Welcome Gnome pillow complete!

I finished the Welcome Gnome pillow in time to submit to the Pillow Collective at Amy's Creative Side.

I learned a lot making this pillow, not the least of which is remember to stuff your pillow before you stitch it shut. :)

  I like how it turned out. I ended up using the red border fabric I purchased for it on the back and used a dot from my stash instead. I polled the fam and they all agreed it was the better choice.



I Scotch-Garded both this pillow and the star pillow I made to make it easy to spot clean them. This one especially needed it since it is not a cover but stuffed and stitched shut. I won't be throwing this in the washer.

Again, this pattern is from Schlosser Designs and can be purchased for a limited time HERE.

 

Pillow Collective Entry

I tried paper piecing again! The pattern was at Amy's Creative Side as part of the Pillow Collective Blog Hop.

My pillow has no name and I am taking suggestions. :)

Here it is:

The back is envelope style and I did an overcast stitch along the edges inside to keep the unraveling to a minimum.

A couple of fabric choices I regret but I am not going to say which.

Bias edges in my blocks made for waviness and I had to look up how to put borders on correctly to fix it after 2 rounds of wavy borders. I was surprised at how changing how I put them on helped.

I used spray baste to quilt it and it caused me no end of grief. So many broken threads from gummed up needles! So, there is a lot less quilting on it than I had originally planned. I just couldn't take it anymore! :)

Making this pillow was good practice for a few skills and any project that turns out nice and allows for practice is a success.

See other pillows at Amy's Creative Side Pillow Collective link up HERE.

The Pillow Collective tutorial links are HERE.

 

Welcome Gnome Pillow : Part 3 complete

I finished the embroidery on the Welcome Gnome Pillow I am making. For the most part it was an enjoyable experience. Doing embroidery makes me get tense from time to time, so I would have to set it down and relax for a bit.
Also, it was kind of funny at one point, that my needle was squeaking through the fabric and giving my husband the willies.

I haven't pressed it. I am leaving it hanging in my bathroom hoping the steam will help it out a bit in getting rid of the hoop mark. In a few days I will press it and put the borders on it.

I just noticed I forgot to put my Gnomey's eyes on. :) Guess I better fix that.


 

Stitching away!

I have had some actual real sewing time over the last week or so and it has been so nice!
I have had a couple of burp cloths that I needed to finish up. My mother in law was kind enough to stitch up some embroidered terry and a cloth diaper for me using  Piece N Quilt's embroidery patterns and then I used the tutorial to make some cloths with them.

They are cute, but as a mom, I think they might be on the small side.  They end up about 9 1/2 inches square. I plan on asking the recipient in a few weeks how they work for her.

I also made a bag for my teen daughter's toiletries.

Our cupboard was getting a little out of hand and after looking at baskets and bins and bags at various stores, I came back home and remembered something I had pinned a while back. I went and checked out the pattern and it looked like it would be just right for the space and things that needed to be organized. It uses Jeni of In Color Order's drawstring bag tutorial and then an add on to add the pockets by Terri at Sew Fantastic.

I love that it stands up on it's own, thanks to a piece of cardboard between layers. It will make it so I can't wash it, and next time I will use some plastic, but it's good for now.

I have also been making progress on my pillow.

I got the applique stitched down and picked up a large hoop today to do the embroidery. I checked out 2 books from the library to help me learn more about applique and embroidery.

I tried almost all the stitches in the embroidery book, Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners.

I am still struggling with French Knots. I think I need a video, because following the written instructions either gets me a little tiny stitch or a kind of sort of French Knot. They don't quite look right. And I need those to make my little gnomey's eyes, so I really have to get them down.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I get kind of twitchy usually when I do small fiddly type things. But I did okay. I can't quite call it relaxing yet, but maybe someday.  This book was just about right for my skill set and most of the instructions were easy to understand. There was one diagram that they left the letters off, by accident I'm sure. The letters were identifying where your needle was going in and out from "A" to "B" to "C" and back to "A" and so forth, so missing letters made it kind of tricky to figure out. But overall I liked the book.

When I finish the pillow I want to try some of the applique techniques in the Stash Happy: 25 Fresh Projects for Fabric Lovers book. I also want to track down the other books in this series. They all look great.

A pillow to be

I just started a cute little pillow to practice my applique skills a little more. It also happens that Amy Ellis is hosting the Pillow Collective so hopefully I will be able to finish it in time to enter.
 
I have my applique ready to stitch down and the words traced to embroider. (Another skill I am practicing.)

#pillowcollective

I have a feeling that the grass is going to be interesting to applique. I will have to practice my calming breathing techniques.



This was a pattern test, or rather a pattern proofread for Erin Schlosser's limited edition pattern for Quilt Market Fall 2013 ...

*Limited Edition* Welcome Gnome Pillow - Photo from http://store.schlosserdesigns.com

 ...and I thought it was a good fit to practice my applique.

Mine is not as colorful and scrappy as Erin's as I went with a more traditional Garden Gnome look.

I am not doing the rectangle pillow, instead I set it up for a square pillow. I am kind of regretting it now, since I think the rectangle will stay put on my couch better, but oh well. 

UFO number 2 in the bag!

When the cat's away the mice shall play. :)

My husband is gone to Arizona for the weekend for a funeral and that leaves me with free time in the evenings after the kids are in bed to sew. So... another one bites the dust!

The year old UFO Jolly Holiday Pillow is complete. (Well, minus a pillow form. The one I used is one of the pillows that decorates my bed and does not fit well at all!)

Jolly Holiday Pillow - 01/26/13 10:06 PM - Amy

It was my first time making pleats and I was very glad I had my cheap little seam-guide-maker-thingy.

 I don't intend to keep up this pace.This just happened because I would like to complete  2 UFOs a month and I am running out of month and have a couple of other sewing commitments to finish. So I picked a small UFO to see if I could knock it out. Yay!

 

WIP Wednesday

It's Wednesday! That means time for...

 Go check out all the happenings at Lee's  blog.


I haven't had a whole lot of energy to devote to sewing this week, but I did get a couple of things accomplished.
I got a cute kit at Alford Inn to make the baby quilt for my cousin's new baby. The pattern was designed by the owner and you can email or call her if  you would like to purchase the pattern. It is fast and cute. The top just takes 2 charm packs and a bit of yardage for borders. The back that came in the kit was panels that coordinated with one of the charm packs. I am going to save those for another project and use a pink and white check for the back.
I am only giving a sneak peek of the baby quilt. :)

 The other thing I worked on was making another Chelsy's Block to see if my tutorial was accurate. I cut too much off when I squared it up so it is 9.25" instead of 9.5" which will make it finish at 8.75". And there is a tuck or two in the seams. But I still like it and it is a pretty quick block to piece.

Current WIPS:

• MOTP QA:
• Circle of Wonky stars QA They are at the quilting stage and I still have not picked fabric. :)
• Buck a Block BOTM: Still in piecing mode.
• The Hot Wheels quilt: Stuck
• Flaming Dragon doll quilt: quilted (Feel free to giggle. I did. This is the worst free motion effort ever.)

 

• Baby quilt for my cousin's baby: partially pieced
• Doll quilt using vintage sheet: sheet washed
• iPhone cover (On hold pending the replacement of the phone. Don't ask. What a mess!)
• Pencil case for my purse.

New projects added:

• Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt: I was gifted a quilt kit for this and have it partially cut. It should be a quickie.
• Thread catcher

• Tooth fairy pillow (We are at the stage of a new loose tooth every week, and the tooth fairy is having trouble finding them hiding under pillows!) Finished. I used the tutorial posted Tuesday on Sew Mama Sew by Shannon from pieceLove. He loves it!