Saturday, December 24, 2016

Just one more

I managed to squeeze in one more homemade Christmas gift. You guessed it - another pillow. When I found a pattern for a curling rock, I knew I had to make it for a friend at work who loves curling. I wasn't sure I'd have time to pull it off, but I plugged away on it for a few days and got it done just in time.


I found a neat fabric with vintage Canadian newsprint that was perfect for the border, and put maple leaf fabric on the back. (Oops, forgot to get a photo of that!) It's all so very Canadian!


Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Pillows sweet and salty

I've been on a bit of a pillow bender lately. These first two were not planned, especially during the hectic holiday making. But a friend was hosting another fundraiser to help a woman trying to get back on her feet and I couldn't help but make something to be auctioned. Since I planned to use all different fabrics which would leave me with double the HST I needed, I figured I might as well cut out enough of the rest to make two. So they're similar, but different. Fraternal pillows.


I love me some cross hatch quilting, but it sure is time consuming.


On the back of each, I used Tula prints as well. I am quite pleased both pillows were bought by Instagram friends, and they're on the way to their new homes now.


Then I made this sweet pillow for the sweetest little girl I know, using fussy cut prints to spell out the first letter of her name.


On the back I used the cutest animal party fabric.


And then my pillow making took a dramatic turn away from the sweet ...


These cheeky his and hers pillows are for a fellow foul-mouthed reporter - edited here in the interests of public decency. They're rather risque, but I love them and I'm sure she will too. I even used my precious newsprint fabric on the front, and then a doggone cute fabric on the back. It's all about balance, right?



Memories of Australia

A dear friend and my regular travel companion celebrated a milestone birthday recently and I wanted to make her something special to mark the occasion.

Of course my first instinct was to make a pillow. I loved the Carolyn Friedlander pillow I made a while back, and decided to make another but with a more subtle colour scheme. And guess what? I love this one even more! But then that teal print is one of my all-time favourite fabrics. Seemed fitting to use a precious fabric for a precious friend.


On the back I used this neat ombre fabric that looks like a night sky:


I also wanted to make something that would be a reminder of our amazing trip this spring to Australia and New Zealand. I had Quiet Play's Aussie animals patterns, and decided to make a large fabric basket that would be great for holding her yarn or a knitting project. It's so freaking cute!! I had to do some Beautiful Minds type calculations, and make up a couple prototypes, to get the sizing right on the basket. I even did pretty well paper piecing with that directional heart print for the background.


On the back, I put a panel of sheep fabric I picked up in NZ. And then I quilted and quilted. With interfacing in there as well, it's quite sturdy.



Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Sew cosy

when a sew-along popped up for this super cute living room pattern, I could not resist joining even though I really should have been working on other sewing projects.

There's a lot of tiny piecing, but I found it so much fun! I was smiling like an idiot almost the whole time I was putting it together because it's so dang cute. The toughest part was deciding on the fabric. I waffled on that until I saw an IG post of a lampshade someone covered with one of my favourite Anna Maria Horner prints. Aha! That's actually the print I used on my lamp.

First the comfy chair:


Then the lamp:


A couch - with a quilt on it!! That seemed like the perfect place to use a precious bit of an all-time favourite AMH print that someone on IG kindly sent me. What a wonderful and generous community on Instagram!


Last but certainly not least - a quilt ladder! Here I used another older AMH print I never had that was sent to me by an IG friend.


And here is my AMH living room all together ...





Bonus block

Here are my November bee blocks. I'm not a big fan of the Wanta Fanta block, but I gritted my teeth and got it done. Only to discover the December queen bee wants that block too. Sigh.



I almost forgot at the last guild meeting I signed up to make a block for Victoria's Quilts Canada - a charity that provides quilts to comfort people with cancer. The floral fabric was what I got for my $2 donation and I picked the other two co-ordinating fabrics from my stash while stretching the floral print as far as I could. This seemed the perfect time for this block that I've wanted to try for a while. It came together quickly - exactly what I needed since I had to squeeze in into other deadline sewing.