“I Love Lucy” Pillow for Aunt D

 

My aunt D (the one who gifted me her stash) LOVES “I love Lucy.” Ages ago I bought a set of Lucy fabrics from keepsake quilting. (And by “ages” I mean probably six or seven years ago, which as far as my quilting goes is pretty far back.) I’ve used the fabric once or twice to make ornaments but I don’t think I’d ever made a pillow before. I decided she should have one!  I pulled the different fabrics and started planning.

The fabric is from the chocolate factory episode. One fabric has large blocks with stills/scenes from the episode. I fussy cut one and decided to make more patches of the same size. One is a four-patch, and the other two are also fussy cut with borders. I added the yellow strips to get the size I wanted – I believe I used a 16-inch pillow.

I pinned it to a piece a batting and started my quilting. For the yellow fussy cut patch I did just a square to frame it. I framed the other two fussy cut pictures of Lucy. Pretty much all the other quilting is straight line quilting – probably about 3/8″ apart. I used coordinating thread – pale pink, pale yellow, and mint green.

I used another print for the back, this one featuring Lucy and Ethel with Ricky and Fred. I bound it with a print of the I Love Lucy logo on a pink background. I’ve never bound a pillow before. I thought it looked cute but I found it to be harder to sew down. I was trying not to sew through all the layers but now I think I probably should have – it would hold better.

How cute is this?

October Stash Bee Block: Flying Cloud Star

Hive 7 of the Stash Bee made blocks for Lori this month.  Lori asked for any star block in any size, as long as it used darker blues and reds and creams. She wanted an “Americana” feel.

I looked through my “501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks” book (by Judy Hopkins) and chose the Flying Cloud star because I liked the look and the name.  (Isn’t that pretty? Flying Cloud?)

I made the 12″ block.  I didn’t exactly follow the layout instructions for the fabric.  I used the same fabric for all the center pieces: this cute chevron fabric.  I had it leftover from this runner that I made for Z’s dad.

I made my star points out of scrappy blues.  Of course I put all the outer pieces on upside down and had to take them off and redo them. I think the final block looks great!

Lori asked us what our favorite block is and have we ever used it in a quilt.  I LOVE the Drunkard’s Path quilt that I made for myself, so I guess I’d say that.  I’m not sure it’s actually my favorite block, but you can do so much with it!

Improv-pieced trivet/hot pad

My cousin likes to cook and bake, so I decided to make her a trivet/hotpad for her birthday. I had been playing around with leftover cream and pastel scraps from the bee block I made for Carla in August (see here).  I ended up with two rectangular pieces, blocks that were about the right size for a trivet.

I sandwiched them with two layers of batting between them to protect a table or countertop. I picked a side to be the “top” and quilted straight lines in the different sections, leaving the blue and white print unquilted.

In most sections I used white thread (or maybe cream? I can’t remember now but it looks white to me in the picture) and for the outer sections – the lavender and the pieces that complete the “square” I used lavender thread.

Here’s the back:

I bound it with a semi-scrappy lavender binding (because I ran out of the polka dot).  C likes purple.

I was worried that it might be too improv – maybe that’s not her style, you know? – but she liked it, so we were both happy in the end.

 

Dog Pillows

Remember my August stash report, where I mentioned dog pillows that I thought I’d already posted about?  Here’s the post, finally!

Z has kindly sacrificed his old pillows to make dog beds.  The pillows were gross; they felt tacky to the touch. (This picture doesn’t properly capture their weird greenish color.) He insisted they weren’t that old, but I convinced him that he was better off using my nice clean pillows instead.

So his pillows are going to a local shelter, with new coverings.  I pulled a bunch of fabrics and then changed my mind about three times. In the end, one pillow was done with red/orange fabrics and one with purple and leftover flannel from the back of my niece’s quilt. I’ve had those flannels in my stash for ages and ages. I still have some left. I thought the flannels would be nice for the dogs.

Pillow one:

Pillow two:

Pillow number three is made of an old cardigan of mine. It’s so soft but once in the laundry something bled on it and left pink marks. I’ve been filling it with threads and all the tiny scraps of fabric and batting that I’ve generated over the course of the summer. I added regular polyester batting from Michael’s to fill the rest and then I sewed it up.

 

Stash Bee: Wonky Churn Dash Blocks for September

Hi habibis!  This post should have gone up last week, but last week was kind of crazy around here.  I have a lot going on in my personal life, and in trying to get all my quilting – and everything else – done, the blog suffers.  Anyway, for September in the Stash Bee we made wonky churn dashes in tan, red, orange, and pink for Jane.  They were fun to make!

If you’ve noticed the one on the right looks a bit small, you have a good eye!  I didn’t follow the cutting directions properly with the first one; I cut all nine units to the same size, so it came out too small.  I sent it along anyway – I thought it was cute and Jane might like it for the something.

Jane asked us what colors and prints we would add to our stash.  I think orange, actually, because it can be very hard to find the right orange, if that makes sense.

Tomorrow I will hopefully have a post on my September stash report and get myself back on schedule.