Harvest Pillows redux

It's a good thing no one in the family reads my blog, otherwise I'd have nothing to talk about for the next month.  My mother in law decorates with what I like to call harvest colors- orange, yellow and brown.  Since I got her name in the Christmas draw, I knew what I was going to make her.  She had admired the set of harvest pillows I made for a friend, so I made her a set of her own.

 The two pillows on the right started off as orphan blocks leftover from the framed squares quilt I made my mother in law over the summer.  The top left incorporated a pillow top I trimmed too small for my friend's harvest pillows.  I added more batting and made it bigger and square to match the others.  the bottom left was all new.

 I tried new quilting ideas on two of these.  I just sewed random straight lines all over the pillow.  I just picked a starting point and when I hit the opposite side, I bounced off on a new angle until the whole thing was quilted.  I like the way the quilting is in juxtaposition with the rectilinear piecing.

This is the pillow that started off as another pillow.  I do love the quilt as you go techniques I learned over the summer.

Manic Monday

I'm really plowing through this list.  Go me!

1 Christmas Tree Skirt (really I'd like to make 2, but I'll be ok with 1 finished)
3 pillows for teachers (2 done)
16 machine embroidered dish towels to give along with jar of jam to school helpers and assorted others who should get small holiday gift (9 done and one ruined)
2 batches of jam to fill jars to give as small holiday gifts (one batch done)
7 blocks for 3x6 bee (I tried 2 test blocks and am liking block #2)


I'd like to get the following done
2 or more pillows for my living room (one top almost together
2 Christmas tree quilts for listing on etsy, the tops are already done, I just need to quilt them.
24 ornaments for the advent calendar
1 something with Flurry Charm pack that I found

FINISHED

1 Grinch lap quilt for the kids

1 pillow for guild holiday exchange (swapped)
1 gift for my mother in law (4 items)
6 blocks for 4x5 bee

3 pillow cases for nephews
4 bow holders

1 quilt for my dad

1 Advent Calendar

Pillow cases

A year ago, I learned how to make pillow cases so they look professional.  No exposed raw edges anywhere.  It'a lot easier than it sounds.  The technique is variously called the magic burrito or magic hotdog technique.  I won't reinvent the wheel, there are a ton of tutorials out there like this one.

You need a yard total of fabric, a 3/4 yard cut and a 1/4 accent for the cuff.  There is no waste, you use the whole width of the fabric.  You can do a little trim or ric rack if you like, but it's not necessary.  I thought it was a great way to make something easy for my nephews for Christmas.  My LQS had some great super hero fabrics, so I bought some of that and some cute dinosaurs for the youngest.  I added their initials so they don't get mixed up.  Plus, wasn't it the coolest thing ever when you were a kid to have your initials on things.  I'm so glad I figured out applique.

Happy Thanksgiving

We're having a low key Thanksgiving.  Since we only have 3 adults and 2 kiddos for Thanksgiving, we tried to simplify, the fewer dishes the better.  Obviously, we're having a turkey.  Last year we followed the recipe for a roast turkey in the America's test kitchen cookbook.  It was the best turkey ever, so we're doing exactly the same thing this year, right down to the brand of turkey.  Clearly, gravy is a must.  I love mashed potatoes, so they made the cut.  Hubby has to have homemade noodles and broth.  His family pours the noodles and broth over the turkey and mashed potatoes.  Then we needed a veg.  We recently had good luck with roast brussel sprouts, so we're trying them again.  We originally decided to cut out the stuffing, because neither the hubby nor I really like it.  However, my mother is visiting and stuffing is very important to her, so it got added to the menu.  We're rounding out the meal with cranberry jelly, a pumpkin pie and some dinner rolls.  I'm guessing the kids will only eat the rolls and a bit of turkey.  Yeah, I think I have the only kids who don't like mashed potatoes.  They have NO idea what they are missing.  I usually use an entire stick of butter.

I wish we had more people, so I could also have baked mac n' cheese and a mocha whiskey cake.  Those aren't traditional Thanksgiving dishes, but they got added to the roster thanks to my uncle's kids, who we used to have Thanksgiving with.  I once asked S how he made his mac n' cheese so good.  He started saying something about a can of macaroni and cheese that he used as a base and I decided I didn't actually want to know what was in it.  And I think mocha whiskey cake speaks for itself.  Oh yeah, there's a lot of whiskey in the frosting.

What dishes make it Thanksgiving for you?

Manic Monday

1 Advent Calendar (mostly done, a little bit of quilting left and binding)
1 Christmas Tree Skirt (really I'd like to make 2, but I'll be ok with 1 finished)
1 quilt for my dad (only needs to be bound)
3 pillows for teachers (2 done)
16 machine embroidered dish towels to give along with jar of jam to school helpers and assorted others who should get small holiday gift (4 done)
2 batches of jam to fill jars to give as small holiday gifts
7 blocks for 3x6 bee (I tried 2 test blocks and am liking block #2)

Added
3 pillow cases for nephews
4 bow holders (3 done, 4th started)

I'd like to get the following done
2 or more pillows for my living room
2 Christmas tree quilts for lisiting on etsy, the tops are already done, I just need to quilt them.
24 ornaments for the advent calendar
1 something with Flurry Charm pack that I found

FINISHED

1 Grinch lap quilt for the kids

1 pillow for guild holiday exchange (swapped)
1 gift for my mother in law (4 items)
6 blocks for 4x5 bee

3x6 Bee block

I made another test block for the 3x6 bee.  I love it, but I'm afraid it's too simple.  I love that it shows off the fabrics and that it looks like 4 little blocks put together.

It's pretty much a tiny version of my first quilt and Happy Robots.  Both quilts followed the Happy Hour pattern.  I think that's the first and last time I followed a pattern.

This brings up an interesting question.  Do you follow patterns?  I was talking to the woman cutting my fabric at the LQS yesterday.  I was telling her about my plan for the fabrics I was buying.  She asked what pattern I was using.  I was momentarily confused, "pattern, what's a pattern?"  I told her I was making it up as I went along.  She looked just as confused as I had felt a moment earlier.  I make up everything as I go along, mostly.  Do you?

Another Christmas finish

This is the pillow I made for the holiday swap at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild on Thursday.  After demonstrating my quilt as you technique at last month's meeting, I thought that would be an appropriate thing to bring to the swap.

I machine embroidered the center using a pattern from Urban Threads.  I love Urban Threads.  Their patterns stitch up really well and their prices are good.  I pieced the first 4 pieces before doing the embroidery so that I could hide the top of the ornament strings under the fifth piece going across the top of embroidery.

I got my new tags from GutenTags on etsy.  They turned out perfectly.

I love that stripe/dot combo I used on the back.  The binding was a diagonal stripe, so I didn't have to cut it on the bias to get the diagonal effect.