Monday, November 3, 2014

Snowflake Project

I had hoped to have two pillows for this post, but, ya, life jumped into my day.... AGAIN!


So this is Snowflake #4, version 4, of Joanne's Snowalong on her blog, Canuck Quilter.  I took the block and made it into a non-traditional colourway, yet still festive, cushion.

I first added a 1/2" finished white frame around the 9 1/2" block.  Then I added a 2 1/2" pink frame to make a 15" square.  Next, I made a quilt sandwich, layering a square of muslin with a square of batting, and topping it with the block.  The muslin will be on the inside of the cushion, so it won't show.  I quilted it using Sulky Holoshimmer threads...how I LOVE them.  Seriously.  I didn't realize how much I missed them, as I haven't tried them on the Avanté yet.  My Bernina loves them too, as long as I back off the top tension, and feed the spool à la toilet paper roll style, over my stand-alone thread holder and guide which I usually use for cones of thread, and from there into the machine.


I zipped outside last night to get some fast-fading light on it to show off some of the glitz.  I did all of the quilting with my walking foot except for the 4 corner snowflakes, which I FMQ-ed.  The snowflake is a design I love, and which I've used before, from Kathy Sandbach's first book.

Tried stuffing one edge between the bricks to hold it on the wall for more light...sort of...  I used an iridescent and a hot pink Holoshimmer.  Did I mention how much I love that thread?  Well, Sulky, period.  Not getting anything for saying that.  It's just a fact:  I love their threads.

Close-up of the corner FMQ snowflakes in sparkly hot pink thread:


For the pillow back, I cut two rectangles, 10.5" X 15".  I finished one 15" edge on each rectangle with a 1/2" seam.


Then I placed one of the now 10X15" rectangles wrong sides together, on top of the front quilt sandwich piece.

Add the second, still wrong side of pillow back to wrong side of quilt sandwich.  The seamed edges will overlap by about 5".

From this point, I pinned, and then stitched 1/4" around all 4 sides.  For the binding, I cut a piece of pink batik 2 1/4" wide that would go around the quilt pillow sandwich.  Machine-stitched it down from the front, turned it to the back of the pillow and hand-stitched it down.

I slipped in a 14" cushion form and voilà!  Christmas gift ready to be given!  I've written on the muslin inside the cushion cover, but I can't show that or I'll ruin a surprise...


Note that the elephant ears plants are not so happy anymore, after that 28-degree night and cold north gale-force winds on the weekend.  Here's one last outdoor shot close-up.  I'm really happy with this gift!


 Linking up with Anything Goes Mondays, guest host today is Helen of Till We Quilt Again!




5 comments:

  1. I enjoy seeing your Flakes!! They are so nice and I like how you are using a different background color.
    I also wanted to Thank You for stopping by and linking up with “Anything Goes Monday”. I so have enjoyed being a guest host and meeting so many new quilty friends. I have started to follow allot new bloggers however I have been following you for quit sometime and enjoy your posts. Yours is one of the sites where I get excited to see you name pop up in my In Box!

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  2. Pretty pretty pretty! Love the color, love the quilting... You know, I wasn't sure if I should include that version of the snowflake, but I'm glad I did. It looks great made up.

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  3. Love this! I'm glad you made this snowflake - I am definitely adding this one to my snowflakes that have to be in my quilt :) Love the pillow. . . I might have to make more snowflakes (when I get back to them....) and make some pillows too. See what you did? ;)

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  4. Where can I purchase these patterns? I went to Craftys and they didn't show up.

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    1. Hi, sorry you are a no-reply blogger so I have no contact info for you. Hope you come back and find my response here! Look up Canuck Quilter on Craftsy. The link I provided on this post to her Snowalong still works; I checked it just now. Hope that helps!

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