March Pillow Party - in pictures. Lots of them.

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get my entry posted for the

Well seriously I DO have a few more hours, so in my procrastinating mind I am way ahead!

The story of this pillow begins back in October 2009 when I saw THIS tutorial by Alison at Cluck Cluck Sew. I loved the pillow and the tutorial and made one for College Girl to match her sophomore year quilt. But I knew I wanted to do more with that same method. The mug rugs that I made recently were branching out from that pillow, using the free motion quilting to applique the shapes on to the background fabric. I liked giving the pieces some texture with the quilting stitches.

My idea for this month's pillow starting brewing back in January. I knew that I wanted a cherry blossom tree for March. My first rough sketch.

Yeah I sketch in a graph paper spiral notebook. I also draw out quilt blocks, quilt layouts, figure measurements for yardage and even cookie designs.

My refined sketch;

Notice how I can't even commit to an entire page? When I sketch the graph paper means nothing as far as size of the finished project, it is just paper.

I was determined to use what I had on hand for this pillow since I AM trying not to purchase fabric unless absolutely necessary. These are the Kona solids that I had in my stash that would work;

Although in my head a lighter, shimmery, sheer pink would have been lovely.

I didn't trust myself to draw the tree and sloping grass covered ground backwards onto the WonderUnder so I drew it out the way I wanted the end product, made notes on it and then flipped it over and traced around it on the WonderUnder.



I decided to use a pale pale pink Kona solid 'cloud' under all of the petals so that most of the area seen between petals would appear to be pink petals and not sky.


College Girl wanted to help so I set her to work with my Sizzix die cut press to cut out all of the petals. Neither one of us counted how many she made but I used them all. In fact she made one petal backed with WonderUnder and then I decided that was not going to work but late last night I ended up pulling the backing paper off and using that petal as well. I arranged them and rearranged them. I too pictures to see the placement from a different viewpoint. I used a Elmer's Washable School Glue Stick (in Disappearing Purple)to glue each petal down. I pulled up a few of the glued down petals and relocated them. Then I let it all sit overnight. I wanted to see if I would like what I saw in the morning.


I did! So I got to work with the free motion quilting. What I had envisioned for the grass didn't work out so I just started moving the fabric and this is what I came up with.

The tree bark was easy. I had done the trees on my mug rugs and really liked how they turned out so I just went with that same style. I used black thread to make the bark appear darker than just the brown Kona.

Free motion quilting of the flower centers;

I just went from blossom to blossom and cut all the threads when I was finished. MUCH quicker that way.

The finished pillow - Cherry Blossoms.


I left it on the couch after College Girl and I both took pictures of it and when hubby came in from work he said "CUTE PILLOW!".

I'm going to link up with amylouwho's Sew & Tell too.

Praise - for the new baby girl born into our church family!

Prayers - continued prayers for Joanne. She was to have surgery yesterday and her husband has not posted an update yet.

February Pillow Party

Linking up my entry for the

This isn't what I thought I was going to make when February started but as the deadline to enter drew closer I knew I couldn't get my first idea finished. So I switched gears and made a pillow that I have been wanting to try. Hubby just so happened to clean out his closet the other day and I grabbed two of his t-shirts for future projects.

I took a lot of pictures, trying to get the color to be true and dealing with another overcast day. When I was ready to come put them on the computer I passed the Bliss baby quilt and thought they would go great together.


I'm pretty happy with it and keep playing with the ruffles.

Yesterday I made this mug rug, 'close to mirror image' from the one that I made in January for College Girl. She works in mailing services on campus and when she opened her package one of her co-workers fell in love with the mug rug. She said something along the lines of wishing that I would make one for her. College Girl asked if she was serious and she said, "yes!". She may have given up hope or forgotten about it by now. I hope she will be surprised when the package arrives later this week.


Linking up with AmyLouWho's February Sew & Tell.



Praise - my nephew's friend, Grant, appears to have had a restful night, his fever broke and his heart rate normalized.

Prayers - for a miracle for Grant.

More of January

Just a few more things I wanted to share with you about January before it is a distant memory for all of us.

I knew what I wanted for a Christmas ornament in 2010 once the tree was up but I didn't spend any time looking for it until after Christmas. I found dearjes on Etsy and fell in love with her little nests. We had a few conversations via Etsy messages and she was able to personalize an empty nest just for me! It has a great clip on the bottom so it can be attached to the tree.
Isn't it adorable? An empty nest to commemorate that my children are both off to college.

One of the things on my list of goals - learn to decorate sugar cookies. With some of the money that I received for Christmas I have been buying some supplies to help with that goal. Here is my first attempt.

I was pretty pleased with how it went. I shipped the majority of these off to the kids. They were really excited about them. I love that about my kids.

Here was my second attempt. Uhhhhh, not as nice. I had leftover icing and so I made up another batch of cookies to practice. I brought the refrigerated icing to room temperature and boy, oh boy! It was all I could do to keep it on the cookies! So different from the first experience. Hubby has the job of eating all of these. I know they aren't pretty, just keeping it real!


To go along with College Girl's cookies I made this Mug Rug for her. I have seen these all around blog land, wasn't really sure of them then something clicked and I wanted to make one. I played with my design for awhile, on the back of envelopes and on some scratch paper. I got all of the pieces cut out and applied to the background and then I just stalled. I was afraid of messing it up with the free motion quilting to outline the figures. I finally decided to go with the same color thread on each piece rather than a black/charcoal sketchy look. I was pretty sure my stitching would be such a mess and that I would hate the dark thread.


I even surprised myself by 'coloring outside the lines' and making the bird's little top knot.


I actually liked creating the tree bark effect. The little clumps of snow were the hardest since they were so small.


I even liked how the back looked! But I did cover it with a piece of the blue w/snowflakes like the front just to keep those stitches protected.


With a mug to give you an idea of the size. I used a tutorial I found at That girl... That quilt for applying the binding by machine. Thanks, Jennifer! What a time saver that was! I cut the binding at 2" wide so there wouldn't be so much overlap on such a small project.

I'm linking up to the Quiltstory blog for Fabric Tuesday. Their button is on the right at the top if you want to link up too!

I did also do some reading this month. Two non-fiction books. One of them called HOME by Julie Andrews. It didn't thrill me at all. Slow, too many details that didn't interest me at all. Sorry, Julie. You sing pretty though!

The other was a fantastic page turner called In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Opdyke. Just incredible what she went through. I can't imagine doing any of the things she did, it takes a certain kind of courage for sure. I highly recommend this book.

For January I also memorized two verses of scripture. Psalm 65:11 to start the year off and then Psalm 46:1.

No scrapbooking, not a lot of exercise, the eating was healthier than December!

Okay, bring on February!

Praise - for the family that God has given me, individuals who love and appreciate one another and the things we do for each other.

Prayers - for Joanne of The Simple Wife, Sandi of my online scrapping friends, and Katy from church, who all need continued prayer for the health struggles they are facing.