-cherry blossom petals flying through the air
-my tulips are blossoming!
-green! the trees are finally starting to fill in around here. and the grass is growing at warp speed already.
-my kids laughing together
-a husband who takes special care to spend time with his kids
-a bible study on kids/parenting that came at the perfect time
-lots of sun in the forecast
i could probably name a million more, but i'd bore you with my sap. :)
lately i have had itchy fingers to sew, but i didn't know what to sew, and i didn't want to spend any money. i have a smallish, yet decent enough stash of fabrics, but it's so hard to cut into something---i want the item to be useful, worth using that fabric for, and something that can be made without buying more stuff. it's harder than you'd think! i have been inspired by so many people making scrappy log cabin items, and when i saw soulemama's blog two days ago, i loved it as always, but then i kind of forgot about it. but it finally clicked when i was looking at my stash for the zillionth time. i have this red pillow that just doesn't match anything on my couch. i needed it covered, and i needed it done to somehow coordinate with both of my quilts. so i pulled my scraps out, and played with the layout. figured out my measurements, and went to work. this was interesting b/c i've never done a log cabin design, and i kind of put my own twist to it. i doubt if it's true "log cabin". i knew i wanted it lightly quilted, so i pulled my scraps of cotton batting. i doubled the batting up for the front, since it's thin, and i only used one layer for the back. i lined the whole thing with muslin, and made the back an envelope. the whole project took about 4 hours---i think laying it out and cutting was the most time consuming part. but i LOVE how it turned out. it's loud and crazy looking, but it makes me smile, and i think it ties the two quilts together nicely. way better than the tired old red pillow! plus, i love how this pillow feels like it's been around forever. the batting and light quilting (machine done, btw) was perfect. it feels substantial, yet worn in. love it. :)
i also quickly sewed an orla kiely dishtowel (from target. never used...bought it awhile back for the pretty print) together to cover one of the travel pillows i covered up at christmas, but haven't made a new cover for. the dimension was perfect! all i had to do was sew it in envelope fashion, add ties to the back, and viola! done.
the third pillow, another travel pillow ($3 at walmart in the pillow section), was also quilted. this one was made with robert kaufman unbleached muslin (sooo nice), and scraps. it was lined with cheap white muslin, and i tripled some old polyester batting i had. i didn't piece the top, i just sewed/quilted the strips right on top of the muslin. This one was super thick b/c i had to sew through 6 layers of batting+ fabric when i sewed the front and back together. but it worked. it came out really nice.
the blueish color you are seeing here is actually more of a teal, so it looks better in real life, but you get the idea! :)
loving that my pillow matches my coaster now!
lol. i'm kind of laughing at the plethora of color and print. it's wacky. but i love it. my teenage and early adult years were filled with cream, solid colors or understated prints, and the fear of committing to a print or style. i think all that pent up color is coming out now :) but come on. don't you want to jump on it, read a fun book, and drink some lemonade?
what shall i sew next? :)
**edited**
hehe. i sewed this just now. super easy and quick! for my purse, since it matches and everything :) .
