Electric Quilt July Block

My lovely husband gave me EQ7 for Mother's Day.  Learning to use it has been challenging.  When I read reviews of it, a few people mentioned it was difficult to learn to use, but they hadn't bothered to do the online lessons or read the manual.  Hmmmmm...that sounds oddly familiar now.  I have read the manual cursorily (is that a word?), but I haven't devoted enough time to be able to say I've designed anything on it yet.  The Electric Quilt company has a contest each month making a block from the EQ7 library.  I intended to make June's block, but didn't get around to it. I did get around, however, to the LQS and purchase a few fat quarters from the Bliss and Fandango lines that coordinate nicely.  I decided to use the Bliss polka dots for this month's challenge:

Those four triangles are actually the pink dots.  But when I saw it on my camera screen, the pinks really blended and made the star unnoticeable.  I decided to cut blue triangles so the star in the middle is more prominent (it is July, after all).  So here are the pieces:

I think I"m pretty happy with the colors. The star really pops out now.   Hopefully I'll get a chance to sew it all together tonight after the kids go to bed.

I also went ahead and made that Tulip Ladyfingers block into a pillow.  I quilted the block (and didn't even think to add borders before I had cut and basted the batting and backing...then I realized this was going to be a pretty small pillow). 

I used Riley Blake Quite Contrary red dots on the back (it's actually kind of pinkish).  The pillow is really cute and would look nice on a little girl's bed.  No one here has taken a liking to it, though.  It measures a small 12x12 and I made a pillow insert.  It's got an envelope style back for washing.  Hopefully it will find a home soon:)

Housewarming Gift

I blogged before about my Aunt Joan moving here to southern Maryland to be closer to my family.  Since her washer/dryer is not in her apartment, we got her a housewarming gift so she can cart it down the hall to the laundry room with ease.  And I made a cute 16 x 16 pillow for her couch celebrating the love of her life, Rex the dog.

He is a Boston terrier, and amazingly this Chloe's Closet "Pampered Pooch" happens to have an array of dogs printed on it, including a Boston terrier!  They are not the most attractive dogs in my opinion--my Uncle Frank used to joke that Rex looks the same way coming as he does going:)  Anyway, I am off to see Aunt Joan for the morning--hairdresser, grocery store, etc.  Then, I am stopping by Joanns for some notions.  There's a 20% off coupon for everything on sale and regular priced here that you can print at home.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo--I don't know how to take small close-ups with my camera!

Recycling an old pillow

This yucky old pillow needed a facelift.  I bought it around Christmas, but with three kids running amok, it got destroyed pretty quickly.  And since the cover was not removable, this ice cream/caramel stain was permanent.  So, I decided to recycle the stuffing.

First I cut two 19 x 19 inch muslin squares.  Then I sewed them together using a 1/2" seam allowance backstitching at the beginning and end while leaving about a 3 inch hole (enough to get my hand into).  I pressed the seams and turned it  right side out.  I used a chopstick to poke out the corners gently and pressed it again.

Here is the 3 inch gap.

Now comes the fun part!  My five year old stuffed the old polyfill fiber into the new pillow.  First I refluffed all the fiberfill by "combing" it through my fingers to make it puffy again.  I also helped push the fiberfill evenly down into the corners of the pillow.

Then I handstitched the gap closed.  I hate handsewing, but luckily this step only takes two minutes.  Your pillow will measure 18 x 18.

And, voila!, I made two pillows using this method.  I love this fabric.  I found it at Joanns on Sunday when I was buying some Warm and White batting.  I turned around from the cutting table and it was thrown on the bottom shelf in the craft area.  Must have been kismet!  It's Alexander Henry "Kelo" and the selvage said 2005.  Now my living room looks great!

The pillows have contrasting back fabric and you can find the tutorial here.