Category Archives: pillows

Sugar Sack Quilt, Cuddle Blankie & Pillow

16-Patch Sugar Sack Pillow, Quilt, Blankie

What fun I’ve been having sewing with these cute 1930’s reproductions fabrics from Windham called “Sugar Sack II”.  I love these old fashioned fabrics so much and I think they make cute children’s items.  I sewed up a 16-patch checkerboard quilt with them and loved it so much I sewed a matching Cuddle Blankie and a Reading Pillow.  (Patterns for all these items are going to be released after the holidays!)

Sugar Sack Blankie With Toy

What’s a Cuddle Blankie?  It’s a much smaller version of the quilt that a baby/toddler can clutch and cuddle with – which is what they love to do.  This one is 16″ x 16″.   And it’s so easy to whip one up to match the baby blanket.

Sugar Sack PIllow with quilt and Hippo

The Reading Pillow is a fun thing to give as a gift for a child – it can hold a couple of books or small toys and is nice for children to curl up with, along with their quilt.  I have gotten so many requests for a pattern for this item, that I am excited about putting it in the shop after Christmas!

I actually doubled the batting on this quilt. I used Warm and White 100% cotton batting.  The double thickness makes the quilt especially warm and snuggly.  I love the weight of it. Because the background fabric I used for the checkerboard design is white, it is important to use a white batting so it doesn’t dull the white fabric.

sugar Sack Quilt Front Detail

I machine quilted using a 4 inch stitch length – kind of long, but I love how distinctive it looks.  I used 50mm thread for both the piecing and the quilting.  I switched to a #14 quilting needle to the actual quilting.

Sugar Sack FOlds

The backing fabric is a cute dot fabric from Riley Blake called “Blush Puffs Pink”.

Sugar Sack Quilt Binding Detail

For the binding, I used one of the Sugar Sack fabrics, Pretty Petals in Red.  I thought it gave it a great pop!  I cut 2.5″ strips to make the binding and used this method to machine stitch it.

The quilt measures 31″ x 48″.  The Cuddle Blankie is 16″ x 16″ and the pillow is 18″ x 18″.

Sugar Sack Quilt FoldsSugar Sack Pillow with BOok

This quilt, cuddle blankie and matching pillow are listed in the Shop and are for sale.  Stay tuned for the patterns in January!

Happy Holidays and thanks for stopping by!
Elaine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ombre Confetti Metallic Baby Quilt and Pillow

 

I’ve just finished a custom order baby quilt and pillow and wanted to share them with you.  I used V & Co’s Ombre Confetti Metallic fabric and it is just so darn cute in a baby quilt.  They came out with quite a few new colors recently and they are so fun to use in sewing. 

 

 

I did 16-patch blocks in a checkerboard pattern.  The background fabric is Robert Kaufman Indigo Chambray.  Chambrays are nice fabrics for backgrounds because they have a little more interest to them than solids. 

I used Warm and Natural cotton batting and quilted it on the diagonal, right over all the background squares.  Then I made a bias binding in a Hawthorne Thread fabric called “Artisan Stripe in Gold“.   They have this great stripe in 93 COLORS – do you believe that?  I cut 2.5” strips on the diagonal and made binding from that.  I love the look and the gold binding matches the metallic gold in the confetti fabric so well.  I used my usual machine binding technique.

The backing was a fabric from Art Gallery called “Dream Big” in baby blue.  It has large words that say, “love dream believe repeat” and it makes a great backing fabric.  The finished quilt was 32″x48″. 

The customer also wanted a reading pocket pillow, so I made one.  I plan on a pattern soon in the shop for this.  Stay tuned!

This quilt and pillow are SOLD. 

Thanks for dropping by!
Elaine

Storybook Vacation Baby Quilt

Storybook Vacation Quilt Folds

I have always loved the whole line of Windham’s Storybook Vacation fabrics – they are just the sweetest vintage looking fabrics.  I got to use them recently on a custom order baby quilt  along with some cute fabrics from Hawthorne Supply Co.

Storybook Vacation Quilt

Storybook Vacation Quilt stacked

The fabrics I used from Storybook Vacation were “Sailing Dogs in Blue” and “Blue Bubbles”.   The swiss dot fabric that was the “anchor” fabric on the checkerboard is “Essential Dots in Baby Blue” from Moda. I used a cute multicolor dot fabric from Hawthorne Supply Co. called “Multi Dot in Fair Isle Glacier”.  Did you know that Hawthorne has a whole line of fabrics they design in house that are printed digitally?   That means they can print them in a huge array of colors. It’s pretty awesome.  So the Multi Dot fabric comes in many colors.

Storybook Vacation Quilt Binding

I also got the binding fabric from Hawthorne  –  it is “Dress Stripe in Nectar”.  Again – this fabric is printed digitally and comes in tons of colors and makes a great binding fabric.  I love diagonal stripes for a baby binding, so I cut 2.5″ bias strips and sewed them together.  It takes a little more fabric to do this, but the effect is so cute.  Here is a tutorial on how to cut your own bias binding that is helpful if you like the diagonal stripes.

Storybook Vacation Quilt front and back

For the backing fabric I again selected a fabric from Hawthorne that I thought was so cute –  “Tossed Numbers in Robin’s Egg”.  It is from their “Back to School” line.  It’s a cute tumble of numbers and makes a great backing for a child’s quilt.

The quilt squares are 3″ finished.  I quilted a double set of lines on the quilt using 50# wt Aurifil thread in Natural White.  The batting is White Warm and Natural, which is great when you have white fabrics and you don’t want the batting to dull them down.

Storybook Vacation Quilt Folds II

When quilting, I switched to a #14 quilting needle and used my walking foot.  I talk about the importance of this in this post – it really makes a difference in preventing skipped stitches and puckers.

Storybook Vacation Quilt Detail

My customer also wanted a Reading Pillow, so here is a photo that.

Storybook Vacation Pillow

This quilt is sold.

Hope you’re making something – have a great week!

Elaine

Modern Plus Quilt

Plus Quilt full front

I finally got photos of my latest quilt and can share it with you. This quilt was so much fun to work on and it’s one of my favorite color schemes – greys and mustards.  I felt like calling it “Grey Poupon”!

Plus quilt stack

Buttonball fabric.jpg

I love Plus quilts and I think they’re especially good for fabrics that you want to showcase, because you don’t have to cut the fabrics into tiny pieces.  This quilt was sort of built off Katarina Roccella’s Buttonball fabric which I fell in love with. I picked out the coordinating fabrics to complement her fabric.  I wanted to limit the number of different fabrics in the quilt and not have a dozen different things going on so I picked 6 prints plus a solid – Hawthorne Threads Elemental in Charcoal,  Dear Stella Dash in Mustard, Robert Kaufman Baskeweave in Charcoal, Alison Glass Sunprint Ink, and the ever awesome Zen Chic Background Notes.   The background solid is Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in Steel.

I wanted an overall modern, urban kind of look for this quilt so for the background fabric, I chose another Katarina Roccella fabric, Maze in Alley.  It gave me the look I wanted and it’s a terrific background fabric because it’s not directional and is easily pieced.

Plus Quilt back

Plus Quilt Hanging

Pllus Quilt back and front

In keeping with a modern look, I quilted this in straight vertical lines in differing widths. That was fun!  I used my seam guide and attached it to my walking foot.  After I quilted the entire thing in one direction, I turned the quilt and just did a very few lines the other direction.

Plus quilt front back front

Plus Quilt overhead

When it came time to bind the quilt, I tried a variety of the usual stripey fabrics and didn’t like any of them.  As I was standing there pondering why it was so hard to pick out a binding fabric, I glimpsed the Buttonball fabric again and thought, “gee that might make a great binding” and it sure did!  I love the way it finished the quilt and I love the looser pattern on the binding.

Plus Quilt binding

Plus Quilt layers

The finished quilt is 62″ x 67″, a large throw that you can really curl up with.  I decided to make a matching pillow and thought it would be fun to make it a reversible pillow with one Plus print on one side and a different Plus print on the other side.  So that required a zipper instead of an envelope back and I decided to an invisible zipper.  A little bit more work, but definitely worth it.

Plus pillow zipper

 

This quilt is on its way to its new owner!

Hope you’re making something,
Elaine

Linking up to Friday Fabric Frenzy, Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation and  Sew Fresh Quilts!

Zen Chic Pillow

Zen Chic Pillow

Have you guys ever watched Man Sewing with Rob Appell?  If you haven’t, check him out sometime.  He does sewing tutorials on You Tube and he’s funny and inspiring and makes everything look easy!  He did an interesting podcast with Abby Glassenberg (another person you should check out – sign up for her great newsletter). This pillow is a tutorial he did called Dresdan Template Pillow. It’s a quick and easy project.

zen chic pillow in window

Because I am the biggest Zen Chic fan, I think I was drawn to this project because Rob used fabrics from the Reel Time collection.  I love Brigette Heitland’s designs and her fabrics seem to creep into almost every one of my quilts somehow.

sewing zen chic pillowzen chic pillow horizontal

This was a fun little project that you can whip up in an evening – just wanted to share it with you.

I hope you’re making something!

Have a great weekend,
Elaine

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Forth Worth Fabric Frenzy Friday

Little Owl Reading Pillow and Bib

Little Owl Quilt, Pillow, Bib

After I finished my Little Owl Quilt, I had quite a few scraps leftover and wanted to use them in some way.  I had an 18″ x 18″ pillow form laying around and thought a reading pillow would be nice.  There’s a bunch of them on Etsy.  I just pieced and quilted a pocket front in the same width as the pillow and sewed it on the front of a piece of fabric the same size as the pillow. I think it’s a fun pillow, especially to take with you somewhere and have your child be able to snuggle and have his books along.

Little Owl Pocket Pillow

I love that bias binding!

Little Owl Pillow Detail

For the baby bib, I used April Rosenthal’s Charm Bib pattern. I altered a few things with it, though.  I added a layer of batting to it and quilted it in the same manner as the quilt. I used a little piece of quilting fleece for the back.  I also did a binding on it just like I do on my quilts, with an invisible stitch on the front made my quilting in the ditch. I used bias binding again, like on the baby quilt.

Little Owl Bib Front

 

Little Owl Bib Detail Binding

Little Owl Bib Backing

The bias binding on the bib was a little tricky and required good “pinning” and a slow needle. This is how I attached the binding to the bib.  Thank goodness for Wonder Clips!  That would have been harder to do with pins.

Little Owl bib wonder clips.jpg

These were so fun to make.  Can’t wait to give this cute set to the expecting mother!

Thanks for popping in!
Elaine

Linking up to Crazy Mom QuiltsSew Fresh QuiltsFree Motion By the River