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.

Block 8

I was five blocks behind in Moose Quilt's Jelly Roll Quilt-Along (she's posted all the blocks and the finishing instructions so I'm WAY behind). As part of my sewing time last night, I worked on block 8. (I'm such a lazy presser. This block would look better had I taken the time to press it, but oh well.)


I'm getting sick of the Odyssea line. I really like certain prints in the collection, but not all of them. I'm also not doing a very good job of choosing the fabrics for each block. This is the third one that I haven't cared for because of my fabric choices (not enough contrast with the center nine patch). I also think that my dislike for the fabric made me fall behind and I'm only moderately compelled to finish the rest of the blocks.


My brother-in-law asked me to make a quilt to auction off for a boy in his neighborhood with cerebral palsy. When this quilt is finished I may donate it along with the other one (more on that to come) since I'm just not loving it.

Oh, how I wish I didn't have a day job.

I'm a technical writer with the blessing of working from home. My typical day starts between 7 and 7:30 when my three-year-old comes in and wakes me up. Then it's downstairs to start work. Shortly after, my almost-two-year-old wakes up. Then it's quick breakfasts for everyone and I'm back to work. The little ones play and I work. And work. And work. I wish I could quilt instead.

My sewing/creative time lately has been full of working on Freebird Picnic. It's taking me longer to get it done than I like. I finished the free-motion quilting the other day, but it was a very frustrating experience as the tension on the back kept getting screwed up and I had to unpick it at least ten times. I still need to attach the label and then quilt the border and bind the quilt. I'm hoping to work on it tonight and tomorrow, with plenty of time to finish it by Sunday.

As I work full-time, I only get to quilt in the evenings after the kids are in bed (in between taking my three-year-old back to his room twenty times each night). If I try to sew after work while the kids are still awake, my littlest one just wants to climb on my lap. There are so many projects that I want to work on, and I often get inpatient and start new projects before the in-progress quilts are complete. My want-to-make-one-day list is WAY too long and I've struggled with the need to prioritize what gets done.

Oh, how I wish I had endless amounts of time to spend doing the things I want to do instead of the things I have to do. I know I'm dreaming, but doesn't it sound wonderful not having so many responsibilities, and instead having an unlimited amount of time to quilt?

Straight-edge whirligig block

*If anyone knows what this block is called, please let me know.*

While piecing Jessica's Freebird Picnic quilt, I played around with different layouts for the 4.5 inch squares and decided to try a version of a whirligig block with straight edges.


I used two charm packs, one Freebird and one neutral. This would be an easy block to chain piece by alternating sewing a Freebird charm to a neutral charm. Once you have a strip of charms 84 pieces long, you can cut in half of each charm, giving you your 4.5 inch squares.


I sorted my new squares by pattern and then by color. For this quilt, I wanted each whirligig block to be mostly the same color, or same two colors. I tried to vary the pattern in each block, but with the same overall color(s).


When I pieced the blocks, I made sure to align my center points and worry about trimming the blocks down to about 8 inches before piecing the top.


The quilt will consist of 30 blocks, six rows by five columns. At around 40x46 inches, it'll be a nice baby quilt. My sister-in-law just had a baby girl a couple weeks ago, so this little quilt will be perfect for Baby Clara.


I've been pretty MIA this last week. I'm trying to finish up Jessica's quilt so I can get it to her next Sunday at our family dinner. I have the free motion quilting to finish (which looks pretty sad when you see the white thread against the brown backing - there's definitely room for improvement there). I'm also going to try a different quilting pattern on the border to give it a little more personality. Then I need to make the binding and attach the label. I'll post photos of the finished product before I hand it off next weekend.