Category Archives: pillow

Making Crafty Valentines

February 14th 2017

It’s February!

After Christmas, this is my favorite month for creating, sewing, I get so many ideas for making crafty Valentines. I love all the lovely pink and red fabrics that make the sweetest eye candy for any creative project you can think of (or steal from Pinterest).

i heart fabric summercrafter

There is always such a variety of crafting, wrapping and heart-y goodies in some stores, I find it hard to resist! This loot is from Target dollar bin section.

valentines goodies summercrafter

Growing up, Valentine’s Day was always a great “Gal-entine” day celebrating with friends, going to card shops, movies, shopping and getting ice cream. When I was a teacher, it was always a great time making crafty valentines with construction paper in the classroom to put in our special mailbox.

wood heart sign Romans 58 summercrafter

This year, my bestie from Texas was in town and we shared a crafting day, it’s another great way to spend the day gabbing, painting and creating. This wooden heart was part of my Target loot. We painted them and cut vinyl letters on the Cricut to make this verse, Romans 5:8a. A beautiful mess summercrafter

We made a beautiful mess, a nice memory and a crafty Valentine, such a great time!

summercrafter and friend

Needless to say, my crafting and sewing for heart day did not end there. I made this cute I Heart You Mini , tutorial and pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew. I am sending it off to one of my favorite fabric enablers 😉 To be enabled yourself, follow her on Instagram @oneygirldestash for her fabric goodies.

iheartmini summercrafter

After making this, I had planned on making another mini but started playing with scraps to make heart pillows, small ones for doorknobs, sidetracked for sure.

heart from scraps summercrafter

I knew these babies would get lost in pillow puffiness so I “log-cabinized” them with more scrap pretties. So fun!

log cabin hearts summercrafter

They turned out so cute! All that was missing was some fragrant filler. I’ll have to buy some lavender.

heart pillows summercrafter

Then I started toying with more scraps. I sewed 4 random strips together, folded them in half to cut these heart shapes.

stitched hearts summercrafter

Once I added the batting, I stitched around the outline and instantly loved the result. Why hadn’t I done this before?

Sadly, I sewed them up and sent them away so quickly, I do not have the final product photo to show you. Shame on me! You can be sure they went to good homes and I should have those pics soon.

Baby Dean

April 23rd 2015

A new baby is almost here! He’s due to arrive very close to my birthday which is also exciting. Although I probably won’t meet him for a while, I have enjoyed making soft things for his new room (and his brother.) His mom chose the color palette which is really great for a boy, he can grow up and never have to change his room!

Here is the pillow I made, more about that here.

The quilt pattern was very simple and masculine, squares and rectangles in a repeating color palette of blue, gray and orange with white.

I got the fabrics over at Stitchin’ Stash on Etsy. Julie always goes the extra mile showing me how fabrics look together. I used nine fat quarters, three of each color.

From each fat quarter I cut two 4 1/2″ squares and two 4 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ rectangles, for a total of 6 per color. (I used the remaining fat quarters to make the pillow.) From white, I cut thirty 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangles for in-between the shapes plus nine 2 1/2″ x WOF (width of fabric) for the sashing.

I also found the perfect backing to accent the baby room decor.

Then it was time to sew, it came together so fast!

I also made some arrow pillows, couldn’t help myself!

Choosing which thread to use for the quilting proved difficult. I had to make samples to be sure. While blue was the color of choice, the orange retained it’s integrity better over the blue fabric. So ORANGE it was!! I did go with the stipple design to offset all the straight edges.

The quilt size is 38″ x 50″.

I also tried machine binding which was perfect!

I really LOVE, LOVE, how it came out!

Happy Birthday Baby Dean!

It Starts Today!

March 2nd 2015

Today is the day!

Hop on over to Susie’s Blog andcheck out my Simply Striped Pillow.

This was such a fun project thanks Susie!! Below are the other participants. Tomorrow Susie will feature her own pillows.

On March 3rd, Susie herself right from her Sunroom!

On March 4th, meet the very skilled Geta from Geta’s Quilting Studio

On March 5th, meet Sheri, Multi-project extraordinairre, from Sunshine in the Attic

On March 6th, meet lovely Lara from Buzzin’ Bumble

On Marth 7th, meet Amanda the Most Clever Mug Rug Designer better known as The Patchsmith and

ON March 8th, Susie’s very own sister, Amy from Amy Made That (my very first quilty bloggy friend)

The Valentine Fabric that kept giving and giving

February 6th 2015

It all started with some great fabric I wanted to use for Valentine Day projects just because the colors and themes are so pretty a Valentine is not required! I was eager to start because anything I made I knew would be beautiful.This little pillow is where it ended but certainly not where it started.

Remember how I wanted to do some

If you will recall, I started with this sweet bundle of fat quarters I got over at Stitchin’ Stash on Etsy.

The first thing I cut were these for an upcoming pattern (#7)

From some of those leftovers, I cut strips for this wreath (which is still in progress).

When I trimmed the wreath, because it was too floppy, I got these tiny squares and they were too cute to toss.

I thought these scraps could still be salvaged and displayed on some burlap frames I had.

With the remaining squares, I cut triangles about 1 inch or less, estimation not perfection here. I love pennants aren’t they adorable? That square is about 6 inches. I started to sing that song from camp so many years ago “His banner over me is love….”

And that’s when the pillow was born, a little embroidery, scrap strips, some poly and there you go.

To make PILLOW you will need:

6 inch square of linen or tightly woven burlap

6 inch square of fusible interfacing

6 inch square muslin and/or batting for behind embroidery

11 inch backing piece

One 2 or 2 1/2 inch strip by WOF

Scrap triangles, embroidery thread & hoop

Optional: disappearing ink pen, micron pen, spray baste

Press the 6 inch square of linen or tight knit burlap onto the fusible interfacing. Stitch the triangles on as you desire. You can dot them with glue to keep them in place or sew as you go. First across the top, then back in “V” shape to keep points down. With disappearing quilter’s pen, draw lines in open area with a ruler to keep letters straight. Write your message on the lines using a micron pen or similar. Put the square in a hoop to embroider using a back stitch. See video here. Attach the muslin, neutral square with fusible or use basting spray on batting. Sew strips to top, bottom (trim and press) repeat with sides of the square. With right sides together, sew around the front and back of pillow squares, leaving a 3 inch gap for turning, stuff and close. If you need a visual tutorial leave a comment and I’ll make one!

I still have 2 more pillows to go and am still wondering if I should keep the same verse Song of Solomon 2:4 “His banner over me is love,” or change to Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love” or 1 Corinthians 13:13 “But the greatest of these is love.”

And you know those “strings” you get when squaring and trimming fat quarters? Yep, saved those too!

Skinny Pinny Swap!

February 24th 2014

Oh no! It’s in the mail!!! I was so excited to be a part of this Skinny Pinny Swap. Oh, what is a Skinny Pinny Swap you ask? Well, thankfully it has nothing to do with a diet! Amy from Amy Made That! is hosting this pin cushion swap. She talked all about it over here, They are supposed to be in the mail by Feb. 28. So I hurried up and mailed mine without taking a picture!

Here is the first draft I made just to practice. I hate pillow seams, I mean closing seams because it’s hard to make them invisible or unnoticeable. Then my squares started coming undone because I snipped the thread to close. See why I need a “practice” one? Not to mention that I got all fancy like trying to use leftover squares and scraps to give it more personality.

I did follow the pattern for the one I swapped (using similar fabrics) and I added a little bonus in the package for the recipient. (Hope you like it Catherine!)

Take a look at the adorable skinny pinny Amy has created, and look here to see the innovations this skinny pinny has.

These are just so cute, you’ll have to run out and make a few of your own with those pretty scraps you been wanting to “clean” up.

And just for fun, because you never have enough pin cushions, she made these Itty bitty witty log cabins.

Get the play by play of those here and see where the inspiration comes from! Great job Amy. I can’t wait to get my Skinny Pinny!

Summercrafter

Craft. Quilt. Unwind.