Pantone Challenge: Secret Courtyard Mini

I was excited to see that the Pantone colour of the year this year was green. Or Greenery to be exact. I love green. It is my favourite colour.

So when Sarah @ No Hats in the House and Rebecca @ Bryan House Quilts announced that they were hosting the Pantone Quilt Challenge for this year I was determined to enter. Previous years, my stash has been sadly lacking the required colours, but I have plenty of green fabric squirreled away.

It is hard not to think of plants and gardens when someone says "greenery"- and that is exactly where my mind went for this mini.

It was such a gorgeous day today I had to get my little helpers outside to help with the photoshoot

I wanted to do cathedral windows where the petal shaped looked like leaves and the centres beautiful blooms. This grid makes me think of peeking through a trellised gate, overgrown with vines and beautiful blooms - a secret respite from the bus day to day. (Sadly, this is nothing like my garden, my thumb is distinctly on the black side).

To make the centre, I used the Missouri Quilt Co Easy Cathedral Windows tutorial. I can't say it was easy - it was a bit of a mind bend for me, especially as I set it on point. But I have also made a normal cathedral window pincushion, and this was definitely easier. I guess it is all relative. I raided my stash of green to make the leaves and my Tula Pink for the blooms. Thank you Tula for your big bold flowers!! Just the vibe I was going for.

To get it up to pillow size (I am killing two birds and making a cushion for our lounge), I set it on point with some Essex yarn dyed linen in Steel which made me think of pavers in that secret courtyard.

The great thing about doing the cathedral windows is that it is QAYG. I quilted around the petals to secure them down and then around the centre of the blooms to keep them nice and secure since there will be little girls bouncing on it. On the Essex I quilted straight lines in a bright green about a quarter inch apart (think moss on those pavers....am I painting a picture for you?).

I really love the texture that the quilting gives it

Lastly I put a exposed zipper in the back. I just love that look. None of the zippers I had on hand were long enough so I just put tabs on the ends to get it up to length. I bound it in some great Color Me Retro by Jeni Baker (first ever bundle purchased, very big soft spot for this line - I ordered it from the hospital after giving birth to Ms Bird).

This kind of zipper closure just makes me happy. Plain back so that when heads are lying on it that don't get the front grimy. But oops! forgot my label - will have to retrofit that it

Now just to convince my dear husband that there is no such thing as too many cushions for the lounge...

Thanks to Sarah & Rebecca for hosting. Go check out the other entries here.

Quilt Stats
Name: Secret Courtyard
Dimensions: 24" x 24"
Pattern: Missouri Quilt Co Easy Cathedral Windows
Fabric: Assorted green from stash, assorted Tula Pink florals, Essex yarn Dyed in Steel
Binding: Color Me Retro Kitchenette in Apple
Quilting: All Auriful 50 wt. Petals: 4093 (Jade), Blooms: 4647 (Berrylicious), Background: 1231 (Spring Green)

Shape Family Challenge

Ta da! Scraping in by the skin of my teeth, here is my entry for the Shape Family Challenge run by the amazing Jodi (@Tales of Cloth).

All finished, I love this ranbow-y goodness

Made with Liberty fabric and a super light chambray, these were a match made in heaven and sew lovely to set. When I pulled the papers out they pressed so lovely and flat.

The premise of the challenge is to take one of Jodi's mixed pack of shapes (a Shape Family Pack) and make your own pattern. It certainly was fun coming up with it, although my husband did wonder what on earth I was doing.

Playing aound

The pillow back is a gorgeous spotty chambray that I am also going to make a dress out of (one day) - I think a Tea House dress, but I am going off topic...

Mmm, delicious

I straight line quilted it with a lilac Aurifil thread.

The pillow finished at 22.5 x 23.5 inches.

I've loved the peaceful nature of hand-stitching. It allows me to sit in the same room as my husband and still sew. I am a little sad now that I am finished, I think I may have to start a new project. Once I finish a few more WIPs. 

Fast finish: Marmalade pillow

A good long while ago I won some Marmalade Mini charm packs and a FQ or Marmalade fabric from Mary on Lake Pulaski.

I sorted the charms into colour groups and made some granny squares. But when I sewed them together I didn't love it. So much so that I put it away and let it languish, unloved in my sewing room.

The offending mini - ugh

Six months or so later and needing a fast finish I decided to just get it done. I looked at it and figured out what I wasn't loving - the sashing between the blocks was too wide and it was just throwing out the balance of everything. So I unpicked and the sashing, slimmed it down (diet for quilts?), sewed it back together and was in love.

I finished it off with some serpentine quilting and ta-da!! A pillow top I loved.

Much better with the skinny sashing

The backing is a great match and I had the perfect green zipper on hand

The moral of the story - if it isn't singing to you, leave it and come back and fix it later. I am so glad I did because I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

It's been a long time, baby (the #pcswapas blog post)

It has been a long time between blog posts: family, work and travel have been taking priority over blogging. 

Now, I am back from holidays and I have a finish that I want to share. 

Despite my extensive WIP list and a vow no to join and more swaps, when @imasavonasac (who I have a total quilt crush on) and @littleislandquilting put out a call for participants in the #pcswapas pillow swap on Instagram my resolve crumbled. I am weak, I know it! Still better a swap than cake. 

My partner was a match made in heaven and I got stuck in straight away playing with ideas:

The ideas I was toying around with (clockwise from top): self drafted pattern; some tiled inspiration; no hats quilts Shine Bright pattern

In the end I decided on the top one and used some delicious Alison Glass Handcrafted Indigo, with a bit of colour thrown in to make the blues pop and a lovely grey print from Modern Backgrounds.

Al fresco quilt shot

I paper pieced it and drafted up the templates in PowerPoint (you use what you know, right?). If anyone is interested and I can figure out how to upload them then I will. 

I backed it in some Alison Glass Ex Libris (I'll be honest it was hard to say goodbye to that fabric). A perfect match!

I tried a different zipper closure to usual and put my label in the centre for a change

I tried a flanged binding for the first time and LOVED the result.

The flanged binding was totally worth the effort, it looks so effective. If it wasn't so much extra work I'd do it on everything, I love it that much.

I quilted it in a variety of trusty Aurifil - such a great range of colours.

Quilting detail - I love doing lots of quilting on small makes

One last shot: 

I wouldn't mind making another one with a more pronounced ombre effect (at some stage, I need to finish some WIPs first)

Then I whipped up this neat Pin Cushion / Caddy from Anna Graham's book Handmade Style to round out the package. Yes, I am going to sew the WHOLE book eventually. I used my Lizzy House scraps from my Midnight Mystery Quilt. I didn't put the walnut shells in because I didn't know how they would go in International mail. I don't think they would get through quarantine here, so why risk Lizzy????

This proved very tricky to photograph, even with a super cute (although somewhat fidgety) helper. I had to take her scooting afterwards as payment. 

Since we've been overseas, my mail has been on hold so I can't post what I received yet. I can't wait til the mailman comes on Tuesday (it is a holiday here on Monday). Something to look forward to and take the sting off going back to work after three weeks off!!

December ALYoF Goal: Aussie Christmas Swap Gift

For those of you that follow me on Instagram (I'm @peaches1003) you will have seen the gift that I have been overgramming am making for the Aussie Christmas Swap.

I was inspired by a similar pattern by Sami (@iamsavonsac). I have been drooling over it for ages and was so glad to have a reason to try it.

My partner says she likes Tula Pink and Alison Glass - I hope she means it!! 

The posting date is the 8th of Dec so I have to be done by then.. 

This is my December goal for ALYoF. 

A Lizzy House / Tula Pink Patchwork Pillow

My dear little nephew turns six today.

In years gone by I have made his sisters birthday gifts, but this year it's his turn. My sister (his Mum) is a very clever crocheter and was making him a blanket for his bed, so I whipped him up this patchwork pillow.

A match made in heaven - two of my favourite designers

His new blanket is all blues, yellows and reds, so hopefully this will go nicely.

I'll be honest, I find little boys a bit of a mystery. I struggle with his gift every year more than any other. I mean, would a full of beans little boy think "woo hoo" to receive a quilt? With this pillow I started my fabric selection with the red dinosaurs. I mean, find me a six year old who doesn't like dinosaurs. And I know my nephew does. Then I just pulled fabrics that I knew would go with the decor in his room. The other challenge I faced is that a lot of my fabric I would say is a little on the girly side.

I bound it in the matching Constellations print from Natural history and backed it with some blue gingham that was in my stash.

For this pillow I did an envelope back. It was my first time because I didn't have a zipper the right size and even though I followed a tutorial I found online I had an issue with gaping in the back. I usually get a cushion insert that will make the pillow nice and plump. Even after cutting open the insert and removing some of the stuffing I still had a horrible gape. I ended up stitching it up by hand - having bound the pillow top, I didn't really want to undo it all to remake the back. It's a bit of a pain, because it means that if it needs to be washed it will need to be undone and sewn back up, but on the plus side I stitched it up with red embroidery floss and I think it looks really cute. Plus the red floss echoes the red I used for the quilting on the front.

Not the closure I envisioned, but it sure looks cute

His party is on the weekend so hopefully his gift is well received. This is a finish off my Q4 FAL list.

Princess Twilight Sparkle cushion

This week one half of the power duo who are the namesakes of my blog turned five.

Ms Moo is going through a high intensity My Little Pony phase and so I thought I would make a MLP cushion for her. I asked which was her favourite which resulted in her naming all of them, so I made an executive decision to make Princess Twighlight Sparkle. 

I got the pattern from here. It is paper pieced and finishes at 10 inches square. Let me just say that there are a lot of teeny tiny pieces in this. See that eye? Twenty six (!!) pieces. Still, it was relatively easy piecing and I banged it out in a few nights. The process was greatly expedited by sticking pins through the end of the sew lines and marking them with a heat erasable pen. With the number of pieces and dark fabric there was no way that holding it up to the light in the garage was going to work. 

I backed it with fusible fleece to quilt as a few of my seams were quite scant and I thought that might give the pillow some extra longevity. Of course, I backed it with the Mustang ponies - there was really no other choice. I put a zipper in using this tutorial from Svetlana at s.o.t.a.k handmade. This was the first time I have used binding on a pillow and I love the way it turned out. 

So how was it received? With a maximum of excitement. The only gift that topped it was the Rainbow Dash play doh thingie. I did get told that it was missing the horn, but that hasn't stopped it being slept with every night since her birthday. I would count this as a success. That level of excitement about a gift is definitely one of the things I love the most about being able to sew.