Bloggers Quilt Festival: Fall 2012

I have always wanted to participate in The Blogger's Quilt Festival, but for one reason or another it has never happened!  I am squeezing in at the last minute to share a quilt that I love and use every day.

I first decided to make a Turning Twenty quilt when I saw this beautiful version done up in Good Folks over four years ago!  A little while later I fell in love with Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, and I knew I had found my fabric.  When I first started quilting I really was drawn to simple patchwork and letting large prints shine.  I have grown in my appreciation for more intricate quilting, but I still love big prints.  I think they work especially well for bed quilts.  

In the summer of 2011 I cut out and finished my quilt top, but when I finished I was indecisive about how to quilt it.  A king size quilt is no joke to quilt!  I was going to do straight line quilting, but I finally decided to quilt it with a large stipple since free motion quilting is a little more fun!  It took me about four days to quilt, but it honestly wasn't as bad as I had built it up to be in my mind.  

For the back I used a light blue king size cotton sheet, and I made two matching pillowcases.

I also *finally* finished two throw pillows.  For one I used scraps leftover to make a little hexie pillow appliqued on linen.  The other one is a pillow I crocheted using this pattern, and then I sewed to a plain envelope style pillow cover. 

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to go check out all the other quilts in the festival!  There are some really beautiful quilts!

*Quilt Measurements:  approx 100" x 108"
*Special Techniques used- hmmm...how about easy? ;0)
*Quilted by… me!
*Best category – bed quilt, home machine quilted quilt 

-dresden making-

So I have my Fussy Cut Bee quilt top all finished and a backing ready.  Now I am just waiting for the inspiration to baste!  I am not the biggest fan of basting (who is really?!).  Plus, this quilt is meant for a full bed, and my house is just not set up with a whole lot of floor space in any of the rooms, so it is going to be a little squishy. ;0)

This week started off busy, but then one of the kids got sick on Tuesday and now as she is feeling better, another one is down for the count.  So I have a feeling it going to go down the line, and we will be spending some quality time at home.  My kids are catching up on all the TV watching that I usually don't let them have.  Gotta have some sort of perk when they are sick, right?

So yesterday I decided to work on my pillow for The Pillow Talk Swap.  This really is one of the most amazing swaps.  I think it has only gotten better over the past couple of years.  This is my third time joining in, and I am feeling the pressure to make something super fabulous.  My partner has a love for warm colors and text fabrics.  I had an idea in my head, but then I found this dresden while browsing and fell in love.  I have never been that big of a dresden fan, but this took it to the next level.  The rainbow isn't really my partner's thing, so I made my main dresden in reds, oranges, and yellows, and the second dresden with some neutrals.  

I was playing around with background fabrics, and I found this one.  However, I only had a 14.5" piece, and I tried playing around with borders.  It just wasn't hitting the right note for me though.      

So I went digging again, and I came up with this text fabric.  I like that it is smaller and a little less busy, while still being different from a solid background.  The plan today is to work on this a little more while the sickies watch La La Loopsy!

Last Finish of 2011!

This was the last thing I finished!  I cut this pillow out on Thursday, sewed the blocks and top together Friday, and quilted and made it into a pillow yesterday!  I had so much fun making this gigantic pillow.  The blocks are actually not improv improv. ;0)  I used block patterns from Scrap Republic.  I loved this book and wanted to use it right away.  I knew I didn't have any reason for starting another quilt when I already have four others in progress, but I was inspired by Svetlana's pillow.  

I had wanted to make the kids some big pillows for reading for Christmas, but the first part of December didn't go my way.  I wanted to enjoy making them and not have them be stressful projects.  I am so glad I waited because I felt nice to sit back and really enjoy making this.

 I added a little free motion stitching in this one scrappy print using some gray wool thread.

I had Juliana hold up the pillow just to give an idea of how big it really is.  It is often hard for me to tell in pictures what the size of things are.  Also, she loves it and has "claimed" it.

For the back I used this Denyse Schmidt canvas print.  It doesn't really "go" with the front but since this is a floor pillow I wanted something sturdy for the back.

I quilted this in a grid pattern which I really love, but I forgot how time consuming and monotonous straight line quilting can be!  When I finished these blocks they only measured at 24".  I needed this to fit a 26" pillow so I added a border.  I was going to do a more rainbowy border.  However, I decided to use white prints with splashes of color instead, and I really like the look.

We moved our rooms around a bit after Thanksgiving, and we have a big space by the kids' bookshelf that is just begging for a little reading nook.  I already have the next floor pillow pattern picked out, and I am hoping to make one of Dana's Rollie Pollie chairs as well!

I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year!!!

-pillows-

 I am finally getting around to showing the finished pillow I made for The Pillow Talk Swap.  I had a really hard time getting a good angle for this pillow for some reason.  Every angle just looked slightly off to me...ah well.  My partner for this swap is definitely a fun, cheery type person, so I went with something bright and scrappy.  For these blocks I used this template that I found via Flickr.  I love making things from my scraps.  I love hunting through and finding fun little pieces of fabric that bring back memories from past projects.  This block was perfect as well for some of those odd shaped pieces I have held on to.

Overall, I was pleased with how the pillow turned out, but I think I wouldn't have used variegated thread for the quilting.  For some reason, it ended up looking just a bit sloppy to me.  This pillow isn't the biggest.  It only came out to about 16", but sometimes it is nice to have a smaller pillow- I hope!  I added some turquoise piping around the edges, which I liked for the "pop" factor.  

For the back I just did a simple envelope closure with bright sunburst fabric I have had in my stash for awhile.

Last week I also received my super awesome pillow from fionapoppy!  This pillow is full of fun, simple details that really just make it something special.  I love it!  Plus, now I have a pillow to go along with my Authentic quilt!  

  

I love how she added the little "Make Life Beautiful" quote into that one square.  

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!  The temperature here has dropped twenty degrees, and I can finally say that fall is here!  Yay!

Rainbows, Unicorns, and Sunshine...oh my!

I have finished this little cross stitch that I have been working on for the past month.  This has been my "while watching TV" project.  I found this little cross stitch pattern at The Floss Box.  She has lots of fun little pattern downloads, and so reasonably priced!  I couldn't resist since I can't tell you how many drawings Juliana has made that look just like this...unicorns, girls, hearts, rainbows, flowers, and sunshine.   

I was indecisive about what to do with it when I finished.  I was going to just keep it in the hoop, but when the girls started fighting over whose bed it was going to be by I nixed that idea. ;0) So I went with a little rainbow pillow to go on their window seat and can thus be shared by all. Now I am working on a little princess to go with rainbow girl.

The Pride and Prejudice Pillow

(I love this picture of Colin Firth.  I used to have this picture as my desktop background on my computer, which my college room mate teased me mercilessly for. *cough* Are you reading this, Sophie?)

"Pride and Prejudice"- if you haven't read it, well....better get to it!

  When Sew Mama Sew announced their pillow contest, I was a little deflated when they said they wanted a pillow with "words to live by".  I kept looking at all the fun, spunking sayings, but they just weren't "speaking" to me.  Then I remembered this etsy shop I found around Christmas, and inspiration came. ;0)  I also thought this idea would work well for Lil Blue Boo and Dharma Trading Design Challenge.  Two birds with one stone!

I used Mr. Darcy's original proposal to Elizabeth.  

"In vain have I struggled.  It will not do.  My feelings will not be repressed.  You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

These words don't necessarily scream "words to live by", but they do to me.  In the book (if you haven't read it) this declaration is the first sign that Mr. Darcy has any romantic inclinations towards Elizabeth.  Before all you see is a hard, prideful man who always criticizes.  I remember the way my heart stopped when I first read this declaration of love.  *gasp*  The man.loved.her....ardently!  These words don't immediately win over Elizabeth, but because he spoke them he does eventually win his lady's heart.  These words remind me that things aren't always as they seem, and not to be afraid to say what is on your heart.  

Don't give up on finding your Mr.Darcy, ladies!  I was lucky enough to have found mine. ;0)

 I tried to keep things simple with this pillow and make it something you might find in Jane Austen's house.  For the words I found a fun Jane Austen font, typed it up, and used t-shirt transfer paper to iron them on to some notebook type fabric.  I then cut this out, added some piping, and framed it in linen.  I added some chiffon roses to one side for a romantic look. :0)  For the binding I used a black and white stripe print from Sweetwater's Authentic line, and I added some cream lace that I had in my stash that couldn't help but make me think of Mrs. Bennett.

I don't know if this pillow is going to win any prizes, but I have to say that I really had fun making it!