Getting The Pillow Fever Again

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I have always loved making pillows. They are just so fun and relaxing to make. Especially when just piecing little squares. But be warned. They can be addicting.

This is my latest one. I spent a week on it. 😀 (I hear you. Stop laughing.)

Here’s what happened… Two weeks ago, I made a table runner from some of my leftover Hugs and Kisses blocks. The blocks were collecting dust in a pile in a corner. I always feel bad when I start a new project without finishing sewing some of the UFO’s. So I gave the X and O blocks a bit of my attention.

Making the runner did not take long since the blocks were already made. Just needed stitching together, borders added and quilted. Simple quilting. Straight lines. Plus a bit of stippling. And done.

Then I decided a pillow was needed to go with the table runner. But had to search high and low for the fabrics used in the X & O blocks. That took a day and ended up with me dismantling one leftover Scrappy Trip block for the exact peach fabric I needed. And then, wouldn’t you know it. I got some sort of stomach bug and ended up being all queasy-stomach sick for five days. Didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Certainly not sewing. At least not for long stretches. I would sew a border and then take a nap. That was my routine for days.

Finally yesterday, I was able to sit in the sewing machine chair longer than the loo chair and managed to work on my pillow. It is made with 2 1/2″ squares and several borders. One border is a strip of squares cut in half. Quilting is diagonal lines.

I put binding all around the sides just as I would a quilt.

My machine sewn binding is getting SO GOOD, don’t you think? I may never go back to hand sewing.

Before I got sick, I had finished another doll quilt with matching pillow and a little handbag. Never got to show them to you.

All inspired by one of my leftover Scrappy Trip blocks. I have so many of them left that I could turn each one into a doll quilt. One for each day of the month. But I won’t do that. I have other ideas for them. (Or I could send them to you if anyone wants them.)

I also finished sewing together ten Wonky HST blocks. They sit waiting for their polka dot corners.

None of my other on-going scrap projects got worked on. Need to do that before month’s end. Got to show some progress, right?

Well, that is it for me. That’s all of my Show and Tell.

What have you been working on? Do tell….

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Linking to.

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2013/05/pin-cushions.html

http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2013/05/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-lots-of-quilting.html

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2013/05/link-finish-friday-68.html

http://aroundtheblockdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/05/really-random-52313-portlandia.html

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2013/05/we-did-it-wednesday_21.html

Plugging Along… 1/4 Inch At A Time

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I decided a few straight lines just wasn’t enough for my Crossroads to Jericho table runner. It needed something more. MORE straight lines. One fourth inch apart.

Here I am plugging along. Working with the 9 patch areas.

Thank goodness there are only eight. Or I would still be quilting into next week. Going back and forth in such a small section is very time consuming. Start. Stop. And no matter how carefully I turned to go up and down, you can still see where I sewed. I went around the 9 patch block to try to camouflage it a bit. Oh well. I did the best I could.

Two more sections to quilt straight lines and then on to the fun part. And hopefully the faster part. Stippling. Or loopy loops in the border area and maybe the triangles.

Should have it finished by Friday. Need to work on some of my other UFO’s.

Scrappy Trip Quilt Top Is Done… And More

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My Scrappy Trip quilt top has been finished for about a week. I have it neatly draped over the upstairs railing… waiting… Waiting for me to get up the courage to sandwich it and quilt it. I was thinking about straight lines but now I am thinking Cathedral Window-like loops all over it. I am really pleased out it turned out. The majority of my seams abutted exactly as they should have.

I am thinking of doing another one. But with the colors and fabrics of my choice. More controlled. More planned out. Not Everything But The Kitchen Sink. Like this one.

But first… I need to decide what to do with all the leftover blocks. As you know from my last post, I have 27 extra blocks. I put them up on my design wall. And guess what? I have enough for a second Scrappy Trip quilt!!

Isn’t that amazing!! I have been playing around with them and even could do a few as doll quilts or table mats.

I like these four with the same burgundy plaid fabric going down the middle. All but one. The upper right one.

It needs a touch of light orange or whatever color that is. I will probably take it apart to balance the look.

Also these three are cute together.

Wouldn’t they make a sweet little doll quilt? Only have the three. Will need to make a 4th. No rush though. They will go in the UFO pile for now.

Speaking of my UFO pile. I pulled these two Crossroads to Jericho blocks out to work on.

Several months ago when I was making my Crossroads blocks with black squares, I experimented replacing the black with white. Just to see if I would like them. Only made the two. When I pulled out the little baggie, I remembered I had cut a bunch of squares and triangles. Enough for six more blocks. So… I sewed them together. What a difference a few months make!! Look at those points. Much better than my first ones.

Not big enough for a quilt. But just the right size for a table runner or wall hanging.

I am half way through the quilting. Just straight lines thus far. Will probably add a few loops and wiggles.

With the leftover fabric, I managed to get enough 2 1/2″ squares and borders to make one pillow.

I am thinking of a maze design for the quilting. Starting in one corner and go around corner to corner and keep going until I reach the center. We shall see. Hope it works.

Working with white fabric is still new to me. I rarely sew with it. Don’t know why. I just don’t. BUT.. I like it. It is Kona white that I bought about six months ago. Only drawback, well, a couple of drawbacks. I had to constantly wash my hands so I wouldn’t soil it. And also I spent about an hour trimming the fabric edges on the underside. I was thinking they might be seen through the fabric.

What about you? Do you like sewing/quilting with white fabric? Do you trim the seams before quilting? Do tell…..

Making Hanging Fabric Baskets To Go With My Table Runner

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It’s been over a week since I showed you my Quilt-As-You-Go Table Runner I was working on. Made with different widths of fabric strips. I love working with strips. This one uses navy, avocado and pink fabrics.

The back is a Fat Quarter that I found at JoAnn’s months ago and loved the colors. It was my inspiration fabric and my runner was built around it.

I finished the runner sometime last weekend but didn’t show you because I had another idea.

With plenty of strips left, I decided to make Hanging Fabric Baskets. Like those I had seen on the net.

I found several sites with basically the same steps to make these baskets. (I borrowed this photo from The Mother Huddle site.)

I followed along with the instructions. Made a few changes. You know me. I had to put my own spin on it. I wanted it sturdier. I tried several ways and finally got it to work as I envisioned. By using very thick Pellon.

I sewed a strip of it inside on the bottom of the outside fabric.

And also inserted a circle of thick Pellon right before inserting the lining.

Next, I folded down the outside fabric so about a half inch of the inside lining would show.

I even added an extra strip of heavy Pellon connecting the bottom of the circle.

It makes the bottom even sturdier. As you can see in this photo.

It was fun making these baskets. I am going to make a couple of smaller ones. (Still have more strips.) 😀

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Go here for the instructions to both the table runner and hanging basket. There are three for the hanging baskets. I used the first one.

http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010/08/table-runner-tutorial.html

http://www.themotherhuddle.com/tutorial-hanging-fabric-baskets-or-pockets/

http://www.themotherhuddle.com/hanging-fabric-storage-baskets/

http://sewplicity.blogspot.com/2010/09/tutorial-hanging-fabric-basket.html

SS Holiday #1: Merry Christmas!!

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Merry Christmas everyone!!

Here’s wishing you have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year.

I made this table runner just for you. It is my first in my SS Holiday series. It was made from all scraps except for the borders and back.

Thanks again for being one of my loyal blog followers!! You are the best!!

Quilting Edge-To-Edge, No Binding

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You don’t always need a binding. Some designs can be sewn edge-to-edge.

Like this one. Nice and sharp looking.

I sandwiched the layers. Batting, top fabric and lining. Pinned it all with right sides of fabrics facing each other. Started sewing on one end, leaving an opening large enough for my hand to slip in. To eliminate any possible puckering where the three blocks connect in the corners, I added three stitches before proceeding to sew down along the sides.

I have one rule before trimming. Give it the once over FIRST. So I turned the table runner inside out.

It looked OK so I turned it back to outside in. Reinforced the stitching by retracing the stitching. Then trimmed the seams. Turned it back inside out, pressed it, hand stitched the opening closed.

And now ready to quilt….

When I finish quilting, I look for the starting and finishing threads. I bury them inside the quilt layers so there are no dangling threads. I didn’t do this on my first few quilts. I didn’t know what to do so I tied the threads into knots and trimmed the knots. So… my first quilted items looked a hot mess from the back, less than stellar. I have learned a LOT since January 2011 when I first learned to quilt.

And done!!

I made the matching gold ribbon bow from the mustard polka dot fabric. Reindeer came from the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Got it for just one dollar!! What a deal!! I love that store.

Spool Block Wall Hanging Quilt

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It’s done!!

I finished my Spool Block mini quilt last night. It is small. 26″ by 31″.

My 1st Spool Blocks. I am so in love with how this turned out. I am keeping it forever!!

I used six of my 4 1/2″ scrap blocks. Added lavender sides and purple tops and bottom to form the spool. And then added the borders. Usually I struggle with borders. One side up. One side down. Not even. But not this time. I did them as I was supposed to. Measure the center. Cut the border per that measurement. I was tempted to add extra just in case. But resisted. And guess what? They came out perfectly. Three borders. Purple polka dots. Red dotted swiss. And purple floral. And sad news… I am just about out of the first two. 😀

For the back I was going to use more of the 4 1/2″ scrap blocks. But opted for this look instead.

Even after adding the borders, I knew this would be a wall hanging. It shouted “hang me” up. So off I went in search of how to correctly add a sleeve.

My plan was to sew on a strip of fabric on the back BEFORE sewing on the binding. But the YouTube videos I watched said to add it AFTER completely finishing. So that is how I am doing it. How do you add on a sleeve? Before or after finishing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv4xirLbx1U&feature=related

Well, I am glad it is finished. Have been working on it for several days.

My craft room wall is filling up. Ah, my beloved quilted clock. Time to make another one.

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And I already have an idea for which fabrics to use for my next spool block quilt. This one will use nine scrap blocks.

The plan is to make it lap quilt size. And I have an idea on how to do the area surrounding the spools a different way. Trying for a more balanced look.

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What else am I working on, you might ask?

Here are some of the other projects I am juggling. Due to attention span problems. 😀 Should be finished with all of them in a couple days.

Angel Table Runner

3 more doll quilts

Fabric gift bag

And then after my craft show, I am going to tackle making a larger Spool Block quilt like this one.

http://fredashive.blogspot.com/2010/01/string-spool-tutorial.html

Quilted Table Runner Inspired By Macrame

Finally…

I get to show you. No more teasing. No more showing you parts of photos. 😀

This was my inspiration.

A placemat, candle ring and floral holder. In Forest Green macrame cord. I can’t even remember when I made them. I think around the time I retired five years ago. Within that first six months when I was going crazy trying to stay busy and figuring out what to do with the rest of my life.

I kept them on my work table the whole time I was making the table runner. I even used the mat to determine the spacing for the strips on the back.

Love the versatility of this mini quilt. Two-sided table runner.

Or as a wall hanging.

My loopy swirls on the green border came out so-so. I need to practice more.

Well, that’s my Big Reveal. Hope you enjoyed the mystery of it all. 😀

Half Square Triangles: WIP From July

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To tell you about what I have been working on for the last few days, I first have to take you back to this past July. Back to when I was making pillows.

Remember these? I made all those strips using plum, cranberry and lime and made two pillows.

https://thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/new-striped-pillow-covers-with-buttons/

Then for some reason I decided to also make Half Square Triangles. Lots of them.

The plan was to make a pillow using all HST’s. But somewhere in the eyeballing stage, my project went south. I hated it!! Just those two fabrics. Cranberry swirls and lime with tiny brown dots.

Boring!! And I couldn’t find any other fabric in my stash to jazz things up. So they sat.

Enter my new fabric into the picture. I so want to cut into them.

A couple of the designs I want to try have half square triangles. And then I remembered those already cut ones.

It’s been months since I thought about them. Now with fresh eyes I had an idea on how to make the HST’s interesting again. Turn them on point.

And add a third color. A solid. Which I rarely use. But I was thinking, I could do interesting things in that solid space when quilting.

More to follow. Stay tuned….

TWO Hot To Handle

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And now there are two. Oven Mitts.

Finished the second one yesterday. So glad the way I am doing them has worked out. I am working on a tutorial so you can see how I am making mine.

But for now, I will just show you these photos. Hot off the press. Hot and ready for baking. And cooking.

All eight of the matching place mats have been quilted. And using straight lines. Surprise!! You know how I don’t “do” quilting straight lines. But I was able to manage it this time.

Now I can work on my Halloween stuff!!

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