Say it with Flowers! {and cozy up with a pillow}

Hello everybody!
Welcome to my stop on the Say it with Flowers! blog hop with Mdm Samm @ Sew Quilt, with Carol of Just Let Me Quilt as cheerleader!  thank you ladies for another fun blog hop!

I made a new pillow, yay!  {the kids have been fighting over the Sashiko pillow I made.  3 kids : 1 pillow isn't a good ratio.  We are up to 3 : 2 now, getting better, *grin*} 



My project was inspired by Lucy @ Charm About You, who was inspired by a tutorial on Chasing Cottons.  Don't you just love the sharing of great ideas and beautiful work in blogland?  :)



This is my pillow back, I just made a simple envelope closure.  All the fabrics except the white background are DS for Joans.  That white has been in my stash for years.  {Years and Years and Years, people.  It is definitely time to put it to use}  :)



the flowers are all raw edge fusible appliqued on.  This red & white flower was stitched on mostly using my walking foot.  It didn't take long for me to remember how much I dislike machine applique {funny how Lucy's cute flowers made me completely forget that!} and I decided to stitch the rest of them with the FMQ foot during quilting.  The leaf on the left was FMQed, the leaf on the right walking foot stitched, just for comparison.  I definitely like the look of the walking foot leaf better, but it was driving me nuts.





In this picture you can sort of see the print on the white fabric.  Not quite flowers, not quite bubbles, but I think it works :)



I don't have a pillow form yet, so it is still looking a bit flat :) 
Here is the pillow posing next to a handsome bear to help show size.  Not one of my better ideas, since this only helps if you know how big the bear is!  Oh well, the pillow is about 10 inches square :)

Here is the rest of today's schedule, I'll be taking my coffee with me around to see all the pretty flowers! :)

May 30^th

A Quilt Lady

The House On The Side Of The Hill

Ella & Nesta’s Little Room

CLF by Nailaa

Atelier De Handwerktuin

Life, Quilts, and A Cat Too

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Celtic Thistle

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Dreaming In Patchwork  < That's Me!

Around The Homestead

tiny deer & Nerf darts

Last Christmas, I  bravely gifted my three sons with Nerf dart guns ;)    Son #3 bought himself extra ammo with a gift card a relative had given him, but he never opened up the package of extra darts.  Two days ago he told me he wasn't going to open it up until he had something to put his darts into so they wouldn't get lost.  Naturally, I offered to sew him something :)



I showed him several fabrics from my stash to choose from.  He said he wanted something that went with darts.

 



He chose three different colors of the Tiny Deer print from Momo's Oh Deer! fabric line, and he was very specific about what color went where :)

I used a red ribbon that has been hanging around for ages. 



I used the free lined drawstring bag tutorial over at In Color Order. 
Son #2 has already picked out fabric for his own little bag, and Son #1 would like one, too.
I just love a good excuse to sew for my boys :)

Linking up to these fine parties:  Freemotion by the River, Made by Me, Show and Tell Tuesday, You Flew, Fabric Tuesday, Link a finish Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF @ Charm About You and Submarine Sunday

another quilt started....

Hello, my name is Allison



and I suffer from enjoy every minute of an addiction to starting new quilt projects.



new enablers followers are always welcome :)



less than 24 hours from inspiration to a completed top {on the right} & backing {on the left}.  I think this is a new record for me, even if the finished quilt will only be 24 inches square :)

All the fabrics are left over from a Hungry Caterpillar quilt I made for one of my sons.  You can read about that here. 

See the inspiration block at Thread Robin.

This little quilt is going to be donated to  the Barbara Bush Pediatric Intensive Care unit at Maine Medical center through Knight's quilt shop.

I'm linking up to TGIFF over at Sew Hungry today! {because a finished top & back are something to celebrate, right?}

Sashiko pillow

I must apologize for the completely rubbish photos, but I had to take them in indoor lighting.  It has been cloudy and rainy here, and will be for the next week if the weatherman is telling the truth. 

the color should be a navy blue, but you get the idea, right?



I loved doing the Sashiko stitches, it was a relaxing project to take out and about.  Most of it was done during little league baseball games :)





I made an envelope closure on the back of the pillow with the kitty fabric I bought last April from the quilt show I went to with my Mom and SIL.  The pillow is 18" square.  If I can get some better pictures another day, I will share them with you.

linking up to: Freemotion by the River, You Flew! Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, Made by Me #81, link a finish Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts,  Submarine Sunday, and Threading My Way

the accidental quilt

Do you remember the quilt I accidentally started?  {those innocent looking layer cakes just hanging around the sewing room are like WIP list landmines waiting to explode!}



It all started with a layer cake I won last year, and now have 168 HSTs.



It was surprising just how many episodes of Arrested Development it took to get them all trimmed up! {season 4 starting in 6 days! whoo-hoo!}

This fabric is not my usual color/style preference {although I do find them quite lovely}, but they go great in my living room.  I'm not sure what that says about me?  :)

Linking up to Design Wall Monday! Because Monday is just so Monday, and we could all use a party to liven things up a bit, right? :)

Looking back on April

Here is what I spent April sewing:

 

 1. Easter bunnies for my sons  2. Rainbow Flying Geese Quilt.  3. My first ever Sashiko!  4.  I joined a charm swap, also a first for me!  5. pom-pom scarf  6. 9 and 1/2 ugly {on purpose} string blocks

I have also made progress on a couple quilt WIPs, but they aren't very photo worthy yet.  Soon, I hope :) 

One new quilt was started in April, completely by accident.  No, really, I had every intention of finishing at least two quilts before starting another.  Then one day I was cleaning up my sewing room, and I was thinking it would help clear out my closet if this layer cake wasn't just sitting there unused.  I had that sucker cut down to 5" squares and was turning them into HSTs before it hit me - I just started a new quilt.  Oops   ;)