pile. Now I'm considering making one pillow brown & orange and the other yellow & green instead of mixing them all up...


For my next quilt I'm making a large throw size out of Moda Soiree. Such a pretty collection! It will go in the baby's room for when we're snuggling in the recliner. I bought a layer cake (10" squares) plus some extra for a border and binding. Still need to figure out the backing but I think it will be scrappy a la Film in the Fridge. Why have a boring backing?


This next group is Heather Bailey's Pop Garden and Bijoux prints. They will become 2 pillowcases plus 2 quilted shams. I would love to see them all together as a big quilt too but I think they will get more use as a bed makeover.


I also just received a small order from Connecting Threads. I couldn't figure out why I was getting their catalog in the mail but they are a sister company of KnitPicks, where I bought my knitting needles from months ago. They make their own prints, sold in collections, individual yardage (even FQs), charms, jelly rolls, etc., or kits. Their prices are really good too ($6/yard, cheap shipping). I order a strip set plus a bit extra to make a fall colored table runner. I'm going to do the Strip Twist pattern shown here, just two columns wide. I'm not buying the pattern, but I think I've got it all figured out. ;)