Ryan's Awesome Tutorial

Ryan Walsh of "I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts" put together a great tutorial on a pillow he completed for round 2 of Pillow Talk Swap (tutorials). I just couldn't resist giving it a try with some bits of Ginger Blossoms which I had left over after piecing a quilt top which I will show you soon.

I love the result, as it's in my favorite colors, and I decided to go with a more symetrical style which is definitely more me.

I also made a pillow for my daughter's best friend who loves Amy Butler fabrics (she's only 13!). I was inspired by a pillow I had previously seen on flckr here but I decided to hand embroider the dahlia onto the front of the pillow. My daughter's friend loved it.

Finished Final "Hoop Up" Piece

The deadline for Hoop Up is April 30th and 2 weeks ago I still had no idea what I would do for my final piece. I was completely stumped by Nicole's (Follow the White Bunny) Paris/France theme but as soon as I saw two of my teammates, cathygaubert and marilynk, pieces I was inspired. I tried to use peacock blues and green as Nicole loves those colors as well as a little pink which she also likes.

I decided to stitch up a street theme of a pet grooming shop with lots of pets outside visiting on the street. All elements of my design came from elements on separate designs within "A Rainbow of Stitches".

Nicole stitched a really cool piece for me which I just love; it's so serene and peaceful to look at with it's subtle colors. Nicole design's some pretty amazing embroidery patterns which can be seen in her etsy shop here.

Hoop Up! Update

On Friday, I finished another embroidery for one of my group members in the Hoop Up! swap.

Missy asked for a Nursery Rhyme themed embroidery piece. She sent along red, green/aqua, and pink floss. I decided to fore go the pink and do this vintage inspired piece in mostly red with aqua accents.

I found a free Hansel and Gretel vintage pattern with a candy house. I made some changes to the pattern, which can be seen here. I added a water well, hill, mushroom, grass and stripes to the boy's socks and voila, it became a Jack and Jill embroidery. Missy commented that she LOVED it, and I'm so glad. It always feels so nice to make something that the recipient really enjoys.

Made by me for my initial inspirational piece and for my "Jackrabbit" group members!

 

This means I am finished 5 out of 6 embroideries for my group! Only 1 more to go. I've been working on a piece for Nicole, followthewhitebunny. Her theme is Paris/France. I should be able to show it to you before the end of the week.

Made for me or wip for me by my "Jackrabbit" Friends

It's Here - Pillow talk 2 Received

It felt like forever but my pillow is here. I sent off the pillow cover I made for flossyblossy in early March since it was going to the UK, I wanted to make sure she got it before the deadline, but then the waiting began.

Every day I checked the flckr pool to see what was being sent off and what pillows others were receiving. I stalked my mail lady. A few times I even beat her to the mailbox at the end of my street. I think she thought I was a little bit nuts. It got to the point where my mail lady was almost waiting as anxiously as me.

Last week it finally arrived and it was really worth the wait. Jen, the messy nest, made me a fantastic pillow cover in Kokka linen in some of my favorite colors of peacock blue, chartreuse, and red.

 

She even included some goodies, extra linen print and some hand-dyed fabric she used in the cover, as well as a felt pumpkin pouch she made.

Thanks so much Jen, we are using it lots already!

Pillowtalk 3 should be beginning soon. I am not sure if I will do it this time as my life has been crazy busy and the waiting nearly did me in but I will definitely be doing this swap again sometime in the near future!

p. s. i quilt - Pinwheel Sampler Quilt-Along

I have so much to do but at the last minute I decided to join in on Rachel of "p.s. i quilt" Pinwheel Sampler Quilt-Along. I was trying to resist but I had the perfect fabric for it in my stash and Rachel's instructions for the first block looked so great that I just gave in.

I was a little behind but caught up this week. We just finished week 6 but Rachel is taking a 1 week Easter break so now would be a good time to start and catchup if you didn't know about it before.

In 2007 I bought a FQ set along with some yardage of "Visions" by Sandy Gervais at the LQS. It was so beautiful I just didn't want to cut into and I couldn't find a project worthy of it. When I saw Week 1 instructions of Rachel's quilt-along I just knew it would be perfect for it. I am loving my blocks so far. There are a lot of amazing block photos in the flckr pool for you to check out here.

My Blocks

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

All the blocks together so far

March Bee's and Swaps

March has been super busy. I have been very busy longarming quilts for others but I thought I'd stop in and show you the blocks I made for bee this month and an embroidery I finished up the Hoop Up! Stitch & Send swap.

Here are the blocks:

Beatnik Bee: Katie asked us to make improv style blocks for a quilt she will be putting together for her daughter. I did add the green solid in each of the blocks as I thought it would compliment the fabrics nicely.

I wanted to make this one look like a window scene!

This one is just a basic log cabin done improv style.

The Maple Leaf Quilters Bee: Cate asked for a Crossed Canoes paperpieced block using fabrics she had sent. There wasn't enough of the print so I added the green print in 2 of the canoes.

TISQ Bee: Suzanna asked for a wonky shoofly block using fabric she had sent.

 

Hoop Up! Stitch & Send: I received a wonderful piece from Cathy Gaubert which you can view on her photostream here.  Cathy was inspired by my theme "Found in an Oriental Garden" and designed a beautiful piece for me. Thanks so much Cathy, it's beautiful. I plan on using the pieces I receive for this swap in a quilted wallhanging.

I am not quite the designer she is but I also designed a piece for her "Into the Woods" theme. The fabric it is stitched on is repurposed green linen sent to me by Cathy.

 Partial close-up View

Full view

That is four embroidery pieces done for this swap, only 2 to go!