A girl and her quilts

You probably think that The Middle is my favorite child because she's featured on my blog so much. While I do love her more than I can say, truth is, she's so enthusiastic about sewing that I want to continue to foster her love for it for as long as she'll let me - those teenage years will come all too quickly.

Several months ago, she asked if she could make a quilt for one of her babies. I pulled out a box of scraps and told her to look through them and pick what she wanted. She did such a great job coordinating her fabrics! We got her a little sewing machine for Christmas so we pulled it out and I showed her what to do. Then she pieced the entire doll quilt top by herself. Seriously, she's better at improv piecing than I am! (We'll have to spend a bit more time on consistent seam allowances though.)



She helped me quilt it and then I attached the binding.

Also some time earlier in the year, I did a demo on machine binding at one of our Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild meetings. I didn't have a quilt ready to bind at the time. I didn't want the binding to be for nothing so I put together a little doll sleeping bag/bed thing that The Middle can put a doll or two in at bedtime.

She picked the fabrics out for me.

I wish I could bottle up her energy and sweetness. We didn't make this blanket, but she takes it out of a quiet book my mom helped me make before I had any kids and she carries it around with some of her stuffed animals. She wanted a picture of her holding it like the others. Dang, she's cute!

Finished Granny Squares Quilt

I started in on the Granny Squares craze early last year, but decided it could be one of those projects that I work on here and there as I was in the mood. As I've been on a mission to finish my WIPs this year, I knew I had to get this one done. The down side was that I didn't love how my blocks were looking in the traditional layout. So, I changed it up and pieced them on point - basically I made one huge Granny Square block out of my individual blocks. I then added a thin blue border (Dear Stella's Yard Sale in Sky) and a wider green border (Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane Hop Dot in Olive) to get a good size quilt (I think it's about 65 inches square).



For the backing, I used this blue flannel print that I picked up at Joann's a while back. I used Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets in purple and Patty Young's Textured Basics Papaya Diamond for the binding strips. I quilted it in meandering loops. I thought I'd keep this quilt, but when I finished it, I kept thinking about one of my sisters. I haven't made her a quilt yet and her birthday was this month so I thought it'd be the perfect time to gift her this.

Granny Squares Love

I've mentioned in a couple previous posts that I was bitten by the Granny Squares bug. I don't know what it is about this block that draws me in, but I love it. I raided my scraps,

cut up the 2.5 inch squares a few weeks ago,

and finally got around to putting my first block together on Saturday.

I'm going to be putting blocks together here and there as I have time. I have a few more pressing items on my to-do list, but I think I'm really going to love this quilt when I finish it!

Finished Scrapbuster Pillow

After making the front of the pillow, I had to trim the edges to determine the size of the final pillow.


I took some scrap strips of fabric to make the back. I decided to do this one all of the same fabric, but I think it would look cute using different sized strips of a variety of fabrics for the envelope back.


After making the pillow cover, I started making the pillow form. (This was probably the backwards way to do it, but it worked fine for me.)


Before making the rainy day pillow last month, I probably never would have attempted to make my own pillow form. It just wouldn't have occurred to me. But then Kati showed some pillows she made at our Modern Quilt Guild meeting a couple months back and she totally opened my eyes to the possibilities of pillow forms.


I took a pillow from my son's room that I didn't care for, ripped off the fabric cover, and used the stuffing for my new pillow. Closing the pillow form after it's been stuffed is always a challenge for me because of the puffiness of the pillow, so I think next time I'll just close it by hand with a needle and thread.


I thought it would be fun to use piping around the pillow edge (I've never done that before and it would be fun to try), but I wanted the pillow to be a bit simpler to appeal to more of the sisters in my ward for a project they would want to attempt if they have little or no sewing experience.

I plan to make more covers too. It'll be fun to make one for each month of the year, or at least for different seasons or holidays.

Now, head on over to AmyLouWho's for more show and tells.



And make sure to check out Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

Scrapbuster Pillow (my version)

Before I got into quilting last December, I saw this pillow by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew and knew I had to make one. (By the way, I'm pretty sure that her blog was the catalyst that started me wanting to learn how to quilt. She's uber talented!) Alas, other projects got in the way and I never got around to making the pillow.

Fast forward several months to last week. I'm on a committee for my church group that plans activities for the adult women in our congregation (ward) and we've started talking about hosting a crafting Saturday in November (we call it Super Saturday). Of course, my wheels started spinning and I woke up several times during the night throughout the week to jot down ideas of things we can make in the four-hour timeframe for our Super Saturday. One of those ideas was Allison's appliquéd tree pillow.

On Tuesday, we're having another meeting to finalize the projects/crafts to make, so I finally started on the pillow last night.


I pulled out some scraps from Freebird Picnic (the brown was perfect for the tree trunk), and set to work. I didn't put as many leaves on my tree because I used all the heat'n bond that I had on hand.


I followed Allison's tutorial and found her way of laying the fabric on the fusible material so much better (and easier) than the way I usually do it. I'm pretty much a waste-hater so I usually try not to waste, even if it makes my process harder. But, I think Allison's way is much much easier.


After placing all the leaves where I wanted them, I pressed them onto the fabric to be used as the pillow front (I used a Kona cotton that I had on hand, but you can certainly use a heavier weight fabric like Allison did).

Before stitching the leaves and trunk, I played around with some of my machine's decorative stitches. I initially planned on doing a blanket stitch, but then tried out this leaf design and really liked how it looked on each scrap of fabric. On a couple of leaves that didn't have a lot of contrast, I added a seam down the center of the leaf to look like its main vein.


I plan on finishing the pillow tonight so it will be good to go tomorrow for our meeting. It will be rectangular since I wanted the tree trunk to be a tad longer.

I think this is such a great way to use up scraps and to personalize your space. I'm thinking about more and more pillows/pillow covers I can make to go with the different holidays and special occasions that we celebrate at our house.