blogger's quilt festival

I'm not really sure what is up with my post writing these days - I keep writing and deleting, writing and deleting, stepping away, coming back, writing and deleting. 

Well, this is my entry for the blogger's quilt festival. I really wish I had remembered that the blogger's quilt festival was this month and saved a project or two to post about but - um, well, I didn't. I originally wrote about this pillow earlier this month. It is basically my most recent try at making something for my couch that I'll hopefully like looking at every day. I've had handmade pillows on my couch since I started sewing but I've never quite made one that fits the aesthetic of my first floor. It is kind of like I wrote about in the post about why I'm redoing the removable covers for my dining room chairs. Don't get me wrong - I love novelty prints (or are they called conversation fabrics or illustrated fabrics?) and I will continue to use them often especially when making things for my daughters. And I love my pile of patchwork quilts that we use almost every day for keeping us warm but, hmm, I'm not even sure how to explain this to me, let alone write about it. I just haven't yet made anything that "fits" - well, this might be it, at least it feels like it "fits" the October 2014 me.  So, while this pillow is not an award winning, wow project - it is my current favorite and that is why I'm using it for my entry this year.

Improv Patchwork Quilt (sort of)

I'm not sure why but I have a difficult time starting something new if I know I have a WIP waiting to be finished. I know some people prefer having lots of projects going on at the same time and I definitely see the benefits of that but I prefer to start new projects with a clean slate. So, since I have a couple of projects I need to start, I decided to first finish this WIP from a few months ago.

Well, it is not that I don't like having any WIPs, just none that are as close to being done as this was. For this quilt (which I last wrote about in the beginning of July), I just needed to add several more rows and quilt it since I had already completed the back BUT I knew if I had to add the number of rows necessary to make it the size of the backing that it would continue to be a WIP and I would never start my other projects. So I just added a few more rows so that it would be a big throw size and backed it with some flannel from my stash. Actually, I guess having that finished backing means I kind of, sort of have a lingering WIP then, right?

Actually, size is not the only reason I chose to make a different back. Um, well, I only have one package of batting in my house right now (and only a very small batting scrap) and I want to use those for my other projects. Yes, I could have just ordered more batting and I considered that but instead I decided to try backing it in flannel without any batting - which I guess makes it more of a coverlet? 

Since I didn't have to worry about quilting it according the batting instructions, I barely quilted it at all - just some random, somewhat wavy horizontal lines spaced very unevenly throughout the quilt.

Then when it came time to add the binding, I'm not sure what I was thinking but I just folded the front over to the back and used that for the binding. I 'm not sure how to describe it but you can see in the photos. I've seen people do this by folding the back over to the front (which I considered) but I liked it better this way. I even got one of the corners to miter the right way!

Well, it might not be the best quilt I ever made but it is out of the WIP "pile" and will soon be being used so YAY! Right???

quilted applique pillow

When you make new pillow covers, do you just buy new inserts? Do you take off the old covers and store them for the seasons? Or do you do what I do and just put the new cover over the old one???

Eventually, I'd like to buy more inserts and have more pillows on my couch but my motivation for this pillow was to replace one I recently made that didn't fit in my living room the way I thought it would. I wanted something really simple and I wanted to only use fabrics from my stash so I pieced together the simple two color background and quilted it heavily with light pink aurifil and then added the half circle applique. 

I actually used these fun novelty prints for the back of the pillow. Since I was only using stash fabrics, I figured I might as well choose from my novelty fabrics since I don't use those as often as I used to. 

Just a side note - I used french seams to piece together the bottom panel which was quick, easy, and worked well and I'll definitely use that technique again when piecing pillow backs.

And another side note - the light was so great on my couch when I was taking these photos. I seriously should have taken pics of my kids instead!

improv baby quilt turned sewing machine cover

Have I mentioned that I haven't sewed anything since July??? Possibly I've mentioned that in every recent post - ugh! Anyway, this is another little project I made during the summer. I can't remember how I got started or what my original plan was - though, I'm pretty sure that these fabrics all just came from my scrap drawer.  What I do know is that I didn't use any batting and that I lightly quilted it to an old(ish) flannel baby blanket and that if I just add some binding and ties, that it is the perfect size to use as a sewing machine cover -- and that covering a sewing machine that isn't getting much use these days is a good idea -- and that I'm now hopeful that I will be sewing again soon!