Pillow party

Remember the Verna quilt I made for my friend? She asked me to make her some matching pillows (yea! I get to play with more Verna!), and this is what I came up with.


The green pillow (Hocus Crocus Budding Green) is 12 x 16. The square pillows (Budding Green Stripe and Spring Bouquet Dewdrop) are 18 x 18. Verna is getting a little hard to find. I bought it here.


I added piping to the edges, because I'm crazy fancy like that. (Shh--I used this piping tutorial, and it was actually really easy. But it looks fancy, don't you think?)


For the back, I used a simple envelope closure.

See the quilted sham in the back? More on that soon.

Check out more Sew & Tell projects on Amy's blog!

Simple Abundance 2: The Return of Simple Abundance

Fat Quarterly quiltalong: check! Well, the top is finished anyway. This is a really easy and quick quilt. It just takes one jelly roll.

I used the leftovers from my Scruffily quilt, so they look like little quilty cousins.


I got to try out my brand new 1/4 inch foot, which definitely made my piecing more accurate. See how those seams match up? That's new! (Psst...they don't all look like that!)


I didn't plan out my squares very well, so I ended up with a few scrappy ones, but that's okay.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the back, so this one is on hold for now. That leave me with just one quiltalong (still working on Tracey's). So the logical thing to do was join another one. (That is the logical thing to do....right?) I love Rachel's Colorbrick quilt, so I'm quilting along with her.




I set aside this pile awhile ago, and I think it's going to make a cool fall Colorbrick.

P.S. I'm so glad Modern Family is back on. Dang, I love that show.

Stuck.

Dang, this song is catchy. I can't say I actually like it (the chick's voice really grates on me), but something about it makes me...happy. But not the reggae-style breakdown. That's embarrassing. Bonus points for a funny video starring Awesome!




This song...I love.
I was going to post the actual video (which is really funny), but it turns out that the real song substitutes "forget" with another word that starts with "f." Who knew!? This is the radio version.

The view from here

And so it begins. I've begun plodding along on hand-quilting my grandma's quilt.
I took a field trip to a quilt shop not far from my house, and the women working there were very helpful. They said the block is a variation on a carpenter's block.

No, I'm not really sewing outside in the 90-degree heat. I just hauled it outside for photographic purposes.


The quilt shop ladies helped me pick out a backing. They said that a plain cream muslin to match the background would be historically appropriate, so I went with that. For the binding, I picked this peachy solid. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it's just about an exact match to the peach in the quilt. (It's an Amy Butler solid...not sure of the name.)

Now. I have to admit I was not enjoying the hand-quilting at first. It's hard, and it hurts my fingers. Waaaaaaah. So I quit for about 24 hours and then started up again. I switched from hand-quilting thread to perle cotton and stuck on some thimbles, and I'm enjoying it much more. I really like the look of the perle cotton too.


I found two really helpful resources: these hand-quilting videos on Amy ala Mode's blog, and this post on Anna Maria Horner's blog.

I had big plans for the plain cream squares, but I'm going to switch to something a little simpler. That way, I might finish before my 3-year-old graduates from high school.

Quilting along

I've found myself involved in two quilt-alongs. The first is hosted by Tracey. We're working on a super fun pattern.




I love the way this is coming along. I'm using the fat quarters of Flower Sugar I won a while back and some tiny polka dots.

One quilt-along at a time really seems like enough...but then I saw the one hosted by the folks at Fat Quarterly.



This quilt-along takes just one jelly roll. I had the perfect amount of Simple Abundance left over from my Scruffily Quilt (really, within a quarter inch), so it seemed too good to pass up!


Last night I cut all my little pieces. I'm embarrassed to admit my arm was a little sore when I woke up today.

More soon!

Arcadia: Done! And I'm in love.

I think this is my favorite quilt I've made so far. It's the most representative of my design aesthetic. (I don't know what that means, but it always sounds impressive on Project Runway.)


The pattern is Kate Conklin's Charm Bracelets. It's a great pattern--Kate's instructions are very simple and straight-forward. Fabric is Arcadia and Kona Stone and Sage Green (argh!).


The binding is Kona Zucchini.


Ready to be gifted!

As for the back...my main goal was to not buy any fabric. Here's what I came up with.



I just used my extra Sage Green and Stone, and filled in the extra spaces with honey bun strips. I think it turned out pretty cool!

My creative director turned all diva on me and took over the photo shoot.





He's lucky he's cute.

Check out more Friday finishes on Amy's blog!