Maypole Pillow

I have my Better Together top pieced and basted but while I'm deciding how to quilt it I wanted to make something small with my Charleston scraps to test thread colors.  I picked up this cute pillow pattern during the Black Friday sale and thought it'd be perfect.  

The pattern is well written, easy to follow and very forgiving since you add oversized strips and then trim down your blocks.

Can you spot the mistake?  In my rush to get this one going I didn't label my pieces and mixed up the starting triangles.  You can see where things are just a little bit off in the middle.  I didn't notice it until I was squaring things up but my cover is actually 18"x19".  Total rookie mistake and 100% user error.  The pattern has very clear cutting instructions and I was just in too much of a hurry to check my pieces.  Since most of my house guests don't inspect the throw pillows I decided I can live with it.  

I didn't have enough backing fabric for my usual zipper install so I tried something new and used this fabulous hidden zipper tutorial by Berry Birdy.  

I used my usual binding technique since I enjoy hand tacking but I wish I'd tried her machine tacked binding technique as well just to test it out on a low stakes project.  The result looks so professional and I will definitely use this one again!

 

Quilt Stats:
Finished pillow is 18" x 19"
Pattern:  Maypole Pillow by Suzy Quilts
Fabrics: Charleston by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery Fabrics. 
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient Bamboo.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in Arctic Sky (2612).

Special Snowflake

If you've been around a while you know I can get a bit obsessed with a fabric collection and make things with it until I've used up every last scrap.  Christmas in the City was no exception.  Once I'd pieced my Atomic Star quilt I had plenty of fabric left to play with.  So I made yet another one of these Christmas Baubles wall hangings to test thread colors and a coordinating pillow... but there was still more fabric.  The AGF Lookbook for this collection had this pink and green version of Modern Handcraft's snowflake quilt and it seemed like a great way to bust the rest of my stash.  

First up, I love this pattern.  It is well written and gives you lots of options.  The directions are clear and there are lots of diagrams.  It's not so much a hard quilt to make but there are a lot of pieces to manage.  I really missed having my design wall to keep track of where everything goes.  I had to settle for using my bed and a copious number of post-its.  

Let's just take a moment to appreciate this seam matching on the back!!!  If you aren't familiar with using a glue stick to match your center seam check out this excellent print matching tutorial by Suzy Quilts.

I had to climb under my bed to get this one basted.  I'm going to need to figure something out if I want to make bigger quilts.

For the quilting I started by outlining the snowflake and then stitching along the seam lines of the patchwork sections.  It was as tedious as it sounds but I binged some of my favorite classic holiday films to help the time pass.

With that done I had to decide how to quilt the snowflake.  I looked at a lot of versions of this quilt and most people either do straight lines or an all over motif.  I finally decided to do my own FMQ snowflake meander.  I like the way it softens the hard lines of the rest of the quilt and adds a bit of whimsy.

Past me had graciously made the binding when she finished piecing the quilt so I was able to get the binding on in time for another cozy Christmas movie night and now this one is ready for action.  

Quilt Stats:

Finished Quilt is 60" x 72"

Pattern: Snowflake by Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft
Fabrics: Christmas in the City and Pure Solids in White Linen by Art Gallery Fabrics.  

Binding: Pure Solids in Evergreen by Art Gallery Fabrics. 

Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient Bamboo.

Thread: Aurifil  50wt Silver White (2309)