Fall Pillow

I had received a few cuts of fall fabric in a mystery box I had purchased a few months ago.  I wouldn't have picked these fabrics myself because they are a little too traditional for my taste, but they really worked out well.  For the design I went with my favorite tried and true disappearing nine patch (4" squares) and added two sets of borders (2" each).  I used an envelope back and for the first time I put a binding on a pillow.  I love how the binding turned out, it really makes the pillow and was worth the extra time for hand stitching.  I don't think I'll do a pillow again without it.  The pillow fit a 14 x14 form.

I also practiced my FMQ stipple with this project.  I wanted to do a trial run for another lap quilt I have basted and ready to quilt...more to follow in another post.

Happy Fall!

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

Purse Insert

If you like to sew bags you must check out Purse Palooza at Sew Sweetness.   One of the reviews was for the Lazy Girl Designs Suzi Purse Insert.  It looked like a great little project so I purchased the pattern on Craftsy and got to work.

The pattern is very well written with lots of pictures.  You need three fat quarters, one for the main inner and outer pieces, one for the outside pocket, and one for the inside pockets.  You can add up to four pockets with this pattern, one or two outside and one or two inside.  I used Pellon 809 Decor-Bond for the interfacing and it is very stable and stands up on its own.

I will definitely be making more of these for Christmas presents.  This is the medium size but the pattern also has a larger size as well. You don't have to use it for your purse, you can use it to store sewing supplies on your craft table!

Linking up with crazy mom quilts.

Mini Tree Skirt

My son loves Christmas (what kid doesn't) and was so upset when we took our tree down last year. To ease his pain we went out and got him his own small tree to keep up a little longer.  He started talking about it again a month ago, so I knew the little tree was going to be even more important to him this year.  I found some new mini lights a few weeks ago along with a gold star.  He came home from Grandma's today with an ornament...so I'm not sure we'll even make it to December before this tree comes out!

To make it special I decided to make a mini tree skirt.  I made a paper template of a 60 degree wedge and used three fabrics.  I cut a quarter sized circle in the center to make room for the trunk.  I used this tutorial for bias cut binding, a must when you have a circle (otherwise it won't lay flat.)  It's going to be super cute with the little tree.

Here it is in progress, so you can see how I put it together:

And finished:

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

Scrappy Pincushions

Another round of pincushions...can't get enough.  These are totally inspired by Amanda Jean from this post.  I used a five inch square of batting and stitched one inch strips right onto the square.  I used crushed walnut shells to fill and also used a layer of Pellon SF101 on the backing square.  I did quilt as you go on one pincushion and quilted a grid on the other two.  They finish up at around 4 inches.

Linking up with crazy mom quilts.