Bonus Triangles

I just can't get enough of this Liberty lawn and Smoky shot cotton combo.  My Liberty Love quilt spawned a ton of bonus triangles so while I was on a roll I went ahead and made matching pillows.

I marked the diagonal lines for the hearts since I was worried about their accuracy but I used my cheater method for the bonus triangles since I trim those down to size.

Of course I start second guessing myself when I actually have to trim them.

The great thing about HSTs is there are so many ways you can arrange them.  I had enough for two pillows but I wanted them to be different.  For the first one I did a radiating design.  I kept the quilting simple and just echo stitched each diamond.

On the second I did an X pattern and enhanced the solid portions with quilted lines.

And now my foyer is filled with love!

Sharing more love with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillows are 18" x 18"
Fabrics: Assorted Tana Lawns from the Westwood Acres Liberty Club, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Smokey.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in  Grey Blue (1248).

Liberty Love

This may be my new favoritist thing of all time!!!  Ever since I finished my Spoolish quilt I've been jonesing for more ways to use my Liberty stash.  I'd had the idea for this in my head for awhile but finally got started at this year's Boston MQG retreat.  Of course once I got home it got dumped and forgotten until I decided to clean up my studio in yet another attempt to jump start my sewjo.

Once I started sewing the remaining blocks went together quickly and I was able to get them together into a top.  I was lucky to score a last minute session at Burlington Electric Quilters before I went back to work to get this one quilted.

Does anyone else totally stress out about squaring up their quilts?  This one was easy because it had a nice wide border that could just get narrower if I screwed up.

Gratuitous binding shot because it's my favorite part of the process.

Sharing the love with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 65" x 82"
Pattern:  Adapted from Sweethearts Quilt by Michelle Engel Bencsko for Cloud 9
Fabrics: Assorted Tana Lawns from the Westwood Acres Liberty Club, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Smoky.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Quilting: Timeless Hearts pantograph by Timeless Quilting.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in  Grey Blue (1248), King Tut Red Sea (926).

Spoolish

So after finally finishing up my tie quilts my first instinct was to start something new but with Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival going on I decided to clean up my studio and see if there were any easy finishes lingering in my WIP pile.  This Spoolish quilt was practically begging to be completed!

I started this at the Boston MQG's annual retreat for our HST challenge.  As soon as I saw Craft South's Liberty Spoolish I knew what I was going to make.   I really should know by now that I'm not at my best early in the morning and when working outside of my own studio.  My cutting was just a bit off and some of the resulting blocks are wonky.  Since I'd dipped into my precious stash of Tana Lawns I'd collected from the Westwood Acres Liberty Club I decided to live with it and pressed on.  

I was still riding the creative high when I got back from retreat and immediately got down to quilting...  why do I always think dense quilting is a good idea?

Probably because I love the texture it adds...  I powered thru and finished up the quilting.  

All that was left to do was slap on the binding (already made) and tack it down, my most favorite part of the process but somehow it just never happened.  Better late than never, a couple of episodes of Dark Matter and this was done.  I even got fancy and went outside for some nature shots before it started raining;-)  I think this one gives the truest representation of the colors.

A huge thank you to Amy's Creative Side for hosting another Bloggers Quilt Festival. Be sure to stop by and visit all the amazing quilts!

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 34" x 34"
Pattern:  Spoolish by Denyse Schmidt.
Fabrics: Assorted Tana Lawns from the Westwood Acres Liberty Club, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Smoky.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in  Grey Blue (1248).

Hopping in to Spring

I've really been struggling this year to find my sewing mojo.  This seems to be a recurring problem so I took my own advice and cleaned up my studio, hung out with my quilt peeps and checked the calendar.  In the process I found a stack of luscious Liberty fabrics, realized Easter is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, and drooled over Rebecca's amazing Down the Rabbit Hole (which is even more amazing in person!!!) until inspiration struck.

This is really just a rip-off of my Reindeer pillow.  I found a bunny coloring page I liked on Google and printed it on a wash-away applique sheet which I then fused to the wrong side of my liberty fabric.

I used Aurifil 12wt for my top thread and 50wt in the bobbin to buttonhole stitch around the bunny.  I love the bold look of the heavier weight thread and it almost looks hand sewn...  as if my stitches would ever be so perfect;-)

I also used the Aurifil 12wt to make a little pom pom tail.  I used an extra long piece to tie the center and then just punched that through my pillow and knotted it on the back to hold the pom pom in place.  It's certainly not as fluffy as a wool one would be since the cotton doesn't bloom but it matched perfectly and works for me.

Luckily I finished this up before Quinn buried us in snow and knocked out our power.  Nothing fires up your Sewjo like NOT being able to sew.  Dreaming of spring with this week's Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow is 18" x 18"
Fabrics: Liberty of London from stash.  ChambrayYarn Dyed Essex Linen by Robert Kaufman.
Thread: Aurifil in Peachy Pink (2435) 12wt for top thread, 50wt in bobbin.

Oh, Deer!

I'm at least the 5 millionth person to knock off this Anthropologie Blooming Reindeer but it's so cute I was willing to be unoriginal for the sake of being stylish:-)  This year I'm trying to dial my holiday decorating back a notch so it doesn't look like Rudolph puked up Christmas everywhere.

The construction was pretty straightforward...  if I hadn't needed to make 3 trips to Quilter's Way for things I kept forgetting I could have had this done in under 2 hours.  First, I Googled deer silhouettes and then picked the one I liked best.  I'm pretty lazy when it comes to the whole tracing and cutting thing so to streamline the process I put Steam a Seam 2 on the back of my Liberty fabric and then printed the silhouette on a full sheet label (I prefer the clear so you can fussy cut your image) which I then stuck to the right side of my Liberty fabric.  I carefully cut out the deer head, removed the label, and the ironed it on to my background.  There's a printable double sided fusible product called Print N Fuse that I'm going to try if I decide to make a bunch of these.  Even though Steam a Seam comes in sheets it does NOT go through the printer well...  trust me, I've tried!

At that point you don't actually have to sew it but I went with a button hole stitch around the applique.  I'm still in love with the 12wt. Aurifil and saw this as another perfect excuse to buy some more.  I used coordinating 50 wt. and fussed around a bit with the tension to get it perfect.  I love the extra dimension it adds!!!

I decided to get fancy and used this awesome zipper closure tutorial by S.O.T.A.K Handmade.  Since I was using an 18" pillow form I just sized everything up and then trimmed the back down to fit the front when I was finished.

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pillow Stats:
Finished quilt is 18" x 18"
Fabrics: June's Meadow by Liberty of London.  Steel Yarn Dyed Essex Linen by Robert Kaufman.
Thread: Aurifil in Red (2250) 12wt for top thread, 50wt in bobbin.