Another bag, another pillow....they are so addictive!

I had to make one more small Whatcha Got? Bag out of this fabric. I decided to use an orange zipper for some pizzazz.

 What could YOU put in here?

I made another pillow to go with the pieced pillows I made last week. It reads as a solid, but is actually lots of blue and green lines. I think it looks nice with the others. 

I've been cleaning like crazy in preparation for my sister's visit. It's a good thing I have company once in a while! No class today, so more cleaning for me! Happy Saturday!

It's like putting a puzzle together....scrappy goodness!

I wanted to make some pillows for Christmas gifts, so I started looking through my fabrics to see if I could find some I could use.  I didn't really have a pattern in mind, but I did have several colors in mind that would match another project. As I was searching,  I found some flying geese that I made last year when I did a demo at our LQS, Cut Up and Quilt so I pulled them out and started playing with layouts. 

It's fun trying to make something out of scraps or scrap blocks, and I knew there would be lots of ways I could use these blocks. 

I decided on this star type block and was even able to use a pair of two color flying geese in the middle that I didn't think I would ever use. I found a teal floral print for the envelope back. Do you make envelope backs for your pillows? I always do as it makes them easier to wash.

For the second one, I just lined up those geese and started sewing. I debated using the pink floral ones as they were made with a slightly pink fabric instead of the white, but I decided that since it was scrappy, it would work. I found this blue and green for the back.

TaDa! Two down, one more to go. It won't be pieced, but a fabric that complements these pieced pillows. 

I am almost finished with my Christmas sewing. I want to make one more Whatcha Got? Bag. They are fun to make and go pretty quickly now that I've made several! Are you still working on projects for Christmas gifts? 

I am linking up with SewCalGal's last Handmade Christmas Challenge for this year. Follow the link and see what other bloggers are making for Christmas decor and gifts.

Using up leftovers for some scrappy goodness!

 Do you ever have leftover blocks or "pieces" after working on a project? I do demos at the local quilt shop, Cut Up and Quilt sometimes on special rulers or techniques. I usually make up models for the class, but also cut and show during the demo so they can see it in action.

I made these flying geese during a demo and got them out the other night to play with. I love trying to make something out of what I have...sort of like a puzzle with no picture to go by. I want to make some pillows for Christmas gifts and these colors were perfect. So I tried a few different layouts with them and settled on two that I am going to make.

 Not sure if you can tell, but the pink floral ones have light pink geese, where the rest have white. I debated using them, worried that they might stand out too much. Or look dirty. I decided to use them beause these pillows are meant to be scrappy and I like the prints!

 I had made one set of four using two colors so I wasn't sure if I could use them. I tried them in the first design and decided no, but they worked for the second design.

 I trimmed off the bunny ears and started piecing the pillow tops last night. Hope to finish them tonight.

Are you like me and still working on Christmas gifts? 

New pillows

 I took the new pillows to school yesterday. I ended up making six more!

 Now I can sort of overlap them and it fills in nicely.

 I  really like this window seating area and so do the kids!

 They enjoy sitting here for storytime, as well as just using the area when they are trying out a book.

 We are getting ready to put a tree on a different wall...we ordered one from Amazon and it came the other day. It is one of those vinyl wall art decals. I hope to get it put on the wall Monday afternoon, with a little help! It's really big, but will look great if we can get it up there.

Back to work.....

Another project I worked on during the retreat were these new pillows for the window seat in the media center at school. I had made some with circular patterns, and wanted some more with a different graphic pattern. I used the same bright colors, just cut them up differently. I have 5 centers made, so two more to finish into pillows.  I think these will look good with what I have already.

 I finished these woven border blocks yesterday. Now to get the rest of the blocks for this quilt finished.

 Cindy made this beautiful Twister baby quilt yesterday. Love the baby twisters!

 Diana was able to join us Sat. for our last night. She is working feverishly on finishing up her college degree. She will student teach in Aug and then have more time to play with us! She has three kids that keep her pretty busy too! She taught a friend to quilt so that she could make something with her many pieces of African fabric. Diana brought it along to finish the binding for her. It is so beautiful, this pic can't do justice to the bright prints.

Rose is making a quilty shower curtain. She saw one at a friend's house and wanted to try it.

We had so much fun. The kind of retreat we go on takes a bit of planning, but if you can find a suitable place for a group to sew and sleep, the rest falls into place. Now back to work.....sigh....

Flyaway, flyaway again

I spent some time the past few days working on these flying geese blocks. I made a small quilt back in Sept. to take to a demo I was doing and decided I wanted to make it bigger. I have almost enough blocks finished, but think some of them are too busy (large polka dots, for one) to go with the others, so today I am going to make some more. Hopefully there will be enough eventually to have a nice mix of colors and I can start sewing it together!

I don't often take pictures of quilts in my sewing room, but I have my extra table set up right now so it is the perfect place this morning.  It's not a large room, and I have my computer, TV and sewing machine in it, but with 6 windows with south and west exposure, it is usually bright and cheerful. 

Winter break is over and it's back to school for me tomorrow. That means I'm back to the job of putting together the new library. Even though I got the main job of putting the books on the shelves finished before break, there is still a lot to do. I bought the pillows yesterday to go inside the new pillow covers I made last week, so it will be fun to see how they look next to the big window. I will be open for student checkouts tomorrow, so I will just have to gradually get things finished in between. 

Lots of circle pillows

When I saw the seating area in front of the big window in the new library, I knew I had to make some pillows to put along the top row, next to the windows. I started thinking about using the Circle and Spin pattern, since there are circles and stripes in the carpet and furniture. I wanted to use some of the colors already there as well. I remembered a grouping I bought while on a retreat a year or two ago. I had no special plan in mind at the time, just loved the main fabric, so I got a few others that matched. I took them to school one day last week while I was working there and decided they looked good with the color scheme. So I took five of them and made Circle and Spin rectangles...I only had 1/2 yd. of those, so had to make them a size I could cut from 1/2 yds, even though I knew I wanted to make them pillows larger.

 This circle/square fabric is the one that I fell in love with...so gorgeous! I had 2 yds. of this and 1 yd. of a stripe, so I knew I didn't have enough to make the amount of pillows it would take to cover this large area.

  I went shopping at a local store and found the fabric below, which is from the same line. I bought 3 yds. of this, as I knew that I could stretch the other fabrics if I used this on the backs of the pillows. I had plans to sew with a friend yesterday, so took it all with me to work on.

I needed a border around each Circle and Spin panel, as I wanted them to fit a standard bed pillow, so I used the stripe around three of the panels and the small dots around the other two. Then I backed all five with the small dots. I had enough of the larger dots/squares to make two pillows using it front and back.

I can't wait to take these to school when we go back after break and see how they look. I forgot to measure the space across the window, so I'm not sure I have enough to fill the space across, but it should be close. I have some scraps left, so might make one more pillow out of those scraps.

I also finished the Lotus top yesterday. I need to take some pictures, so more on that later. I got a back for it and want to try to get started on quilting it today. It is lap size so shouldn't take long.

I am going to my hometown tomorrow to sew with my mom and sisters, so might have to go somewhere later and pick out the borders for my daughter's quilt. Then I could get it finished. I love having days to just sew!.

Pillows

 Awhile back, my daughter, Rachel, got a new couch. It came with throw pillows that she didn't like, so she asked me if I could cover them. We went shopping for fabric and this is what she came up with.

 I just made some envelope style pillow covers yesterday, two of each color.

 Her couch is an off white, so they will look nice on it. I had some of each fabric left, so I made a pillowcase out of it.

Fun, simple sewing! I also went fabric shopping, but more about that another day.

Eric Carle pillows

You might remember the canvases I covered a few weeks ago for the library at school. I had some fabric left. It niggles at me, figuring out what to make out of the leftovers.

I bought 2 - $4.00 pillows at Walmart.

I cut them in half, shoved the stuffing inside and finished off the cut edge with seam binding. Yea, I know, not really my best sewing, the stuffing kept trying to escape, ok? but they are sewn shut and no raggedy edge.

Do they look more professionally sewn this way? (no closeups please!) They turn out about 12" x 18".

I started off with this fabric that I didn't actually use on a canvas.  I always make pillow cases envelope style...easier to take off and wash without ruining the pillow.

I love the fireflies! and that hungry caterpillar.

And of course, Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

 I was a little short of number fabric to overlap for the envelope back, so added the "what do you see?" panel to the front, which gave me more for the back.

I am taking these to school too.

Teaching the first session of Beginning Quilting tomorrow night. It's always fun to meet new quilters!