Quilt Story's Block Party

I've decided to enter two quilt blocks I've made into Quilt Story's Block Party.

The first is my entry in the Traditional category - my cathedral windows block. You can read more about this block here.



I loved making this block. It was the first time I attempted something that was way out of my comfort zone, but it ended up being a lot easier to tackle than I'd anticipated. It was just time-consuming. I used Heather's tutorials (parts 1 and 2) from House of A La Mode. This was also the first time I made a project completely out of solids. I guess for that reason, I could have entered this block in the Modern category too.

The second is my entry in the Modern category - a modified hourglass block (in its unpressed state no less).



If you'd like to read about how I constructed this block, you can click here for the details.

Now, head on over to Quilt Story to check out the other entries. There are so many great blocks - I've added several of them to my to-try-someday list.

Christmas Gift Sewing Part 1: Pillows

I'm pretty much done with pillows for a while. I've made a lot in the last two months and I've had my fill.

I made two more cathedral windows pillows for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's living room for Christmas. I had a harder time with these two pillows than my first foray into cathedral windows because the colors are not me. This is a good example of when sewing is hard to do when you don't love the fabrics or colors you're working with.







I bought some photo fabric to make a quilt for my sister. When I was 12 and she was 16, she got a black lab mix puppy. She named him Tucker and he quickly became part of the family. He was the most mellow dog and so affectionate. Three years ago, he got cancer. About six months later, my sister had to put him down. I was 25. We had had Tucker for 13 years. He was my sister's best friend and I really wanted to make her a quilt with photos of Tucker on it. Unfortunately, while I was making the blocks for the quilt, the ink got distorted when I sprayed water on it. So I had to scrap the quilt idea and go with a pillow instead.



Wasn't he a good-looking dog?



On the back, I included a photo of my sister and Tucker. I love this picture of them together and I thought it would be a good memory to have on the pillow.



Back in October, I saw Christina's owl and apple blocks that she hand-stamped (you can check them out here, here, here, here, and here). I grabbed a couple up and went to work making pillows. This apple pillow was for my mom's friend, who spoils my kids rotten on their birthdays and at Christmas.



I bought two of the owl prints, knowing that I wanted to keep one for myself (which I'll make into a pillow one day) and one for my sister (who LOVES owls). I added some hand-stitching around the owl for her pillow.







And here are all the pillows nicely stacked.



I made one other pillow that I didn't get photographed before giving it to the mister's aunt for Christmas, but it was a simple pillow made entirely out of this green spring print by Jessica Jones (shown at the bottom).



*Update: I found a photo.



Sewing all these pillows was good practice. I think I've got envelope backs down pat. But, like I said, I need a little bit of a break from making pillows, although I am working on one more this week. It will be nice to be able to start quilting again. I've missed that.

Finished Cathedral Windows Pillow

Although my to-do-before-Christmas list is way too long, I took some time last night to finish my cathedral windows pillow. I added an ivory and green grass border to the front so it would be big enough for my 20" pillow form. I initially thought about having a navy border too, but felt like the colors needed a little more balance. Now I'm wishing though that the ivory border were smaller.


As I was browsing Flickr for ideas for the back, I saw this and decided to use the same design. I had the perfect amount of fabric left over for the little strips and thought the design lent itself well for what I was going for, which was a simple yet formal appearance to mimic the formal, sophisticated look of the front.

Looking at the back this closely tells me I need a 1/4" guide to help me get straight seams when they're this narrow.

This was a fun project to work on. I'm planning on making a companion pillow with the same color scheme, but it will have to wait until after the holidays.

Linking up:


and

Kelly's Korner

and

Cathedrals

Remember this stack of fabric from the other day?


Well, it turned into this:


I used Heather's tutorial (part 1 and part 2) from {House} of A La Mode. I love, love, love how it turned out.


It took me about 3 and a half hours (cut, fold, press, and sew) to make this square, which measures about 13 inches. I used 10 and a half inch squares of fabric to start with and a 9 inch template. I thought I would get closer to 15 inches finished, so I'm not sure if my math was off or what.


This will become a pillow cover. The pillow form I'm using is 20 inches so I'm going to add some ivory, grass green, and navy colored borders to frame the design.


I'm not sure what the back of the pillow cover will look like, but I don't want it plain blue. I'd like to use some of the green and ivory to echo the front at least in color.


But isn't the back pretty on its own? It makes me think of this.


I may be crazy, but I'm somewhat tempted to make an entire quilt out of this and just put batting into each individual window. I think it would be amazing to have something like this to pass on to my kids (and hopefully, grandkids). Hmmm...perhaps 2011 will be the year of the Cathedral Quilt?


I found Heather's tutorial really easy and straight-forward. The Sometimes Crafter also has a tutorial as well as links to several more.

I'm linking up to: