A Trio of Pillows

April 2, 2022April 1, 2022 Lazy Saturday QuiltsLeave a comment

Did we need more pillows?

Probably not.

As it is, one of our couches has just enough un-pillowed space left for a single dog to enjoy a siesta when she’s feeling antisocial in the evenings and chooses to relax in a different room than her humans and her doggy “brother.”

Did I make more pillows?

Yep.

You can never have too many, right?

Besides, I had numerous scraps left from the Lemon Pepper Quilt–little bits that had already been sewn together which could be trimmed up and pieced together to make pillow tops.

I also had enough larger scraps left that, with a bit of piecing, could be used to make backs for the pillows.

I trimmed the already pieced bits down to 2 1/4″ strips and sewed four of these strips together to make a block. Each pillow top had 4 blocks, 2 going vertically and 2 going horizontally. I added a black border and quilted the tops in a similar style as I had the Lemon Pepper quilt (kind of an all-over straight line quilting 1/4″ from some of the seams…think boxy zigzag.)

Quilting · Quilts · sewing · Uncategorized

Another Scrappy Pillow

April 17, 2020 Lazy Saturday QuiltsLeave a comment

I took a brief break from the three more time-consuming scrap projects I was working on to start yet another scrap project that I knew I could finish quickly.

This pillow was made from scraps from a larger project. There were so many scraps that I’ve been able to complete two pillows and two table runners. There are still scraps left! I may make a third pillow. Why not?!

I’ll admit, I wasn’t all that fond of the pillow top when I got the squares sewn together. I looked at the green, and I was like, “Blah.” How could those fabrics play so nicely together on the large quilt I made but not on this little pillow?

But, I let it sit overnight, hoping I was just in a mood (they are many right now) and would like it in the morning.

Nope. Still hated it in the morning.

I thought about picking it all out and using something other than the green, but that would be soooooo much work.

Then inspiration struck as I looked at the dandelions on the green fabric.

For a while I’ve wanted to do an embroidery project using dandelions. Why not incorporate that here?

So, I did. I looked at pictures of dandelion embroidery on Pinterest (and, strangely, dandelion tattoo images, because tattoo images are great embroidery patterns) and went from there. The only things I drew on the fabric before I started embroidering were the stems so I would know where I wanted them to go. I added tiny gold beads to the tips of the whatever-those-things-are-called that you blow off the dandelion…the “fluffs?” I also added the word “Wish” on the bottom.

Quilting · Quilts · sewing · Uncategorized

Feeling the Need for a Little Spring

February 19, 2020 Lazy Saturday QuiltsLeave a comment

The weather has been frightful! Not as horrible as Michigan weather can be in February, but just not warm enough that we want to don 16 layers to head outside to do something sporty. I did laboriously attire myself in two shirts, pants, snow pants, heavy jacket, face mask, hat, gloves, two pairs of socks, and my clunky subzero-rated boots to shovel the driveway yesterday. It was not what I would call a “Good Time.”

This past weekend, I had planned to work on some scrap blocks. But, as I sat down at the sewing table, some little blocks that I had sewn together from those triangles that get cut off when making flying geese caught my eye. There were just enough for two small pillows. (Eventually, there will be a second pillow. I will explain why there’s only one for now in a bit.)

The flying geese cast off blocks measured approximately 2-3/8.” I cut blocks of the same size from a green print. (Interestingly, this fabric worked great for this project as it ended up looking like grass, which went well with the flowers I ended up sewing onto the pillow. Sometimes the unplanned things end up amazing and looking planned!)

I added a strip of green and pink to the top and the bottom to make the pillow more square. There will be sadness when all the scraps of that pink fabric are gone. I think it’s my all-time favorite fabric!

I used Wonder-Under to affix some flowers and stems that I hand drew onto scraps to the background. I used clear thread and a blanket stitch to help hold the flowers down. For the rest of the quilting, I just meandered around. As a bonus, I used a hideously ugly scrap of yellow-green fabric as backing for the quilted top. (Occasionally, I will purchase a grab bag of mystery fabric scraps. Usually these contain some great stuff. Sometimes, though, they contain something absolutely awful like that yellow-green fabric.)

As I sewed the final bits of the pillow form together, my sewing machine began to slow down. Panic set in! My husband drove it to the repair shop on Monday and was told it might be 10 DAYS before it was repaired…and it might not be fixable.

There was more panic at this point! (Sewing machines are expensive!)

Thankfully, I got a call today that it is working fine now…and I was told that I should probably oil it a bit more often. Oops! I’ll be thrilled to get it back tomorrow, and I hope to get started on that second pillow this weekend.