My First Pillow Cover!

Like most quilters, I have lots of WIPs to work on, but sometimes I just need a quick weekend project to fill my need to sew and create.  I have been wanting to try a pillow because there are so many out there on other people's blogs that I have loved looking at. Thanks to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, who was in a pillow-making frenzy a couple weeks ago, I decided it was time! We have had two really boring gray pillows sitting on our living room furniture for years.  They seemed like the perfect candidates for a makeover!  So I took some leftover charm squares that I had from this project, and made a simple patchwork front for my pillow.  I quilted it with straight(ish!) lines about 1/2 inch apart.  Then I made an envelope back for it from Amanda Jean's tutorial.  And voila!

So much prettier than those old gray pillows!  I wish I had saved the info that told what fabric this is, but unfortunately, I didn't.  Here is a close-up of my favorite one, though.

 

 

 

Guess I'd better get to work on a cover for the other pillow!

 

I am linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday with Blossom Heart Quilts and later in the week to Needle and Thread Thursday!

 

Hope!

I think a good part of the country has been dealing with yucky winter weather the last few weeks, and if you're in one of those locations, you've probably been seeing the same thing out your windows as I have out mine - mostly white, with a little brown thrown in here and there.  Is anyone else looking forward to Spring?  I sure am.  The below zero temperatures and lots of snow have given more than a few of us cabin fever!

So, inside my house I've decorated my dining room table with something a little bit Spring-y.  My String of Pearls table runner is done, and I'm enjoying its flowers, spring green sashing, and whimsical polka dots.  It is also fun to dress it up with a few tulips and some positive thinking!

 

 

The first day of Spring is only 5 weeks away, folks!  Of course in Colorado, that doesn't necessarily mean winter weather will go away.  We had a snow day from school on May 1st last year!  I'm still looking forward to Spring anyway!

 

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation!

Playing!

Even though I haven't had much in the way of finishes in the last couple of weeks, I have definitely been having fun playing with my fabric.  My "String of Pearls" table runner top is put together, and I'm working on quilting it.

 

 

In the meantime, I've added another granny square block to my collection

Plus, I made a mug rug for this fun mug while I was practicing square spiral quilting for my String of Pearls quilt.  A little bit festive for February, don't you think?

 

Do you see the adorable heart pincushion in that photo?  It's the pincushion I got in my quilt group's December pincushion swap.  I just love it!  I wanted to quilt a square spiral in the middle of each of my pearl blocks, so I used this mug rug to practice how it might go.

 

 

It's good to have time to play with fabric and ideas.  I've been enjoying every minute!

 

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday this week.

 

Sunday Stash

I haven't linked up to Sunday Stash in a long time, but I always enjoy window shopping through others' posts.  I definitely am not on a fabric fast!  I enjoyed making a quilt out of a layer cake so much over the holidays, that I decided I wanted a jelly roll quilt next.

I ended up with a jelly roll of Road 15 by Sweetwater for Moda.  And is it ever fun to look at!

Every time I look through the stack of fabrics I see something new!  Look at these great houses:

And this:

Can't wait to have fun sewing it up!  I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash.

Making progress

About a year ago, I started cutting my small leftover pieces of fabric into 2 1/2 inch squares in anticipation of making a granny square quilt.  Every time I cut a few, I throw them into a jar on my cutting table, and it has been filling up!  Although I've used some of them for small projects, multiple granny squares have not been made!  So, this week I decided to try making my granny squares as a leaders and enders project.  And it worked out really well!

In between adding borders to my braided herringbone quilt, and working on my "String of Pearls" table runner, I stitched rows of 2 1/2 inch squares together and ended up with a couple of blocks. What a fun and easy way to get started on a quilt completely out of my scraps!  I figure I will need 20 of these to make a quilt, so I'll just keep laying out the little squares and stitching them together as I work on other projects.

I found the perfect background fabric for my String of Pearls tablerunner - Kona Tarragon.  It was even on sale at my local Hobby Lobby.   I haven't ever worked with a Kona cotton before, and it is lovely!  It has a beautiful texture and weight to it.  I am really happy I went with this color and fabric.

 

 

 



 

The only problem I ran into this week was when I was cutting the green and black pieces for the sashing on my pearl blocks - evidently I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was actually cutting into.

Oops!  Oh well, luckily I have plenty of fabric!  I'll just keep going!  Happy sewing, everyone!

More Ideas than Time!

Something I love about the new year is the feeling of starting new with projects, even if some of them have been leftover from last year!  Right now I have more ideas than time, so I keep starting new projects, as well as going back to WIPs from a few months ago.  Maybe the best things about that is being able to choose what to work on at various times, rather feeling stuck on one thing.

I have been wanting to make something about out of my stash of Kate Spain Honey Honey, and when I went back and looked at Christa's String of Pearls quilt-along, that was something that looked like it would work with what I had in my stash.  I've decided to make only a big enough quilt to be a table runner, which equals about two rows of Christa's pattern, or eight pearl blocks.  So far, I've made the eight basic blocks, with Honey Honey as the center and some black and white polka dots from Timeless treasures as the outside border.

Although I was trying to make this table runner entirely from my stash, it looks like I will have to go find some background fabric for it, because I'm not finding anything that will work that I already have.  My local Hobby Lobby has a great selection of Kona cottons, and I'm hoping to find something to match that pretty green that is in some of my Honey Honey fabric.  Can't wait to get going on this again this weekend!

Back in November I put together this Braided Herringbone quilt top from Kelly's tutorial.

Then life got busy with holiday projects, so I put it away, and now I'm ready to decide what to do with this quilt.  I'm thinking about adding a few borders to it, to make it more of a lap size quilt.  One thought is to add a border of randomish 3 inch squares around it, before continuing on with something bigger.  So, this week I've been cutting lots of squares!

 

 

Time to start sewing these up! 

 

I am also following along with the Scrap-a-Palooza at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Who knows what I will decide to work on next! 

 

 

Happy Sewing to all of you!

Diann

Sew Cute Tuesday Christmas gifts post

I enjoyed making some fast and easy Christmas gifts this year.  For my co-workers, I made simple pocket tissue holders from this tutorial by Buttons and Paint.  Who knew you could have so much fun making something so simple?  And I think they were very appreciated too!

I also made a tote bag for a friend, my first tote, from this video tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company.  It's called "Make Three Totes/Purses with One Charm Pack."  It was also fun and easy, and I made it in an afternoon.  I definitely plan to make another one for myself.  Now that I've made one, I know some things I'll do differently next time to make it even better.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday today and Needle and Thread Thursday later in the week!