WIP Wednesday: MSMS Round 3 Progress

The shipping deadline for the Modern She Made Swap is fast approaching, and I'm rushing to finish my mini quilt for it.

I designed a paper pieced pattern a while ago, and when the theme of the swap was announced - stars - I decided to use this pattern for my project. I made 36 three inch blocks (above) which were turned into nine six inch blocks, below.

I finished piecing the top and quilting this mini quilt this week, I just need to make the binding. I'm leaning towards the blue for the binding, but I'm waiting to see what my partner prefers before settling on one. For the quilting, I just did three diagonal lines together around the yellow squares. It's a little wrinkled below because I haven't ironed it after having the quilt all bunched up while quilting it, but you get the idea.

I'm really liking how this is coming out and I might just have to make another for myself. Can you see the stars that emerge as a secondary pattern when you put multiple blocks together?

You can find the pattern in my Craftsy and Etsy shops.

Modern She Made - Received

Last night I came home from work and my Modern She Made swap item was waiting for me!  I was excited to see what lovely item would now be mine!

I was lucky to receive this lovely pillow cover from Scrapstudio, AKA Kelly Lautenbach!  I had put out several options to my partner, one of which was to make a pillow for my newly designed guest bedroom.  I went for blue walls with not quite lime or olive green accents and bright raspberry pink.

Here's a better picture that I took this morning outside that depicts the true color of the pillow cover.  That rose in the center there... that's actually pieced!  Kelly did a great job piecing that together so that it looks seamless!  And did you check out that quilting in the border?  Isn't it cool?

And here's the awesome back of the pillow.  I'm actually not sure which side I like more!  Kelly really nailed the colors in this pillow.  Thank you Kelly!

Modern She Made Swap Round 2 - Completed Pillow

I really had a very productive sewing day on Sunday.  In addition to getting some binding on some quilts (and actually quilting one) I also finished my Modern She Made Swap pillow cover.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  It really aligns with the vision I had for the pillow in the beginning. The pillow I stuffed inside this one is a bit too small, but it's the correct size that my partner wanted.

It's easier to see the machine quilting on the back of the pillow before I assembled it.  I did some straight line quilting on the outer most part and did a wood grain quilting in the center, around the leaf since I thought it fit well with the look of the pillow.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I hope my partner likes it.

WIP Wednesday: MSM Swap Pillow Cover

This week I've been working on my Modern She Made swap project. I'm making a pillow cover for my partner.

I started with this selection of low-volume prints, mainly text prints, for the background. 

I then cut a whole bunch, okay 14, of 1.5" strips and sewed them into pairs.

I subcut those strips into 1.5" sections.  I turned these into four patches and slowly began piecing the background of the pillow together.

Slowly the background began to take shape.  I love how the Route 66 shows up well here.  It's a fun little aspect of the background.

And after more cutting of 1.5" squares for the colored border, the top is almost done.  I just need to piece and applique a leaf to go in the center of that frame.  You'll notice the HSTs in each corner of the colored frame.  That's to meet the requirement of the swap to have at least one triangle in your item. 

This pillow cover will finish at 20" square.  Right now it has a total of 404 pieces of fabric that have been cut and sewn back together.  Sometimes I think we, as quilters, are crazy.  But, I love it and wouldn't change a thing. 

Modern She Made Swap Round 2

I've had a lot going on personally this month, so I haven't really been doing much sewing.  When I say a lot, I mean a lot. It's just not something I'm comfortable sharing in such a public forum right now.  As a result, I haven't really been in the mood to quilt since I've been dealing with a lot.  Having Angela Walters come visit last weekend and spending time with the guild was very helpful and finally got me in the mood to get back to sewing.  In addition, to help get me through these difficult times, I decided that I was just going to jump into a few things to keep me busy.  One of those things is the second round of the Modern She Made swap.

I participated in the first round and really enjoyed it.  I made this awesome pillow that I hated to give up, but
I did.  I also received a great mini quilt and armrest pincushion that I use whenever I bind my quilts.

Here's the mosaic that I put together for inspiration for my partner.  I asked for a pillow for either my basement where I just redid it in a grey and yellow color scheme or my guest bedroom that I'm redoing in a blue/grey wall color with lime and fuchsia accents.  I also said I could use a mini quilt for the space too. 

I really enjoyed this swap last time and I'm looking forward to making a new item for my partner and seeing what is made for me.

This is the initial design that I sketched up for my partner.  It will be a pillow with the background being made in a bunch of low-volume prints in a postage stamp style.  The colors will be in some earth tones and there will be a pieced wonky leave that is appliqued down to the top of the pillow.

Time to get cracking on this one.

Modern She Made Swap Complete

Last week I received the most wonderful package from Whitney at The Peacock Tree as part of the Modern She Made Swap on Flickr.

Isn't it a wonderful package?

Here's the whole mini quilt.  It was inspired by a jewel prism.  How cool is that?  Whitney totally nailed me in terms of my favorite colors and color scheme.  The circle that is hand stitched in the upper right corner meets the one requirement of the swap - there needed to be at least one circular element to the swap item.

To top it off, Whitney even made me an armrest pincushion.  It totally matches my maroon couch perfectly.  My husband will be so happy that I have a place to put my pins, binding clips, scissors, etc. instead of on the couch or coffee table as I'm binding my quilts in the living room. 


If you remember, this is the pillow and pincushion that I made for my swap partner.

This was definitely a great swap and one that I would participate in again.

Log Cabin Pin Cushion

When I was making the log cabins for my Modern She Made Swap pillow, I made one log cabin in red and navy, but didn't think it fit with the rest of the colors.  I left it out of the finished project, but wanted to still use it somehow.  I decided that it should become a pincushion to go with the pillow.

I like to fill my pincushions with a mixture of cotton stuffing and walnut shells.  The walnut shells tend to give the pincushion some heft while the stuffing adds a nice fluff to the pincushion.

Here they are together.  You can see how the red and navy just didn't go with the other blocks, but how by itself, it looks cute.  

Modern She Made Pillow Complete

This weekend I was determined to finish my Modern She Made Swap item.  Work is going to be very busy, and I will be traveling the week before we need to ship everything out, so I wanted to make sure I finished everything now before things got so crazy.

I finished piecing the top and then machine quilted it before  piecing the pillow together.  The rules for this swap state that you must have a circle somewhere on your quilt.  There are a couple of circles in the scraps of fabrics that I fussy cut so that you could see the full circles.  I also quilted the large grey side of the pillow with half circle echo quilting.

Here is the completed pillow.  I love how it turned out!  I really hope my partner likes it.  If she doesn't, I'd be happy to keep this.

Here's a side view of the back.  I did an envelope closure since I'm not that great with zippers.  The label is hidden under the flap in the back.

WIP Wednesday: Modern She Made Swap Progress

I mentioned before that I signed up for the Modern She Made Swap.  The shipping deadline is towards the end of May, but I know that May will be VERY busy for me, so I want to make sure I'm able to do a good, quality job on my partner's project and am not waiting until the last minute, so I got started making the project this weekend.

I had posted several designs to the Flickr group to get some input and my third idea was the clear winner.

Here's Idea #1, which I posted about recently:

Here's Idea #2, which I sketched out on paper:

And here's Idea #3:

My third idea was the clear winner based on comments in the group, and probably my favorite.

After pulling fabric and playing with colors, this is what I came up with for the log cabin strip:

And this gives you an idea of what the pillow will look like.

I love it!

One small confession - I'm turning this into a pillow cover, but, I've never made one before.  This will be a learning experience.  I'm sure I'll be fine making it, but there's always that element of uncertainty when doing something for the first time.  I've been sewing consistently for the past 10 years, so I'm sure I'll have no problems with it.

Trying Something Out

I signed up for the Modern She Made Swap on Flickr last week and received my partner info on Monday.  All of last weekend, I had an idea in my mind that I just had to try out.  I kept seeing a lot of traditional blocks made in a modern way.  I had this idea for a house block that I just had to try out.

This is what I sketched out in MS Publisher to get a sense of what I was looking to do.  I was thinking that the rainbow would be a strip of 1/4" bits of fabric.

What did I do? Test it out of course.

I cut out strips of Kona in 3/4" widths and sewed them together. Cut them in half, sewed them together.  

Rinse and repeat until you're left with this:

A rainbow strand of fabric.

I was so pumped with where I was going with this, I just continued even further and created this:

Um, I think I'm in love!

I think I'll add a small border in a light brown.

I'm debating between the cream, which is actually lighter than this picture depicts since it was taken late at night, or a light brown.  I'm going to have to sit on this one for a little bit to decide which one I want. 

I'm not sure this is really my partner's style for this swap, but I thought it would be fun to try anyway.