Field Study Pillow (and Winners!)

 Last month was my buddy Kristin's birthday and I wanted to make her something she'd love. You probably know her for being my partner in crime for Film Petit and an all-around genius seamstress, but she also listens to all kinds of craziness from me and some days keeps me going sewing wise. So the pressure was on to make something that would impress even the best of sewists.

The design is a granny square made like this tutorial, except I started the squares at 3.5" instead of 2.5" and added a 3.5" sashing. I also used beautiful Anna Maria Horner Field Study fabric from Sewn Studio that I knew Kristin liked.

Then I decided to just try something crazy I'd never done before. Great potential to completely screw up something beautiful that you just made= weird sewing rush. I don't know, maybe that's just me?

So I outlined the seams of the squares with straight lines and then did dense pebble quilting all around the white part. I have done some loopy free motion quilting a few times before, but it still doesn't come easy to me. This kind was stressful. It took a long time. It used a gigantoid amount of thread. When I was done, my shoulders ached and I pretty much hated the way it looked. I shoulda had some wine to relax while I was doing it. But after I put the back on and finished the pillow up with a zipper, it magically became better. I loved it. I wanted to keep it, which is a great feeling to have when you've made a gift for a sewing friend. (I liked it so much, I actually made the pillow top up again exactly the same way for our own couch! That probably won't get finished up until after Christmas though...)

These are both pictures Kristin took of the pillow on her bed. It looks pretty great in her room! You can read more on what she thinks here. Thank goodness for good sewing and blogging friends.






I haven't forgotten about the winners of last week's giveaway! The winner of one full set of my hand stitched Charlie Brown Christmas ornaments is...

#64 Bree!

"ack!!! Those ornaments are seriously to die for!!!!!
My favorite tv special was Emmitt Otter's Jugband Christmas. It was actually a tv special before I was born, and my mom recorded it on vhs. I totally wore the VHS out! My favorite christmas movies are the tim allen Santa Clause trio now, but those were never a tv special :) I can go on alllllll day about Christmas movies!"


The winner of one yard of Jay McCarroll's Habitat fabric is...

#58 Sara!

"I love the charlie brown christmas actually, especially the music. Can't believe you have the drop cloth fabric - awesome!"


I'm so glad to know they are enthusiastic about their prizes! I'll be emailing you both, congrats. 

The One I Love to Hate Making

It's curtains. They are probably the most mundane and boring thing to make ever. But once I finish making them, I immediately feel a great satisfaction and want to make more. Is it just me?

So I have two of these new ones in the living room. The fabric is Dear Stella, which I got here with some of my Project Run & Play winnings. (Though they seem to be out of this particular print.) I wanted something light and summery. We live in a little apartment that we can't paint, and at first I thought I had picked something too dull against our boring off-white walls. But after a day or two I started to love the way they looked. It's a great neutral feel that allows for all kinds of colorful quilts and pillows. 

This is what the old panels looked like. They were my very first sewing project almost 5 years ago! It's a pretty fabric, but I just got so sick of all the brown. Time for a change. 

Like I said, after those were finished I felt I was on a window-face-lifting roll, so I made a new one for my dining room as well. It's pink. PINK! I never buy pink fabric. Or pink anything. This was on way clearance, so the 2.5 yards for one panel only ran me $7. It was meant for something else, but at that price, why not try a pink curtain for a while? Nick was pretty stoic about my unannounced girly pinksplosion. It was much more satisfying than actually cleaning my window, obviously.

Then yesterday at work, I had the great pleasure of unwrapping Anna Maria Horner's new Field Study line straight off the UPS truck. I could not stop obsessing over these prints and all the things I wanted to make with them. If you aren't convinced, just know that they are stunning in person. I managed to leave work without buying a single bit of it, but as you can see I made some tentative plans. Of course, not all of these will come to fruition, but it sure is fun to fantasize.

And I really want to make a quilt with these softer and oranger colors. Sooooooo gorgeous.