Christmas Pillowcases

I finished these last month, but it took me a while to find my camera.  Apparently it was in the car, who knew! I made some pillow cases for the nephews last Christmas and my SIL commissioned me to make her some Christmas themed ones.  I had to wait until the new Christmas fabrics came out to get started.  Nothing like Christmas in July.  SIL wanted a pair of pillow cases to use in the family room and a pair for her boys.  I thought the presents were a great general Christmas theme and the contrasting cuff of the red with Merry Christmas in many languages was a nice pairing.

 For the boys, the Grinch is one of their favorites, so that's what I used.  Ordinarily, I don't use much white when sewing for kids, but I thought pillowcases would be relatively safe.

Pinwheels

I've been wanting to make a pinwheel quilt for a while.  Last Spring I found out that the preschool teacher, who has taught both kiddos for the last 2 years and who is teaching Baby Girl this year, was expecting baby girl #3 in September.  She said she was planning on using the purple nursery she had already from the first two.  That gave me the idea of using purple and yellow as they are complementary colors and have a good value contrast.  I had to buy a bunch of purples as that is not a color I use very often.  It's good to have an excuse to beef up the stash. 

 Most of the pinwheels are unique fabric combinations.  I had enough fabrics that there are only a few places where I used the same combo twice.  Of course, I forgot to get a close up.  I love how some of the fabrics stand out more than others and how the secondary pattern of the quarter square triangles comes out when you least expect it.  I thought about mixing the HST components up completely before making the pinwheels, but then I thought the pinwheel pattern might get lost completely.

It's about 58 inches square, which is a good cuddle lap size.  I like to make baby quilts that are big enough to cuddle with the baby under.  I quilted it in cross hatching diagonals.  I've had really good luck quilting on the bias lately.  I haven't had any bunching.

For the backing, I took a single yard and half cut and sliced and diced and added fabric until it was big enough.  I had to go back and add two more strips after starting to baste when I realized it wasn't big enough.  Then I had to take out a quarter of my basting pins after I finished when I realized I had a big pucker in the backing.  Sigh, but at least it's done.  It's bound in a lavender and yellow stripe.

I don't have the HST bug out of my system.  I'm debating a king sized HST quilt, but I'm also leaning towards using half rectangle triangles.

Nightshade

I know I made a Halloween quilt last year, but I couldn't resist getting a little bit of Tula Pink's Nightshade.  I threw in a little Birds and Bee for good measure.  I got the fabric more than a week ago, but I've been busy finishing the baby quilt for my kids' preschool teacher.  I got that finished over the weekend and delivered it Monday night, so it was about time to start a new project.  I wanted to showcase the larger scale prints including the Coven print.

I was thinking about a snowball quilt, but maybe with sashing and having the blocks offset, so that it would sort of look like a hexagon quilt, but without the hard seams.  I thought 6-8 inch blocks would be about right and yield some nice little HSTs from the cut off corners.  I got out my fabric to measure the repeat.  Yeah, those medallions are 13 inches tall and 10 inches across.  I only have 4 of them in my half yard cut.  Back to the drawing board.  I might have to save the offset snowball idea for my lobster boil stack of fabric.

So any ideas on what to do with my Nightshade stack?

Measuring fail

I've been working on a baby quilt for the kiddos' preschool teacher.  Wee Monsieur had her 2 years ago and Baby Girl had her last year and this year.  It's been slow going because I've been watching the Olympics during sewing time.  I finally buckled down and got the top and back completed.  I laid everything out on the living room floor to baste it and discovered that my backing is 3 inches short in one direction and barely big enough in the other.  My top is 58 inches square and I thought I'd made the backing about 64.  I guess I didn't.

My sewing time has also been cut down dramatically due to the fact that Hubby is now working in the basement family room, otherwise known as my sewing studio.  We turned his office back into a bedroom when we put our house on the market.  Now, I can't sew during the day while he's working, as he works from home.

I need to get this quilt done by next week as that is when school starts and the recipient is due Sept 1, but has a history of going early.  I don't want to be stuck with another baby quilt sitting in my closet for 4 months because I didn't get it gifted before maternity leave, not that I know anything about that.  At least I'll be able to give the current closet occupent to Wee Monsieur's teacher next week when school starts.  I feel bad that I didn't get it to her in the Spring before the baby, but it at least she'll have it before the weather gets cold.