Wild & Free Pillows {a finished project}

My oldest daughter was lucky enough to have a student teacher for the first part of the school year.  What better way to say thank you than matching pillows for her teachers?

I used the new line of fabric Wild & Free by Maureen Cracknell (+ a few scraps).  I always thought the arrows would be my favorite print from the line, but once I saw it in person, Sun Tracks was clearly my fave!  I bought extra after getting my preordered fat quarter bundle, and used it for the backs of these pillows.

I also quilted each pillow differently.  For one I did cross-hatching, simply for the reason that the spool of thread on my machine was nearly out and I thought maybe I could eke out an entire quilted pillow from it (I couldn’t). 

There is just something about straight lines that makes my heart swoon when I see them on pillows! 

Quilting always seems to show up better on the back.

Then I quilted the other with a free motion pattern so they were the same but still different.  Also I was a bit tired from all the straight lines.  FMQ is so fast!

The quilting pattern blends in a lot of with all the different fabrics on the front.

The teachers liked the pillows and I got a message from one later that night informing me her 16 year old daughter already claimed it for her bedroom. 

I promised that this would be the end of pillows for a while, but I was wrong.  I already started another with the leftovers from this project and some scraps that have already overtaken my sewing room and are threatening to take over my house…

Have a wonderful weekend!  Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Red, White, Blue & Really Old

I made my mom a quilt.  In 2009.  And I’m just finishing it.

I got this great idea to make a rag quilt out of denim.  I’m not sure where I got the idea, because this was way before I even read blogs or Pinterest was around.  I cut a lot of the blocks myself, but I bought a lot on Ebay, too.  Then I picked out these two bandana flannel prints from Joanns and “designed” a cool back for it.

It has a blue border all the way around.  My mom’s favorite color is blue, and she is a dog-lover, so I wanted to make it something she’d like that would be sturdy and soft, too.  I made all the little sandwiched squares first by quilting an X on them, then joining them all together. 

The reason this quilt isn’t finished is the jeans frayed and frayed.  I clipped them all (just so tedious) and then after taking it out of the dryer, it was apparent it needed to be trimmed.  I plan to put it in the washer and dryer again to see if it looks better after removing all the denim frays.  Any suggestions?

Hope everyone is enjoying their Fourth of July!

Holiday Handmade Challenge

Jennifer at the blog Taken Patiently is having challenge to make at least 5 handmade gifts this holiday season.  Here are my entries:

For my sister-in-law: 3 jams, a quilt, and homemade dog biscuits for her dog, Elmo.  There is also a skein of yarn I bought for her at the local Maker’s Market called “crayon box” and another skein of yarn from Michael’s (neither made by me).

And here is the quilt on her bed in South Carolina:

For my sister:  a cute chicken pillowcase (I never got around to making a match, but I will) and a tablerunner made from Rise n Shine, Glenna Hailey’s chicken repro fabric, and 3 jams.  Bea picked out the chicken dishcloth at Kohl’s and said she had to buy it for Aunt Jody since my sister raises chickens.  Hence the chicken theme…

Here’s a close up of the tablerunner fabric:

And here it is on her table in Maine:

And here’s a close up of the pillowcase fabric (this was a remnant I picked up at Joanns—the fabric is kind of cheap and thin, but super cute, so cute won out!).

For my best friend:

She asked for a tablerunner with extremely specific dimensions for under her nativity scene.  I made it with really cute and fun Christmas fabrics since she has little kids. 

Here’s a close up of the star fmq.  I am pretty happy with it.

I had to have this mitten fabric!  I love the hearts on the mittens.

And the backing is this Santa Claus fabric:

And since she now is into canning and buying at the farmer’s market, I got her this Farmer’s Wife magazine inspired cookbook:

And the cutest ever apple dishcloth from Target (she is a teacher AND her favorite color is red).

A gift to my mom:

The Farmer’s Wife Pony Club book (my mom does not sew, but she did have her own cart and pony as a little girl, and we moved to a horse farm when I was 7), dog biscuits for her 3 dogs, and a set of flannel teacup pillowcases.

For my dad:

Various jams, two kind of pickles, and two jars of canned tomatoes (his favorite) and a set of pillowcases.  My dad is an outdoor writer and his nickname in college was Drako, so he goes by a nom de plume last name “Drake” so I thought he’d like the duck fabric.  I’m not really sure what kind of fish they are, but it’s from the same fabric line.

So, for my entry, in a nutshell:

• tons of canned jams, pickles, and tomatoes I made this summer
• homemade dog biscuits
• a sheep/knitting themed lap quilt
• chicken pillowcase
• chicken tablerunner
• Christmas tablerunner
• teacup pillowcases
• fish/duck pillowcases