Thank you to the Modern Quilt Guild and Riley Blake for hosting this challenge. The rules were simple:
Make something you’ve not done before
Be quilted
One technique I have stayed away from is EPP. Maybe it was lack of patience, nervousness to try something new, or just general stuck in my zone of creating.
After receiving my fabrics an idea came to me, but struggled to find the Riley Blake fabric I wanted for the background. While in Dubuque in March I walked into the Cotton Cabin and found a great fit. If you look closely, you can see little hexie in the fabric design. I bought a yard and brought it home.
I created my hexies and even fussy cut one.
Quilting the pillow had some challenges to keep everything lined up, but pretty happy with how it all turned out.
PS, look for some more fun EPP next week on the blog.
I am excited to be apart of the Crafty Football blog hop again this year. Last year’s quilted playmat was a huge hit and has gotten lots of use. For this year I was stumped on what to make. My sewing time is dedicated to a couple of big projects and I want something functional for our home. I have been a pillow kick to make something quickly and try to use up some scraps. In my solid color scrap bin there were plenty of red, white, grays and blues to start something NY Giants. The idea came to make a quilted cover for the pillows that came with our couch in the basement. They are not the most manly and I have wanted to make covers for them for a long time.
While traveling this fall and visiting the National Baseball Hall of Fame, inspiration hit. Yes, baseball museum is where the inspiration comes from. So many old photos, uniforms, pennants, etc really got my brain going. We have a large collection of vintage NY Giants sweaters from the Bill Parcells era. Something like that would be perfect.
The design is simple but a great throw back to the Parcell’s era sweaters we love so much.
Things you will need:
Solid fabrics in blue (more royal to navy), gray (light to medium), white and red
Quilt batting
Backing fabric
Thread
Old Pillow
Freezer paper or fusible webbing
From your fabrics cut the following sizes:
Blue fabric 7″ x 18.5″ strip (2) for the front
Blue fabric 11″ x 18.5″ strip (2) for the backing
Red fabric 1.25″ x 18.5″ strip (2)
Gray fabric 1.25″ x 18.5″ strip (2)
White fabric 5″ x 18.5″ strip
With your red and gray fabrics, fold in half, iron a hard fold. Lay the red strips on the long side of your white strip of fabric, leave a small amount of white showing ~1/4 inch, pin, and stitch in place. Layer the gray fabric right along the edge of the white strip, pin, and stitch in place with under a 1/4 seam allowance. For the GIANTS lettering I used Agency FB Bold Italic at size 250 per letter. I used Publisher and put each letter in it’s own text box. Printed with the mirror option on. On a scrap piece of blue add fusible webbing to one side. Cut each letter out and trace on the webbing side of the fabric. When adhered later with the iron the letters will be facing the right way.
Agency FB Bold Italic 250
For two days hubby and I discussed and played around various fonts. He wanted it to be perfect and he’s very happy with this choice.
Remove the paper backing from the webbing and fabric. Position the letters on the white strip closest to the middle. Once you’re happy with the positioning, adhere it with an iron.
Add the blue strips for the front 18.5″ x 7″ to the top and bottom of the white strip. The front of your complete is now pieced. The front should be 18.5″ x 18.5″.
Use scrap batting to back the front of your pillow and pin.
For the quilting I used a coordinating blue, red, gray and white thread. 1/4 inch quilting is the look I like the best. Quilt as you desire.
For the letters zig zag stitch around each letter. Once the quilting is complete trim up to approximately 18″ x 18″.
The back will be made using the 18.5″ x 11″ strips for an envelope pillow back. Here is a great tutorial on how to make one. Lay the front and back right sides facing each other and sew a 1/4 inch seam all the way around. The finished product will flip right side out and fit over your pillow.
The quilting is not too dense and the fabric is soft. Can’t wait to nap on this Sunday during football. Giants are on a bye week so at least the pillow won’t get tossed across the room as this season has not been their best.
Getting this quilted and bound was my goal for February. I’m elated to have this quilt done, ready to go to it’s new home. It’s been in my Work In Progress bin for a year and a half.
For the quilting I wanted to create a diamond in the center and echo it out. The quilting is set 1 inch apart in white.
My favorite is the purple and light gray on the back. For the binding I chose a solid navy from my scrap bin. It pops against the back of the quilt and compliments the front.
Another little girl is getting a quilt that isn’t overly girly.
If you have a chance, take a look at everyone’s finishes for February.
During Snowmageddon I figured we would lose power so I whipped up a couple of extra blocks to use for small pillows to coordinate with the quilt. Since my quilt top was smaller than the one in the book I had a number of left over squares.
I had stitched around each block in orange and in purple around an orange center. I liked how it looked that I used that same quilting on the full quilt.
I didn’t have two small pillow forms sitting around so I decided to stuff the pillows with a portion of the enormous amount of scrap batting. Seriously, so much left over from years of sewing that I didn’t cut down into potholder squares.
I trimmed the blocks and backed them with left over green fabric from the quilt back. Both sides were sewn right side together and then flipped to create the pillows. Then each little pillow was stuffed full of batting. This started my recent pillow obsession.
Two cute pillows to coordinate with a bright and cheery quilt. Wonder who will be the lucky little girl to get this set?
When Lindsay posted the Quilt-A-Long I started going through my stash to see what would work for this quilt. I have a number of 5″ charms left over from a variety of projects and thought this would be a great opportunity to use them. You can read about it here.
As I was putting the quilt together I really tried to not have same colors and/or same designs right near each other. For those piecing an entire quilt a good modification is to cut your background fabric in 5″ and 8″ strips in the width of the fabric first. Then subcut 2″ strips from that. I followed the bee block and didn’t get as much from my white as I normally like.
I made another modification to the pattern and just added one solid strip of aqua instead of the cross.
I have not stitched in the ditch in a while and my arms were very stiff afterwards. I’m really happy with the look it provides on the back of the quilt. For the top I really wanted the orange and purple quilting to be the focus.
I like designs that are simple and can use precuts. Quilting, designing and sewing is something I want to be relaxing. This is a good pattern and I look forward to finishing another version in the coming weeks.
**My goal for the month of January was to just get this quilt top pieced as posted, here. So happy I not only got it pieced, but quilted and bound as well.
This is the first time I’m submitting over to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. My favorite quilt so far was made this year and it has a special meaning. My friend Melissa just got the all clear on her Hodgkin Lymphoma. Woo-hoo!
As part of the Indiana State Fair, the French Seam hosted a sewing challenge. You selected a three yard bundle of coordinating fabric and created what you wanted. All fabrics must be used but additional fabrics could be added in.
aqua and a lime green
Unsure what to do I auditioned a number of fabrics to coordinate from my stash. Ultimately I went with simple solid colors, white and gray. The quilt blocks started off like this.
The finished quilt turned out to be a good throw size. My friend has used it at chemo and noted it kept her very toasty. Here she is all snuggled up during treatment.
The quilt didn’t win the Sewing Challenge but it is a winner for me. Finished a challenge on time and something useful for a good friend.
It’s quilted with a 1.5 inch diamond pattern in gray thread. The back is pieced Kona Ash. The binding is a great combination of of the green and blues in the top of the quilt.
