Pillow Project

Over the weekend, I accomplished a little decorating task that I'd been procrastinating about for over a year. Last winter, I bought two new-looking and well-made pillows at a nearby garage sale. My intention was to use them for the pillow forms, as opposed to buying new pillow forms. I would make new pillow covers that would reflect my preference for quilt designs using colors that would reflect a sunny Florida porch.

And a whole year later, I have finally followed through on my plan. Take a look at my pretty new pillows.

In early February, I picked up a nice variety of brightly colored fat quarters while shopping at Quilted Twins. I sorta' had in mind that I would make 'granny squares' as a pattern on the pillows, so I would use the same 3-4 colors in different order to make a pair of pillows.

The pillows I started with are perfectly fine for a family room sofa, but for my porch sofa, brighter, cheerier colors were needed. 

I had the first one mostly made, and needed to add the orange outer border. Then I used some leftover fabric from previous projects for the back. I used the envelop style of back for easy removal for laundering.

After finishing the first pillow, I took a rainy Sunday afternoon to finish the second.

Not a lot of effort for quite a lot of pizzazz! I'm loving them! The colors really set the tone for the sun porch (Floridians call them lanais) through which you enter our house. This lanai needs more sprucing up, and that will be our primary effort of next winter.

Sometimes just a little change makes for large impact, and that's what these pillows do for our porch space. More inviting and more appropriate for our Florida porch. One gets a hint of  Florida vibe upon entering the lanai.

On a little side note, I made granny square pillow covers last winter for our guest bedroom. These pillows are larger, but I followed the same plan - forms from thrifted pillows and colors that suited both the Florida vibes and my preference for quilt block patterns.

Believe it or not, I have two more pillows to transform in similar fashion. The pillow shams on our bed have needed this same treatment for going on the second year. As shams, these are much bigger and I have made Ohio Star blocks for the fronts. My goal is to finish them off this month. Stay tuned... 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

 

Guest Room Pillows

Bits of sewing truly are happening here, just much more infrequently than I would ever have predicted. That said, let me share today the pillows which now decorate the guest room bed. It's been a finishing touch for this room that I have wanted to make for awhile; at last it's been accomplished.

 Two basic goals with this project included selecting a simple block design and making pillows that reflect a sunny Florida vibe.

Using 2.5-inch squares in 'granny square' fashion is about as simple a design as I could come up with. Some of the fabrics used are ones purchased recently here from The Quilted Twins as well as some that I brought from Ohio, totally by a stroke of good luck (I didn't plan it, in other words.) 

The pillow inserts had a previous life as matching cushions for a swivel rocker in our family room. Those cushions were not being used, and I'd determined a good while ago that they would be turned into something suitable for the guest room.

I wasn't looking for an exact, matchy-match with the current quilts on this bed. Rather, I wanted pillows that would work with most quilts that might at any point be used in the guest room. My bright blue and green pillows, I think, will fill the bill.  

The pillows are 22-inches, and I used a 3-inch neutral border to achieve the correct size. The same neutral fabric is used as the back of the pillows, and was remnant fabric from a project made last winter here in Florida. All in all, then, this guest room pillow project cost me very little more than my time. 

And that's all I have to say about that.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Small Stuff

 I've been in a bit of down time, lately, as my lack of posting here would indicate. I did plan to have several quilts quilted, and loaded Floral Explosion onto the longarm many days ago.

I made one pass across the quilt and had three thread breakages. wahhh! I believe the tension needs adjusting, and I just have refused to go back to make things right. My mindset isn't right, at the moment. Soon, I will be ready to face it. I hope!

Sharon came on Tuesday of last week, and I did accomplish one project that had been on my radar - a new pillow panel for the center of our bed. I wanted one that would pair nicely with the fall-winter look of Dusty Trails.

 Just to see what you think, here's a quick reminder of the quilt.

I also have pulled fabric for regular pillow cases to use with this quilt and the pillow above. I think they will all work nicely, and as I complete things, I will be sure to share here.

I really haven't been very focused on sewing and quilting lately. Consequently, that also means that blogging has suffered. I do take these spells of inactivity (moreso lately, it seems), but hopefully I will be back in productivity mode before too long.

Over the weekend, we had a special little guest to fill our every waking moment. Yes, Cate had her first solo overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's. We were in heaven. It was work, though, and we appreciate that raising kids is for the younger set!

Have you been more productive than I have? I read several blogs and follow several IG accounts. There are some fantastic quilts being made - just not by me, at the moment!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Goodbye May!

What a super-productive month May was! It felt as though I really began hitting my stride with long-arming, and the little projects pieced at the sewing machine made me supremely happy.

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I would likely be working on some patriotic sewing to honor Memorial Day. I followed through on that plan and now I have a super-neato pillow to use in our decor for all the patriotic holidays.

 Before noon, I'd begun making the 4.5-inch stars. All fabric is remnant material from previous projects, some of which have been used in several previous projects.

By late afternoon, I'd stitched the stripes and attached the stars to them.

 And right about supper time, I had my pillow finished and on the family room sofa. 

What I made in the other 30 days of May, you'll have to come back in a day or two. I hope to prepare and share my May round-up. Doing blog posts from the confines of motels as we motor across country will be interesting, at best. Yes, as you read this, we are on the road!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Gifting Another Pillow

I mentioned in earlier posts that some secret sewing was ongoing around here, and now I can share one more of those secrets with you. Yes, another pillow, and yes, I do like this method of using a flap to cover the zipper on the back. It is a really smooth process and results in a very attractive finish.

This is the second pillow of the same pattern. I made the blocks over a month ago just on a whim. Then I finished one for myself. The other block remained pinned up on the design wall waiting for me to come up with an idea for a finish. 

This one got a simpler treatment than the first with that small green border. Why make it hard? The block is the pretty part; borders need simply to enhance the block. So here it is.

The back was made using the checked fabric; the red dot was the flap. I used my last green zipper.

This pillow was gifted yesterday to my quilting friend Sharon O. of the Frankfort Girls. We had our Christmas breakfast and gift exchange yesterday. What a wonderful morning. Those girls are so very special.

Christmas Eve! Are you ready for the magical day?!? I have been prepping here today, and will be up early in the morning to get the turkey on by 6am! At 1pm, this house will be overflowing with around 20-25 family members for Christmas Dinner, potluck style. As hostess, I am providing turkey, noodles (see this post), mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce and blackberry cobbler. This house will smell heavenly, won't it?

 

Happy Christmas Eve!

Gifting A Pillow

Yesterday, Sharon and I spent the day sewing, and we exchanged our Christmas gifts, too. I can finally share the gift I made for her.

I don't know if I've ever divulged this tidbit about my dear friend, but she loves red. Really loves red. One of the first quilts I ever saw her make about 25 years ago was a red and white Irish chain quilt. The most often-shared pictures between the two of us are red and white quilts. Last week we shared this picture from Instagram posted by our friend, Helen Philipps. That name may be familiar to you frequent readers. Helen has some history with us in providing inspiration. You may remember that her pretty little quilt inspired us to have our Spring Dreams Sew Along this past spring. And now she's inspired this last-minute gift.

So last week, while on the hunt for something else, I found a box of red fabric while searching through my grandmother's sewing stuff. I shared the pictures on IG, but not here. Now you all can see them.

Clearly labeled in a stationary box.

Large pieces with torn edges and 'fluff' - I'm guessing this was used in a Christmas display.

Completely full box. Old fabric; not top quality, but useful, nonetheless.

I knew instantly what my gift would be for Sharon. In fact, it was so perfect that surely some divine intervention occurred somewhere along the way.

I'd been in a bit of a quandary about what to give her. Our usual gifts are wine and fabric. We have both been faced with the reality of the folly of continuing to buy-buy-buy fabric, so I really didn't want to go that route. Discovering the red fabric instantly solved my dilemma. The fact that it was Grandma's fabric was extra special, because Grandma actually hand-quilted the red and white Irish chain for Sharon all those many years ago. I told you it was divine intervention. Full circle, I tell you! *smile*

Another bonus is that I am using fabric from my stash - previously Grandma's stash - and not buying more. I used some very vintage fabric in my Christmas tub for the backing. Remember in the 80s and 90s when vests were fashionable? I had a vest made of this fabric. The selvage indicated that I bought it at Joann Fabrics.

And, yes, wine was involved, too. I found the perfect wine bag while in Myrtle Beach on vacation back in September. It has our favorite refreshment motto on the front!

The secret Christmas sewing is done, and just about all have been gifted. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Finished Christmas Pillow

After quite a bit of 'erring and arring' I finally set to work yesterday to finish this pillow I had an itch to make.

I had hoped to finish it faster, but that darn math issue popped up and I could not make my brain work hard enough to figure what I wanted. So, some of those 2.5-inch squares that border the pillow are in fact just whacked off where convenient for fitting. Ah, the best laid plans...

Ii is very likely that no one would have even noticed, but now that I've called attention to it, well... I do like how this turned out. Very nice that I made two stars while I was in construction mode; the next star will be placed on point thanks to DH's recommendation. That will look quite nice, I think.

Two treatments on this pillow differ from what I have been doing on pillows lately. First, I tried my hand at free-motion quilting on my older Bernina. What a different set of skills that requires! I attempted wavy vertical lines with occasional little loops along the way. It was fun; I need to practice this more, and on little projects like this pillow, it works very nicely.

Another different treatment involved the zipper on the back. I have no pictures of this one, but I watched a YouTube video on line which I am sure you all would enjoy. It features Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life, and shows how to add a flap over the zipper which she places on the back of the pillow. Looks really nice, and I found it much easier to achieve a neat finish than what I'd been doing by trying to put the zipper in the seam at the bottom. I will show mine on the next pillow I share here.

One last picture of this one.  I might do several more of these; they work up so fast (if you don't obsess over the measurements of the border blocks). I enjoy trying out a variety of star patterns, so changing things up is very likely a possibility.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Another Pillow

On occasion, I find myself in a place where I cannot decided what to work on next. Often this occurs after finishing something. In this case, I finished the Scrappy Irish Chain over the weekend, and ever since, I have been in some sort of limbo as I attempt to focus on what my next 'thing' will be. I itemized an ongoing series of projects in this post - that was intended to help with focusing, but it did not. 

This morning, I decided to select one thing that I could definitely get done with the least amount of effort. That one thing would also free up some space in my sewing room, something that is always desirable.

At least two weeks ago, I quilted the front and back panel for the second front room pillow, and basically turned my attention to the scrappy quilt. The panels needed trimming to size, a zipper installed, and all the sides stitched. Not very involved at all, so I just did it.

Two matching pillows for the front room sofa - win, win! I love the fabric on both sides - the blue side is sprinkled with haphazardly-shaped triangles, and the white side is script print. I changed the way each side is quilted - did you notice? The quilting on the blue side is evenly spaced, whereas the quilting on the white side is done in random widths.

One thing. That's the thing about quilting - there's ALWAYS one thing to do. And this one was super-duper fast to finish. Yay!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Front Room Pillow

 Last month I made a total of four pillows for the family room. Now I have begun doing the same for the front room. One done; three soon to follow. 

The sofa is showing its age, but we are not in the mood for replacing it at the time. An easy sprucing up can be accomplished by adding some fresh new pillows. Alongside this initial counted cross-stitch pillow, one can forget the old sofa.

The pillow looks pretty good in a chair across the room, too. 

One big difference with this pillow is that I have made it reversible. Double duty! It will take me a lot longer to make these pillows with the extra quilting, but I definitely think it will be worth it.

We shall see how quickly I can finish the other three. No rush. I will make more as I have time. I will try to make myself stay on it; I am prone to procrastination, you know, and I frequently allow myself to be distracted with starting more stuff!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Second Pillow

 Bit by bit, I will get all my pillows made. I now have a second one finished, fresh off the sewing machine last evening.

In this post from awhile ago, I shared my goal of refreshing some of my decor around here. Pillows offer a lot of pizzazz easily and economically.

Yes, you correctly noticed that this pillow is not an exact mate of the first. My error in thinking that my additional fabric on the first pillow was enough for a second. It was not. Durnnit! This meant I had to get creative and find equally pleasing fabric to coordinate with the first. It pays to have a sizeable fabric stash; digging commenced and have a look at what I unearthed!

Similar enough to work together, don't you think? By using the same vertical quilting, and blues that are really close in shade/hue, I believe I have sufficiently pulled them together. I DO have enough of the multi-floral print to make another pillow, so that will be next. Then I will consider using the bits left over in a simple pieced top. Hopefully that will complete a "look".

The first pillow is made with fabric by Timeless Treasure; additional information unavailable. The second pillow is made with AGF fabric by Maureen Cracknell called Flower Child.

Happy Quilting, Friends!