Sand Dollar pillow

I made myself a summer sewing project check list the other day.  It had 9 items on it, and this week I was able to cross one off as completed. 

I finished a new pillow I have named the Sand Dollar pillow because of the way the quilting came out.  As soon as I saw Jessica at Sew Crafty Jess's gorgeous Summer Scoops Scallops quilt I really wanted to make something with those shapes.  I used my Accuquilt Go Baby! for the majority of the cutting. 

I think I didn't love it at first because I had stared at it too long, but now it has grown on me and I'm pretty pleased with it.  I really want to get better at color selection.  I want to throw every pretty fabric I own in there and it gets unbalanced.  Here I see too much green.  I love red, I should have thrown in some red.

Basted

The quilting from the back.  I intended to use Elizabeth's Dogwood method shown here.  Instead I decided to go diagonally and my arches were more like waves.  I did this with my walking foot.

I added some piping using some Peacock Lane and a zipper foot.

 I used the "how to make a pillow" fabric for the back.

  Text prints are so hot right now (in a Paris Hilton voice).

I also added an invisible zipper shown here (pun intended).

And here it is one more time for good measure.  It finished at a size of 19 x 18 inches.

Next on deck is a the Honey Girl dress for my sisters birthday, if I can get it done in time.  I made one last year and it came out nice.  The shirring is a bit tedious but the end result is worth it.  I love cutting everything with a pinking rotary blade, its so fun!

I also downloaded the super popular Wiksten Tova pattern.  I cant wait to get crackin' on that either.  It's on the list so, in time.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Melissa

Curves without pins

A while back I tried sewing up some drunkards path blocks with the help of my Curve Master foot.  I had never sewn them before and I figured I didn't really have to learn because this foot would do all the work for me.  Uh yeah, not so much.  On that project I had so many mangled blocks, and I was unhappy with my color selection, so I just quit.  Now, a couple of months later I figured I'm a bit better at sewing so let me try again.  Some blocks came together for me but, most of them were just terrible messes.  I spent more time unpicking seams.  Then I remembered finding this helpful post at She Can Quilt.  I figured I have nothing to lose, if anything I will end up using a lot of pins.  I did exactly as she said and it worked awesome!  Sewing these teeny drunkards path blocks with no pins was so simple.  No special foot, no pins whatsoever.  If you haven't tried it you should give it a go, it's surprisingly easy.


Here is the new project in the works:

some fabric choices

Getting ready to roll

the layout

trimmed, pressed and waiting

Finally, a Swoon big finish!

My Peacock Lane Swoon quilt is finally done and I could not be happier!  I now truly understand the term a "labor of love."  This is the biggest, prettiest thing I have ever made.  Everytime I look at it I scream with joy on the inside.  It feels good. 

I quilted it in a crosshatch pattern, which I think compliments the pattern.  I did think about getting it longarmed, but I'm glad I did it myself.  Even the simple straight line quilting was a workout because of the size of the quilt.  I have never worked with that much fabric.

For the back I used two of my favorite fabrics from the collection bordering a scrappy rainbow strip.  I wanted it to be as pretty as the front, and I love how totally different it is from the front too.  I went with turquoise for the binding and I handsewed it on while Grandma was in town attending to the boys. 

I feel like a weight has been lifted.  I can finally start something else and not have that nagging feeling of having a massive unfinished project staring at you.

The fabrics are the Peacock Lane collection by Violet Craft
Pattern is Swoon from Thimble Blossoms by Camille Roskelley.

I may try linking up to some places if I can figure out how to do all that.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Melissa