Orchid Pillow

 You guys, another WIP is done. I know it's getting a little ridiculous. I need to ride this wave of productivity as long as it lasts!

Here is my Orchid Pillow before stuffing. It started in a Hawaiian applique class with Janet Elia last August. Janet provided a simpler pattern than this, but Bill bought me this one on a work trip to Hawaii over 20 years ago. The applique was actually finished soon after the class.

 I needed a handwork project for last night's TV watching, so I took this out. I had to go find the purple thread that I had been using. Why did I put it away? I rinsed out the blue pen before I went to bed and it was dry by morning. I love the texture of hand quilting. I really need to do more of it.

I pulled fabrics this morning for the backing and binding. The first time I saw binding on a pillow, I thought it was kind of odd. Now I love it! It gives the look of cording, but it's way easier. The striped binding adds lots of color and brings in the greens and blues of my bedroom.

Man, I love this backing print. I only had about a 10" strip left, so I had to piece it across the middle. That's where I left an opening for stuffing the pillow. I added some fusible batting to the backing so the stuffing wouldn't look lumpy.

 

 The orchid design is a nod to the Pantone color of the year for 2014, Radiant Orchid.

We have so much snow and another storm coming this weekend. I'm staying cozy inside with my quilts!

Orchid Pillow

18" square

Started August 13, 2014

Completed February 19, 2015

Scraptastic Tuesday

 It has certainly been scrappy around here lately! It all started two weeks ago when I had everything out to finish up my Farmer's Wife blocks. I needed a plan for tackling the scraps, and I finally feel like I'm making progress.

The top of my selvage log cabin has been assembled. (I highly recommend this pattern by Karen Griska!) I'm trying to decide if I want to add borders. It is already 45" square, which is a nice size for a wall hanging. If I make it much bigger, it limits where I can hang it. OK. No borders. How should I quilt it? Organic vertical lines or free motion swirls? I'm thinking about using red thread.

I had a couple of blocks leftover, so I made a pillow cover for the couch. (More about it here.)

I had not done much improv piecing in my 24 years of quilting. I fixed that yesterday! This little quilt top was made in about 4 hours! Twenty five 6.5" squares came directly out of my bin of cool (not warm) modern scraps. Why have I not done this before? Liberating is definitely the right word for it!

I wanted to see it on the wall, so I pinned it to the back of the wall hanging that was on display in the kitchen. We really like it with the pale yellow "borders." It pains me that I'll have to buy some fresh yellow to finish this.

It seems like this bin is still full, but I really did use a lot. 

 Wild & Goosey is coming along (pattern info here). I've been mostly using these as leaders/enders, but I do sit and sew a few units when I have a bit of free time.

Thirteen blocks to go...

I pulled some 2.5" strips of red and pink to make two of these mug mats. One will be a gift tonight at our guild meeting. This one is mine! Happy Valentine's Day to me! Looking back, the one I made for my mother last year has more quilting.

Mrs. Sew and Sow is hosting the Scraptastic Tuesday link up this month. Head on over for lots of scrappy inspiration!

Selvage Finish

 I needed to finish something today, purely for the satisfaction of getting it done. I had two spare selvage log cabin blocks, so I made two more last night. They became the front of a pillow cover. The rounded corners remind me of red heel socks!

The dates range from 1995 to 2014.

 

For the back, I pulled some long pieces of selvage to create this 20" square. I might like it better than the front!

 

It just so happens that the throw pillows that came with the couch are 20" square, so I shoved one inside my new selvage pillow cover. It's a little lumpy and not as full as I'd like, but it's done!

 

This cutie empties out the bird feeder as soon as Bill fills it. He trudges out through the snow a couple of times a week.

My quilting mojo may be waning, so I'm going to take a break for some desk work. I'll get back to the machine soon!

More Random Stitching

 Does this happen to you when you clean your sewing room? I found a bunch of small projects that required some quick stitching and now they are done! Why do they sit in piles for so long?

The lovely folks at American Made Brand sent out tote bags after the 50 state blog tour. I saw that another participant had used her scraps to trim the top of the bag. When I found my tote and pile of scraps last night, I knew just what to do.

 I used the bits and pieces leftover from my license plate block to piece a strip. Again, I feel like I have more scraps now than before! How do scraps multiply?

Then I found some coaster kits leftover from a beginner quilting class last Spring. We used them to help teach 1/4" seam accuracy.

 Not long ago, I bought some bandanas from The EGA Shop. This morning before breakfast, I stitched two together into a throw pillow for Pete's bed.

I love this room! As I was editing this pic, I noticed that I put up the flag backwards. Oops.

Not bad for a few hours of random stitching!

Edited: I never posted a pic of Debbie's completed placemats. I just wanted a record of them here. My niece is renting an apartment with a lavender dining room. When she came to visit in August, she picked out some fabric from my stash. This was a two day project only because I had to run out and buy fabric for the binding. Why did it sit for over a month?

Orchids

 I attended a guild workshop yesterday taught by my friend, Janet Elia. It was a fun, laid back Hawaiian quilting class. No pressure, slow stitching, perfect for the end of summer.

Janet provided a simple bread fruit pattern, but the over achiever in me reared her ugly head. Bill purchased four Hawaiian pillow patterns for me on one of his business trips to Hawaii more than 20 years ago. It was finally time to use one!

I decided to celebrate the Pantone Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid. I used the small orchid pattern with Kona Crocus.

It took me hours to baste this sucker! By bedtime, I had finished appliqueing 3/4 of the piece. I was enjoying the process so much, I couldn't stop!

It was a fun day with friends, and I think I'm going to love this pillow. Thanks, Janet!

Monday Catch-up

It was finish-it-up week here at Seaside Stitches. First up was a manly quilt for our guild outreach committee. There are a bunch of men and boys moving into local Habitat for Humanity homes soon, so we're trying to be sure we have quilts ready for them all.

Then I picked through three bags of batting scraps and pieced together enough for several small quilts. I couldn't resist quilting up this Finding Nemo baby quilt that Kate L pieced last fall.

I was happily looping and swirling along when the needle suddenly snapped into about 5 pieces. That was scary! I guess that needle was in the machine for far too long.

I was bored and didn't want to baste another quilt, so I made this embossed velvet pillow last night in about an hour. After seeing some embossed velvet on Pinterest, I remembered that I had a couple pieces of velvet leftover from back in the day when I was making origami Christmas ornaments.

It only took about 30 minutes to emboss the whole piece. I added a vintage 18" zipper to the bottom and stitched up the sides. The basting tape worked like a charm to hold the zipper to the slippery velvet. The worst part of the process was finding enough stuffing. I found three bags of fiber fill that were nearly empty! I supplemented with batting scraps, so it's pretty lumpy. That's OK since it is only decorative.

Today, I added a label to the schnitzel and boo mini quilt, so it is ready to ship with a pile of goodies.

Up next, another boy quilt waiting to be pin basted.

A Friday Finish for My Valentine

I've added two new pillows to the collection on my bed.

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to finish Bill's Bee pillow. He joked about being miffed that I wanted to hang my T is for Tina quilt above our bed, so I started B(ee) is for Bill. We're goofy that way.

The paper piecing pattern is from Amy at Badskirt. When I pieced the block back in November I put the squaring up triangles on the wrong sides. I did not intend for the bee to stand up straight! So out came the seam ripper.

horrible cell phone photo

Then I started quilting and that was another fail. I tried a new fill and it looked horrible. Rip again!

Bill's little bee sat and waited a couple of months until I found him again this week. I pulled out another variegated thread that matched the greens and blues perfectly.

I quilted some Angela Walters triangle fills and my trusty loopy swirl.

While I was making and stuffing pillow forms, I finished the Clamshell pillow, too. I die cut the shapes at Karen's house two weeks ago. The rows are machine pieced but the top edge is hand appliqued to the aqua background. My Facebook and instagram friends chose the background color.

This one was hand quilted with a creamy Aurifil Mako 100% Cotton 12 weight thread. This was my first time using the 12 weight and I loved it! This pillow was inspired by Amanda's Riley Blake challenge entry.

The Pebbled Sea Glass pillow is still my favorite. Isn't my little Devil Dog cute? The bull dog is a Marine Corps mascot. I picked him up in Parris Island when we went to Pete's graduation. Pete is doing well with his training at Camp Pendleton. We get to talk to him on the weekends and he sounds great!

B(ee) is for Bill 12" pillow, started 11/7/13, completed 2/13/14

Clamshell 16" pillow, started 1/31/14, completed 2/131/4

Pebbled Sea Glass Pillow

 I finished my Sea Glass pillow this morning and I love it!

I broke open this spool of Magnifico that I have been hoarding. It was the perfect color to blend in with the low volume background and it has a lovely silky sheen.

 

 It took me about an hour to quilt the pebbles. I had decided to leave the sea glass squares unquilted so they would pop. Five minutes into quilting, I quilted through a blue square, and out came the seam ripper. I didn't make that mistake again!

I tried to shove an old trow pillow into the new cover, but it was too big. Out came the seam ripper again so I could remove a few handfuls of stuffing. 

 

The binding is a yummy new stripe that I decided to use on all the small pieces I plan to make for my bedroom- pillows, wall hanging, and table toppers.

The pebbles aren't perfect, but they produced the texture I was going for.

 

Sea Glass Pillow

Started 8/23/13

Completed 8/24/13

17" square

Pattern: Color Pop Pillow

D9P Pillow

We bought a new mattress this week, which meant fresh linens. I went with a white matelasse spread so I can add color in pillows and throws. I'm loving the beachy colors of summer- sand and sea glass.

I started a pillow today from this tutorial at the Moda Bake Shop. It's a mini disappearing nine patch. I cut 2.5" squares from my low volume scraps and sea glass solids.

After chopping up the nine patches and assembling, I have a piece that is almost 18" square. I'm considering quilting pebbles in the low volume sandy background. I have to psych myself up for it!

I'm nursing the boy back to health following the extraction of his wisdom teeth. He'll be fine in a few days. Have a great weekend!