Pillow Covers and Round Robins

 I made my first pillow cover for the Stocking Swap this weekend and quilted it while watching the Superbowl.  This is my version of a cone flower pillow that I had seen on All People Quilt.  When I first saw that pillow, I loved it, but didn't bookmark it so I had to hunt for the link so I could post it.  However, it stuck in my mind and this is my version.  I think they are both whimsical and I love whimsical things.  I don't know if I will include this in my Stocking Swap or not.  It may have to live here with me. 

my version of a cone flower pillow

The back of the my pillow has a strip of fabric because I didn't have enough fabric - no, that's not the truth - I didn't cut out the fabric the correct way and when I discovered my mistake, then I didn't have enough fabric.  This fabric is definitely directional so I could either add a strip or two or having everyone turn their heads to read the words on this pillow.  You can plainly see what I decided to do.  The strip of fabric is one that I rejected for the leaves because it was too similar to the flower base. 

back of the cone flower pillow

Once the cone flower pillow was done, I got on the computer and started looking for more ideas for pillows so I could reference them here and everyone could have some inspiration from those pillows.  However, I got the inspiration.  I found an owl pillow made by Darci on flicker that I pinned to my pinterest board.  (sorry, I can't find it again to give you the link)  Then, I immediately had to make this pillow.  I don't think I am obsessed with owls, but I sure have made a lot of owlish items here lately.  I LOVE this little pillow!!  He is just adorable.  I haven't really decided if is a boy or girl owl, but since I have mostly boy dogs, things usually get called he more often that she.  I even sometimes tell Fiona what a good boy she is or to go outside and be a good boy.  I am a horrible mother.  Anyway, back to this pillow.  It goes together fast and easy and was a ton of fun.  The "hood" "flap" or whatever you want to call that peaky point on the owls forehead is not attached to the pillow and flips up and down.  That may have to be tacked down later so it will stay in one place. 

I have been a busy, busy bee in the quilting room this past week.  I finished quilting the rest of this quilt.  I like how I quilted the heart centers.  The only thing left to do, is to sew down the label on the back.  It will have to wait until tomorrow night during TV time.  Plus, I really don't have anything else lined up to work on tomorrow night. 

Below is a close-up of one of the hearts.  Thank goodness you can't see any stray pink marking lines from the heart rays.  I think those are on the other end of the quilt. 

My Bee Friends group are starting a wall hanging round robin this month.  So, I made two different blocks and now I can't decide which one I want to use.  I like this one below.  It is very modern using Kona solids - even though the colors are waaay off in this picture.  I drew out the blocks so I could paper piece the corners and center squares.  The star points are free pieced so they aren't even or perfect.  

This cake stand block is what I first thought of for my robin center.  I wanted a 5 inch block, but couldn't find one.  I drew it out on a graph card (I will talk more about these in a future posting) and thought I had everything down perfect.  However, when I sewed it all together I really, really lost my bottom tips.  I took it apart, made the white setting triangles a little larger and sewed it back together - - - and I still don't have my points on the bottom row.  I have thought about starting all over, but I really don't want to do that.  I think I may go with this block anyway because I really, really like it. 

I may get to use both of these blocks if we don't have someone in our Bee Friends to make up the 4th spot in our third group.  I could live with that.  Even though it means that I will be working on two round robins, plus everything else I am doing, but it would be interesting to see what both these blocks inspire in someone else. 

February Stocking Swap

It's February and time for our next item on the swap list, a pillow cover.  This months goal is to make a pillow cover for a 14 inch pillow form.  To tell the truth, I have only made one pillow cover, that I can think of, in my life.  I really messed up on the back part and desperately need to add a button or two to hold it together, but I still love my pillow. 

Wonky Log cabin pillow

After reading through a few blogs about making pillow covers, I have compiled some measurements that will help us to get our pillow cover backs to come together - right now, over me - sorry, the Beatles just snuck in there.  I haven't tried this out yet, that is what I plan on doing today while watching the Superbowl, so I will let you know for sure if these measurements don't work.  The front of the pillow should be cut about 15 inches.  You need to cut two backs 15" X 10" to make an envelope style back.  I don't think that is the right name for the back.  However, I can't come up with any other name off the top of my head.  You know the type of back - the kinds that overlap in the middle of the pillow so you can slide your form easily inside.  I will be posting more about pillow covers for this month, later.  Now, I want to see what I can come up with in my quilt studio. 

Weekend Works

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted this quilt top.  It was to be the background for my Ogallala retreat quilt.  I put up some of my elements on the wall and decided that I really didn't like it.  The background, which I was trying to make subtle, was just overwhelming the top completely.  I left it all on my wall and walked away.  I didn't know what else I was going to do.  Tonight, I put up the rest of the orange curly cues and some yellow dots and I think it has come together. 

It definitely needs more yellow dots, but I didn't want to put them up there yet.  All of it is just pinned and I am not sure if I can get it down in one piece to iron everything on there.  I used steam-a-seam 2 and I should be able to just press them on there, but I ironed it to my fabric before I cut it out and I think I took all the sticky away.  I really need to read the package directions before I use a product.   Tell me what you think.  All of the symbols have a different meaning and some of them I can only have a set amount.  I am going to move the third "flower" from the top left up a little bit, I think that's the one that fell off and I just slapped it back up right before I took the picture.  I may need to make one more open leaf for the bottom left, for some balance, maybe.   This is definitely a work in progress. 

What else have I been working on this weekend?  I made 5 more bags using Jenni's tutorial .  If you haven't had a chance to check it out, click on the highlighted words and it will take you to her website.  I also made this pin cushion from Bari J.  Click on her name and it will take you to her blog.  Scroll down and look on the right side for the pin cushion tutorial.  I don't  have it completely finished in this picture as you can tell by the pins sticking out the side, because I want to stuff it a little bit fatter.  I don't have any more stuffing here at the house, so I will have to pick some up tomorrow after school.  This is a large pin cushion.  It measures about 4 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 2 1/2".  I will add a button in the middle when I get it all stuffed.  I copied down how to make this pincushion several months ago and finally got around to making one.  I thought it was going to be harder to make than it was.   It went together rather quickly and easily.  I can't wait to try this one again. 

What else have I gotten into this weekend?  Well, since I am still trying to work through the quilt at the first of this blog, I don't want to start anything new, so I found this partially quilted top and finished quilting it.  Well, I thought I was finished, but I think I want to add some more quilting to the middle of the hearts.  I had previously quilted in a shiny purple metallic thread, the rays coming from the hearts.  I just remember the thread breaking over and over again.  I didn't want to machine quilt anything else it was soooo frustrating.  I will show the rest of this quilt when I have it all finished.  If I remember correctly, these hearts were leftovers from an online block exchange that were just laying around and I made this top with them. 

The rest of the weekend accomplishments will have to wait to be shown until I take down the retreat quilt from the design wall. 

Rugs and Bags

The last of the mug rugs have been completed for this month.  I re-did the rugs to go with this mug and I am much, much happier with this color combination.  I have two mugs just like this so I made two rugs. 

This last rug and mug combination was a great find!  I found them in the Christmas clearance isle with a bag of stale marshmallows stuck inside.  I just pulled those things out and threw them away and now, I have the perfect mug for a teachers gift or for someone that likes to draw.  This mug is a portable chalkboard and even comes with it's own stick of chalk.  So, of course the perfect rug had to be a larger chalkboard, bordered with a red/black and white plaid and either letters, numbers or both appliqued on the "board".  The picture below is an example of just one of the three rugs I made.   

Not only have I been making mug rugs, but I have also made some of these wonderful bags.  They are a little bit addictive and I have no idea, at this time, what I am going to do with them.  If you get a chance check out Jenni's tutorial and make some bags for yourself or your friends.



Mug Rugs Revealed

It has been another crazy, busy week at school and doesn't look like it will let up for a couple more weeks.  However, the good thing is that I get to come home and sew in the evenings.  I have been working on making some mug rugs for the stocking swap. 

Here are my two tic-tac-toe mugs (they call them hugs and kisses) and the two mug rugs I made to go with them.  they also come with a marker so you can actually play the game on the mug!  When I saw them at Tuesday Morning I fell in love with them and knew that I wanted to make mug rugs for them.  I pieced the grid and then appliqued the x's and o and the words.  These are machine bound in the same black and are about 5 1/2" X 9".  

A closer look at the mug rug.  I know I could have made it easier if I had just appliqued the grid, also, but I didn't want to do that.  (actually, I didn't think about it until I had already made the entire two rugs)

My Maxwell House coffee mugs get a solids rug with a pocket on the right hand side.  This one is a little more narrow - measuring about 4" X 8 1/2" - but this is a slightly smaller mug so it fits it.  The colors are pulled from the pictures on the mug.  I didn't want this one to be too complicated, even though the right side is a bit too plain.  I don't know the exact purpose of a pocket on a mug rug other than to put this packet of coffee in to give it as a gift -which is my intention.  However, I had seen someone else on the blogs - can't find exactly where, but I did see it more than once - make a pocket on their rugs and thought it would be a great idea to try it. 

 Here is the mug using the rug with the coffee snug in it's pocket.  Okay, too much rhyming for today.  I have a few more rugs to get to today, but before I leave, here is a the link to one that BeeBee made for the swap.  If any of you want to share what you have made and want me to link it here, let me know or you can link it in your comments.   Great job Beverly!!

Quilt-in Background Top

This is what I have worked on all weekend.  Well, not really allll weekend.  I did take a couple of naps and played games on the computer and read blogs and finished a book.  So, I don't want you to think I slaved over this one quilt top.  This small top - about 36 inches square - is the background for some applique.  Back in September I attended the Ogallalla Quilter's Society's annual fall retreat.  The proposed project for that retreat was applique.  Since applique is not really one of my favorite things, I decided to work on another project or three.  However, watching people at the retreat work on this project, I found it really intriguing.  I loved the concept, the story and the meaning behind the pieces along with the designer, Cinde.  My friend Kathy and I decided that we needed to do a project, also, but we would wait until the January quilt-in at our guild.  That quilt-in was this past weekend. 

Kathy got to the church with a sketch of what she wanted to make and an armload of her hand-dyed fabrics that she recently snow and ice dyed.  (way cool stuff)  She just jumped in - which we learned at the first of the school year is her nature (can you say North?) - and began working on her quilt top.  She got it all put together before we left Saturday afternoon.  (sorry, I didn't take a picture of it.  Maybe she will send me one and let me post it here later, hint, hint Kathy)

I showed up with my folder of the design elements, a couple of tubs of fabrics to choose from, another stack of fabrics that might include a background fabric and some steam-a-seam 2.  I also arrived with no clue as to what I really want to do.  My original intention was to use the light blue as my background.  However, Friday night I had changed my mind and decided I wanted a pieced background of subtle monkey wrenches. (or churn dashes)  I left the quilt-in Saturday with the middle squares put together.  Today, I added the borders.  I didn't know I was going to put those on there, but Saturday night while eating dinner I saw the two fabrics (waiting to go in the wash) and decided they would be the perfect borders for this quilt.

Now, I am making and cutting out all of my elements.  Hopefully, I will have everything ready to go later this week and can begin the designing.  Even though the quilt top could stand on it's own right now, it's just a work in progress, but I am pleased with my background. 

Clarification

I am glad that all your comments show up in my e-mail and then I can reply to you from there.  I replied to one person, but then thought that the rest of you may have the same idea she had and I needed to make a public comment.  However, for some reason,  Blogger is not letting me see or make any comments. Soooo, here is what I wanted to say about the Stocking Swap: 
I won't match up anyone until December, just to be on the safe side. I would hate to have my "partner" sign up now and then drop out along the way. That would mean I wouldn't get a stocking and that is just not fair. So, I decided that only those left playing at the end will be matched to ensure a fair and equal trade.
To me, that is the only way to do this kind of year long swap. Also, since I have listed everything from the beginning, if you want to work ahead or if someone joins in around June, it is all just fine. the only thing that really matters, is if you have it all finished in December. And that you have fun doing the swap.

So, you won't swap your mug and rug now, keep it in a safe place (or box) and then add to the collection every month.  In December, you will pack up everything and mail it to the person, whose name I randomly draw for you.  I hope this helps clear up my muddy directions. 

Hope you are looking for that fun mug and pulling fabric to make a coordinating rug for it to sit upon.