Birthday Pillows

My brother's girlfriends' birthday was yesterday. I had no idea what to get her. When I asked my brother what he thought I should get, he said "oh.....you're buying something? That's weird..." I instantly felt bad about it. Michelle is one of the people in my life who loves everything I make...even the stuff I hate. After thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided to make pillows since I had two 18" pillow forms that I had just bought on sale. I have made pillows before but not a lot of them. I have been into stars lately so I decided to make little star blocks that measured 4.5" unfinished. I have to say sewing so many little pieces was a challenge but I really loved making them. I was going to do the whole pilllow in these little stars but I was under a deadline. I decided to make four small ones for the corners and a larger center block. the second pillow was a much simpler one and came together in a couple of hours. I made it with some uneven strips and stacked them. the quilting is some simple crosshatching which I always love. I used a lot of the same fabrics in both pillows as I wanted them to go together but not be matchy, matchy. I really love how these pillows turned out. I really want to keep them even thought they don't match anything in my house. If I can't keep them, I'm glad they're going to a good home where my work is always loved and appreciated.



Now, if any of you follow the Stitched In Color blog, which I creep daily, you will know the Bloggers Pillow Party has been going on for a few months. I love looking at the pillows everyone has made. I have decided to enter my Star pillow. This is difficult for me as I am my own worst critic but I think this one may be worthy. If you haven't already, go on over and check out everyone's beautiful pillows.

Shop Changes

So I have been thinking a lot lately of my little shop on Etsy. I have been selling bags and accessories online for about five years but about 8 years in total. I've been feeling a little burnt out lately. I work a 40 hr a week job and easily put in another 30 a week sewing. I have decided to focus mainly on wallets and smaller accessories as they are my biggest sellers. I will be putting my bags on sale and won't be listing any more anytime soon. I feel it's better for me to focus on the more popular items and give myself a little break. I'm not saying I won't be making bags again but I need to focus on something else for a little while.

I have been quilting a lot lately and making pillows and placemats, a lot more home items. This is something I'm going to consider adding to my shop or opening up a shop later in the spring for home items. We'll see where it takes me. In the meantime, my wallets and pouches and smaller wristlet bags will still be available in the shop and I hope to have more variety soon.

My bags will be put on sale to clear out starting today, so check it out if you are looking for a new bag.

Modern Improv

I think I mentioned in my previous post that my BF wanted his own quilt since I wasn't so good about sharing mine. He wanted black and white. I thought about different patterns for a while but nothing was really exciting me. All I knew was that I wanted it to be all solids and in different shades of grey with a little black. I was bored at the end of my shift last Friday night so I drew up a really rough plan and some measurements. I was a little afraid of ruining a whole lot of my much loved Kona solids. If any of you live in Canada, you know it's very hard to get designer fabrics here without paying double the price. I refuse to do that so all my fabric is ordered online. Because of this I try to make sure I have everything I need before starting a project. It's very frustrating to wait 2 weeks for more fabric if you have to order mid project. Anyway, I picked all Kona cottons. The colours are pepper, charcoal, medium grey, slate and ash. So far it's turning out well and I see a lot of solid quilts in my future.

Another Quilt

I finished my sisters string quilt 2 days before Christmas. I was really under the wire with this one. I love how it turned out. I split the blocks up with sashing to make it a little less busy and binded it with orange and red dots from Amy Butler's Lotus fabric. I quilted it with some straight line quilting with my brand new walking foot. I don't know how I lived without this. I couldn't believe how easy it was and how smooth the back of the quilt was. I pieced the quilt back with 4 extra blocks I had and more Kona Snow and some Kona Medium Gray.

I think I really have the quilting bug right now. I am finishing up 2 pillows for my mom for this weekend and already have 2 more scrap quilts I'm dying to start. My BF also asked me to make him one in solids. I have been wanting to do a solid one for a while but don't really know how I want to go about this one.



I also have a few bags to list in my shop whenever I find a good chunck of time to take pictures. I really hate that part of it. My photography skills suck but I keep working at it.

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

One Down....

It's been a long time since I have posted any new projects. I have been really busy sewing. There's a ton of new wallets and pouches in the shop now with new bags to come as soon as I find time to take the pictures.

I have finished my brother's girlfriends quilt. I posted the quilt top a while back. It has been just waiting for me to make the back and quilt it. I finished it in about 6 hours. I really like it. I messed up when I was measuring the back so there is a lot of random piecing but I really like it. I am getting a lot better at free motion quilting too, but can still use some practice. She really likes pink so I made a simple coin quilt with all my pink scraps. I hope she likes it because it may be really hard for me to give it away.

I still have to quilt my sister's which I'm hoping to start tonight. I just got my walking foot in the mail and am excited to do some straight line quilting. I really like the look of it but I have no idea how I'm going to do it on the scrappy string quilt.




BTW...If anyone has any tips on how to photograph quilts, I could really use them.

New Exciting Books

I bought two new books today.
One is Amy Butler's Style Stitches, 12 easy ways to 26 wonderful bags. I have been waiting for my local bookstore to get this since it was released. Today was finally the day. I only had a chance to glance through it briefly before going to work. I'm very excited about this. Why? I don't really know because I normally hate bag patterns and always design my own. I think it's the pink cover. I just signed up for the bag swap at Sew Mama Sew, so I'm thinking I'll try one of these great bags for my swap pattern.
The Second one is Dare To Be Square Quiting by Boo Davis. Again, I have only briefly flipped through this book but already love it. I don't think I've made it a secret that I love straight lines and a clean modern look. I still have to make my moms Christmas gift quilt so maybe I'll try one of these.
Does anyone else have any new or old favourite sewing books they'd like to share?