Finish for Mom

A year ago I made and gave my mom this pillow.

Then sometime last fall I used the same fabric
to experiment with two different patterns.
I promised my mom I'd make her
more pillows to complete a set.

SO...on saturday I sewed and sewed...

and surprised my mom for Mother's Day,
with the Circle of Geese above
and the Dresden Plate below.

And now she can complete her
newly decorated guest/sitting room.

So mom,

Completed Cathedral Windows!

Update:  Sharing this for Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
Can you believe it?  Friday Night Sew In Success!! 

Here's my completed Cathedral Windows Pillow.

I am so pleased with how it turned out.

But, I had a hard time finding a spot to photograph it.

  Seemed too fancy for my living room.

Here's a few more views.

I learned so much from this project.

Of course the cathedral windows were a first.

But I also got to try a basting spray to keep

all those windows in place as I sewed and found it worked well.

And, I learned how to make my own piping,

thanks to a little help from my zipper foot.

I used fabric from one of the windows.

The most exciting part was putting that pillow form in and seeing the finished cushion!

A very special thanks to Melissa at Make Life Beautiful

for her wonderful tutorial and her encouragement all along the way!

I definitely want to make another one someday!

Hope your weekend has been productive!

TGIFNSI

Thank God It's Friday Night Sew In

First Up: Dinner and I'm in the mood for Italian

Next Up:  What I will be working on

Cathedral Windows Pillow

AND

Flutter By Blocks

Finally... ipod while isew - Sara Bareilles

See ya tomorrow,



And Sew on and Sew Forth...

I spent all day saturday and a good amount of sunday sewing.  And it felt sew good!  First up...cuz I'm so excited...I sewed all the buttons to my Cathedral Window pillow. 

I had to go back to purchase the rest of the buttons I needed and do you know that there were exactly enough packages of the style I needed?  It was definitely "meant to be"!

Remember, the one in the center is a little different style and slightly larger than the rest, however looking at it now, it really doesn't look that much bigger.  Here's the complete layout.

I just love this pattern and technique and am still amazed that someone could come up with the idea.  I'm just happy to have a pattern to follow!  I still have a little ways to go to complete the pillow.  I'd started sewing the piping but decided I need some thread better matched to my fabric (can you see the stitching?).  I just laid it along the edge to get the general effect. (That's not exactly where it's going.)

Anyway, it's coming along!

Also finished my blocks for the two swaps I'm in and here are the sneak peeks.

Let's Bee Together

For: Melinda who sent the fabric and left the block up to me.

 Block Swap Adventure

For: Sue, who likes Batiks, Greens and Blues (hard to see the green in the dark batik but in real life it pops out due to the green in the second fabric).

And, I finally got back to my Flutterby quilt (with the 3D butterflies) and finished 6 more blocks.  Decided I needed to order more of that Dream On fabric to finish it the way I want.

Oh darn...had to stop and shop!

Sew... there you have it!  Enjoy your week.

Done...but not finished.

My Cathedral Windows pillow is coming along. 

I have all 12 windows sewn now

I will admit I struggled a bit at first to get my machine and fingers to coordinate to make the curved seams.  In fact, I started to wonder if I shouldn't just hand stitch instead.

But, my frustrating work week made me determine to "conquer" this new challenge and I set out to show my machine a thing or two!  And that I did.  As you can see in the picture above, I am now experimenting with button type and placement.

I spent a little time at the store yesterday searching for the "perfect" buttons.  The tutorial says they're optional.  And at first, I wasn't sure I wanted them.  But I think with this fabric, the buttons complement the semi-formal look.  I really love the center button (see below).

It has the same paisley swirl as some of the window prints. But I thought it was a tiny bit large and heavy for the whole pillow so I decided on some smaller, lighter, lacy looking buttons for the rest of the spots. 

Now I just have to go back to the store and hope there are enough to finish this off.

So there you have it, the windows are done, but I still have a ways to go before the pillow is finished.

Next, I'm going to learn to make my own piping.  Yet, another challenge.  But no rush.  One step at a time.

 P.S.  A special thanks once again to Melissa at Lilac Lane for her tutorial and inspiration!

My Own Private FNSI

Friday could not come quick enough this week.  We don't have spring break in my district til the END of April and we are all feelin' it.  Kids, teachers...all of us are draggin' and cranky.  All I wanted to do today was come home and sew.

I decided to tackle my cathedral windows pillow top first and now have half of the windows completed.  Lovin' it!

 And I must take a moment to give a little plug here for this amazing product I discovered.

The tutorial suggested using a temporary basting spray to hold down the window fabrics til they were sewn in place.  I was a bit skeptical.  AND I have a real sensitivity to any type of fragrance so was leary of trying this.  I had no idea what brand to get so I just dove in, read the labels, compared prices and ...well I just liked the small compact can.  It's odorless and didn't seem to have any adverse affect.

Anyway, this stuff works great.  I'm impressed. When you're sewing these windows you have to flip the block back and forth and I'm amazed at how well it holds those little windows in place. Not sure how it would do for a larger project.  I always pin baste my larger quilts and probably won't change that. 

But for this small project, I'm sold!

Then I worked on my Flower Garden Quilt...but will wait to post pictures for next One Flower Wednesday.

Oh, and I don't think I ever posted my online March finished blocks...just the sneak peeks.  So...

Here's the one for Let's Bee Together:

Tiffany sent the fabric and asked for a Star block.

This pattern is StarFlower from quilterscache.com

And for Block Swap Adventure:

Staci asked for red, white and blue fabric.

This is one of the pattern's she suggested, called Jessie's Flag.

And now it's April 1st...time to get going on the next two blocks.

Hope you had a great friday night!

P.S. And in keeping with the Friday Night Sew In tradition, there should be a giveaway of some kind...and since this was my own private one, I'm treating myself to more Dilly Dally fabric for the backing on my quilt. YAY!

FNSI Results

It's still quite windy outside but I think the rain has stopped.  As I kind of suspected, this week took its toll and kept my progress to a bare minimum. I definitely watched Roger play two tennis matches...and WIN!  So that was great progress ...  although not for my quilting/sewing projects.

As for those, just a tiny bit of progress on my

Be Mine Cathedral Windows pillow.

 Decided on the final layout and spray basted them down.

THEN I completed ONE window...right there at the top.

It's not perfect...but enjoying the process and like it so far!

Not too bad for a sleepy friday night!  Hope yours was productive too.

Down but not out!

Talk about down...two weeks of that awful bug...missed a week of work...and didn't even feel like sewing...or blogging.  I managed to keep up with some of my blog reading, but it was hard to watch all the great projects going on and not being able to work on mine.  But, I am on the mend and got to spend most of my day today sewing.

I thought my Cathedral Windows Pillow was quite appropriate for sewing on a sunday afternoon and I got this much done.

I'm not completely settled on the layout of the fabric but at least I'm to the stage where I can experiment!

I can't wait to start sewing those curves and completing the windows!

Throughout the week, I did manage to do a little work on my embroidery and here's a peek at our latest lighthouses (even though I haven't removed all the markings or pressed them yet, sorry mom!) 

Mine...

and mom's....

We both have one more to go!

Also today I worked on a special project for a very special friend who happened to have a birthday today.  I can't post it til I give it to her, so I'll wait and share it for fabric tuesday.

Anyway, it feels good to be back to sewing and my blog.  That's what really makes me happy!  

  Hope you're keeping well and busy and happy too.

Feb Finishes - March Starts

Hard to believe February has come and gone.  I've been waiting to post my february blocks til both my partners received theirs so here goes:

Block Swap Adventure	Let's Bee Together
Squares within Squares Quilter's Cache	Partners Choice

I've already received all the info for March's blocks, so I will get started on them as soon as I get rid of this nasty cold/cough bug that I caught that is apparently going around. UGH. I haven't felt like sewing or blogging for days...so you know it must be bad!  But I forced myself to do one last post for February because I wanted to let you in on this sewalong I found over at Lilac Lane.

It's a cathedral window pillow Melissa made with pretty Valentine's colors.  Beautiful, huh!!

AND she's doing a sewalong!  I've wanted to try this pattern for a long time and thought this would be a nice "do-able" project to learn from.  Every Wednesday she'll post a step in the process.

I'm going to use this fabric that I've had sitting in my stash for about 3 years.  It's called Gypsy Princess by Hoffman California International.  I just love it and thought it would be perfect for cathedral windows.

Last wednesday we started the background.  I didn't get very far, only because I started getting sick and could no longer sit at my machine.   But I'll catch up soon enough I'm sure.

Anyway, if you're interested, here's a link to the supplies list.

Hope you join!  Now it's back to bed for me.