The blues and some more triangles



When I first saw this gorgeous pillow and tutorial a while back I instantly fell in love!  I immediately placed my order with Peg of Sew Fresh Fabrics and requested the exact same bundle of Kona Cottons in Ice Frappe, Aqua, Azure, Bahama Blue, Peacock, and Surf.  The bundle sat for a while until I was in the mood to make the pillow. 

A few weeks ago one of my best friends got married.  I had the honor of being one of the bridesmaids in the ceremony.  For a wedding gift I knew I was going to go the handmade route of course, but I wasn't sure what exactly to make.  Then I remembered that my girlfriend has a lovely collection of cobalt glassware on display in her living room.  Boom!  Enter my lovely bundle of blues.  I do not own a Sizzix cutter so I made my own bottle template and decided to follow the tutorial to a T.  Why mess with perfection right?  I couldn't gift just one pillow and still had plenty of fabric left for another and so I made the other pillow.  I don't know why, but again I went with triangles.  I think I need a triangle intervention :)  Really though, I think the triangles compliment the waves of the other pillow so nicely. 

 For the backs I used a Denyse Schmidt print from Joanne's and Svetlana's tutorial for a hidden zipper closure.  This is definitely my favorite method for finishing pillows.  I don't like doing it any other way anymore.

As usual, all the good stuff I make is always for other people.  I really need to start making some awesome stuff to keep for myself.  One day I guess. 
I will leave you all with a few shots from the wedding.  Seriously, it was the best and most beautifully styled wedding I have ever been to.  The theme was vintage everything.  It was lots of fun to get to wear an old 50's hairdo (which I did myself).

 Vintage ladies.  Aren't the colors lovely?

 The gorgeous bride and I.

Thank you all for reading!  Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Melissa

PTS 10

 

I have been wanting to participate in the Pillow Talk Swap on Flickr for a while now.  I've seen so many beautiful pillows made for each round, I had to get in on the action.  My chance finally arrived when I saw that sign ups were open for round 10.  Imagine my excitement when I saw that my partner was one of my favorite bloggers.  I already knew that she was a huge Anna Maria Horner fan, and in her mosaic I saw triangles, so that's the direction I decided to go in.  There is something about sewing triangles that I just love. 

I only had a few AMH prints in my stash so I ordered a charm pack of Field Study and Lou Lou Thi to work with.  I love the fact that AMH's charms are 6 inches instead of the usual 5.  I cut 60 triangles but ended up using only 25 of them.  Then I began playing with the layout.

 

 

This was ok, but ok wasn't gonna cut it.  It needed something more.

Enter some texty lovliness.  It was so fun showing teasers to the group throughout the process and getting such positive feedback.

 

Once the piecing was done I had to figure out how to quilt it.  I love free motion quilting but I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone so I decided I would attempt hand quilting for the first time.  I used six different colors of Perle cotton 8wt.  I also did not use any kind of quilting hoop or frame.

I must admit, I did pick out my stitches more than once due to uneven stitches.  Once I got in the groove though it went nice and smooth.  I did a simple petal motif in the center.

For the low volume background it took me forever to decide what to do with that area.  Finally I settled on simple straight line quilting that echoed the hexagon.  I did the colors by hand and then machine stitched the white with the perle thread.  I never knew you could do that but thanks to Little Miss Shabby, I discovered a new technique I will definitely be using again.

I really enjoyed making this pillow especially knowing who I was making it for.  I think it was pretty obvious that it was for her.  I wanted it to be special and I hope I achieved that.  Judging from her comments on Flickr I think she's going to be a happy lady.  I also made her a linen feather pouch and a wall hoop pocket but I forgot to take a pic of the hoop. :(

I cannot wait to see which pillow I receive!  There are so many beauties in the group I know I will love any one I get.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

 

 

FLiQ Mini

This mini was made for the Flickr Fab Little Quilt Swap.  My partner said she liked bright colors, especially red and turquoise together.  This design was totally inspired by The Elven Garden's Tesseract Mini.  It was so lovely I had to try the design for myself.  I referenced Don't Call Me Betsy's Kaleidoscope Quilt along for cutting and piecing directions. The triangles I used were smaller than her templates so I ended buying a kaleidoscope ruler from my LQS to help with precise cutting.

I FMQ'd the background areas and then used a template to trace the curves in the colored parts.  I quilted those areas with my regular sewing foot.

 

I like the flower shape in the middle and the corners.

  I worry it may be a little too bold because my partner kinda went silent on me.  Maybe she didn't like the direction I went, not her style?  I enjoyed making it.  It's a really fun block to put together.  I enjoy working with triangles.  That Architextures print makes for such a great background too. 

This mini finishes at 24" square.  I bound it in a some shade of Kona red.  I hope it makes her happy.  On to the next project :)

 

Melissa

 

 

 

Triangle progress

Last night I stayed up until 3 in the morning working on this thing.  It is not even finished yet but already beats the pants off my Swoon quilt as my new favorite.
Here is the finished quilt top hanging in the sunlight.  I love seeing patchwork that way.  It's like gorgeous stained glass.

 

 

 

 

Now, it is on to the back.  Not sure how I'm going to work that out yet.  I'm also thinking about binding already.  For some reason the Tangerine is sticking in my head.  Not sure though.

 

Side note:  I just want to thank everyone for stopping by and leaving such positive and motivating comments on my previous post.  I appreciate you all taking a moment to visit.  Most of all, thank you so much to Lee of Freshly Pieced for hosting WIP Wednesdays.  It's great to have a place to share with people who have the same passion, and understand where you're coming from.  Hope you're all enjoying your weekend.

 

Melissa