619 miles

sweet dreams

Schew... it has been a busy busy week, both with sewing and working. Last Friday was my first day back to work after getting home from the deployment. I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 weeks of leave, but it went WAY too fast. I started the quilting marathon last Tuesday, then worked Friday-Friday! Last night though, I had the pressing need to make a pillow.

The inspiration for the pillow started back when I ordered the Epic Alphabet embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching. Inspired by her "merci" project, I knew instantly that I wanted to stitch "sweet dreams" into a pillow. Another idea was "xoxo" and I still may whip that up someday. But for now... I was focused on sweet dreams. I thought it would make a perfect little pillow to spruce up a sweet little girl's bed.

Back in September on my NYC trip with Lisa, I picked up this fat quarter bundle of fabric from purlSOHO. At the time I didn't know what I would use it for, I just knew that it would be perfect for a girl. It was both fun and funky, without being overly juvenile and cutesy. The fabric is from the Wild Thyme collection by Carol Gavin.

I tried out several fabrics against the embroidery, but I loved how this one played off the thread colors in the lettering. Not only do I love the look, but I love the feel of the embroidery as well as the quilted top. I just had a funny thought about the feel of the pillow. Imagine falling asleep on it... what kind of funny lines would you have on your face then?!?! HA!

The quilting of the pillow top wasn't planned. Actually the only planned part of the pillow was the embroidery. I just came up with the rest on the fly. I knew I wanted it to be pieced fabric around the embroidered bit, but that was it. Once I had that finished I felt like it was missing something, so I added the small dot print around the edges. Even then the pillow looked a little unfinished. Since I had completed the quilt last week, I thought... why not try some quilting. I added a little fleece and quilted frames around the fabric and now I am super pleased with how it turned out.

I also used the small dot fabric on the back. With the fluffiness of the pillow, I wasn't sure how much of the dot fabric would peak out, but I thought it might be fun to have the contrasting print repeated on the back in the envelop closure. 

Minus the embroidery, it was a quick, finish in one afternoon kind of project. I like those kinds of projects. I am so happy with how this turned out I think it might have to live on my bed for a while before it goes to it's new home.

I am entering my pillow in the Sew Mama Sew pillow contest!! Wish me luck :)

quilt marathon complete

Last Sunday afternoon I finally crossed the finish line of the quilting marathon. I subjected myself to this intensive sewing week for a couple reasons. The main reason was to distract myself from some not so great personal events going on. Also, I tend to start numerous projects and then wind up leaving them unfinished and I didn't want to do this with the quilt. And lastly I wanted to blast through this project because I knew that it was my last week of vacation and I would not have as many chunks of time to devote to the numerous steps involved in making a quilt.

So.... all in all, I started this quilt last Tuesday and finished the last stitch of the binding on Sunday afternoon.  It is a twin sized quilt, approximately 66" x 88". I am extremely happy with the way it turned out, in fact it may be my most favorite thing I've sewn yet!

The lucky little gal that received this beauty seems to be enjoying it and I couldn't be happier with that. She's a special little cutie and I absolutely loved making this for her.

I did the quilting 1/4" on either side of the ditch and I am very happy with the look. Even on the parts where my corners didn't match up I managed to get a nice line from end to end.

I was lucky to be able to purchase the binding fabric from my local quilt shop (Among Friends Quilt Shop). It had the perfect shade of pink, with white and yellow mixed in as well. I really wanted a pink for the binding to offset the strong blues in the quilt. All the other fabrics I purchased from etsy sellers.

For the backing I pieced together 5" squares of the leftover fabric into long columns. After numerous configurations of the three columns, Andrea helped me settle on the symmetrical three rows. It was unplanned, but I really liked how the quilt lines run right through the center of the middle column, then slightly offset on each of the other columns. This process is typical of my projects... often times I just make stuff as I go. I had no idea how I was going to do the back until after the front was completely finished.

My fingers have finally recovered from the hand stitching of the binding. That part is so tedious, but man, the finished look is soooo nice!

A couple of books that I used as invaluable resources were Denyse Schmidt Quilts and The Practical Guide to Patchwork, by Elizabeth Hartman. I've had the Denyse Schmidt book for a long time now and it has so many great ideas and inspiration, I look through it all the time. The technical side of the book is also very helpful. She includes more than just quilt projects too, which is nice. I ordered the Elizabeth Hartman book after I already started this quilt, but I cannot wait to make some of her designs. They are so fresh and colorful and speak very much to my style and tastes. She also introduced me to a fantastic little trick for sewing on the binding.

All I wanted to do when I finished this quilt was snuggle up underneath it. I am now dying to make one for myself. I have commitment issues though when it comes to picking out fabric for myself..eek! So instead of starting on another quilt, I finally finished up that pillow with the "sweet dreams" embroidery I did during my deployment :) 

To see how the quilt came together check out these previous posts: one, two, three.

torn

I have the fabric for my next quilt and I have a general idea of what I want it to look like.  I want to have a lot of white with graphic punches of color from the colored fabrics. 

It's going to be a twin sized quilt for a 3yr old, but I want it to be modern enough that it won't be too "kidd-ish". Of course, as I type this I look back at the fabrics and I'm not so sure.. hmmmm... maybe switch some of them up?!?! I love the blue birds (Erin McMorris) and the pink Amy Butler... maybe I need to add in some more that are more of that style... hmmm... decisions, decisions.

As for the pattern of the quilt - right now I'm torn between three different ones.  Two come from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, which I've had forever,  and the other is a Denyse Schmidt pattern that I've wanted forever.

flock of seagulls

hop skip & jump

single girl

Of course, in wandering around internet land I came across another quilt pattern I'm kinda liking:

diary of quilter

I wanna just get to cutting and piecing the fabric, but I'm torn on what to do.. or maybe something totally different?!?! What do you think? I need help getting some focus.

I'm itching to do some sewing

More specifically, I'm itching to start a quilt.  A for real... twin sized quilt.  I've got the fabrics and lots of inspiration, but I haven't been able to start.  Tonight as I was browsing some blogs I came across two little things that are giving me a kick in the bootay to get started.  The first was the following quote, found on thimbly things:

1. “The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist.”
2. “The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.”
3. “Do not call procrastination laziness.  Call it fear.”
4. “Use love for your [inner] artist to cure its fear.”

The quotes are from the book The Artists Way, which I have never read, but am intrigued by, based on these quotes.

The second bit of inspiration was found on the blog seesaw.  These quilts are AMAZING, so simple and beautiful.  Carson too has an etsy shop where you can buy her creations.

This quilt was my fave:

and I like these too:

quilt love

I saw these quilts on Design*Sponge this morning.  WOW.  They are gorgeous.  Kerry: can you imagine hand quilting?!?! I do love the look of hand quilting... if only I had that kind of time! 

These Ralli quilts are made by women in Sindh, Pakistan, western India, and in surrounding areas, and they are remarkable.
 

images: Pergolina