Day 1 of the Simply Striped Pillow Blog Hop !

            Simply Striped Pillow Blog Hop
                             March 2

Welcome to my first Blog Hop at  Susie's Sunroom!

I invited six "super star" quilters to make a pillow  "any way you like" from  one pattern-   
     the Simply Striped Accent Pillow Pattern   { available on my Craftsy here}!

Each day of the hop,  we will  have a guest blogger and  they will share their own pillow.

I also have a giveaway to share with you at the end of the post!  **The Giveaway is now closed.**

So let's get started!!

Our first quilter, as well as designer, is the talented and artistic Elaine, of Summercrafter blog:                                                     

Meet Elaine    @ Summercrafter  blog

Hi! My name is Elaine the Summercrafter. It used to be that Summer was when I could really enjoy crafting and quilting. Now, I am embarking on a pattern designing business and I couldn't be happier doing something I really enjoy, like making pillows for one. I had a great time doing Susie's Striped Pillow Tutorial (once I decided which fabrics to use).




For me, choosing the fabrics always takes the longest, yep, I over think it!





I am in the process of making a baby quilt for a little bundle of joy due to arrive early in the Summer. Once I had the quilt pieces cut out, squares and rectangles, I had the rest to use for my pillow.




I had to play with Susie's measurements and see which pieces would work best.

Because of the fabric restrictions I encountered, I ended up making two FRONT versions of the pillows. On one side, I used rectangles to make the stripe in the color scheme I was using for the quilt. I love how it pops on the gray.



On the other side, I accented the pillow with orange chevron.

To assemble the pillow, I was able to "patch up" pieces of batting and adhered it using spray baste which I like to use for small projects. I basically had two small quilt tops. After flipping the pillow, I dreaded that closing stitch that never quite comes out as neat as I would like. So I decided to add a little binding for some color contrast and to conceal the stitches.

I left a big opening to stuff the pillow. TIP: Always sew the binding on completely to one side BEFORE stuffing the pillow!





Overall, I have to say Susie's tutorial was really easy to follow, her photographs were very detailed and helpful for us visual learners. You can find the pattern for the pillow right here.


And more pictures...





 ;









I think this pillow can grow up with the baby right through college!

Elaine

Wow!!  I just love Elaine's pillow!!  These fabrics are so vibrant,, and I love the binding addition to my pattern!  This will be a much-treasured gift for that little baby boy!!

The Schedule-    here at Susie's Sunroom  :      
                        

March 2   Elaine    Summercrafter       

March 3   Susie  Susie's Sunroom      

March 4   Geta      Geta's Quilting Studio     

March 5   Sheri   Sunshine in the Attic         

March 6   Lara    BuzzinBumble          

March 7   Amanda    The Patchsmith   

March 8   Amy  Amy Made That!     

Now for the GIVEAWAY :    ~the giveaway is now closed

The Prize:    

Windham Fabrics  Wallflowers charm pack  plus 1 yd  Wallflowers Lattic Green
plus  Easy Angle 6 1/2 " ruler  by Sharon Hultgren

 

The  Prize:

One  Wallflowers  Charm pack   (by Windham Fabrics)  and

One yard -  Wallflowers Lattice Green fabric      and 

 Tool-   Easy Angle 6 1/2 " ruler   by Sharon Hultgren 

To Enter:      Simply leave a comment on this post.
  If you need an idea... you can  tell me ( or confess ) if you have a large or a small fabric stash!

Contest dates:    Monday,  March 2 - Friday,  March 13, 2015   midnight EST * now closed*

Giveaway is open to USA and International friends !!  

If you are a no-reply blogger, you must  leave me your email address so that I can contact you , if you are the winner.   If there is no email address, I will have to do a re-draw and pick another winner.

Good luck everyone!  
Come back tomorrow to see what I  have made for the blog hop!

1. The pattern          2. Summercrafter

I'm off to my sewing room!

Making some Farmers Wife Sampler Blocks

 Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks with  Friday Night Block Party

Weekly Block Party  by Elaine at  Summercrater.com ...   Joining in with Elaine to make blocks and Farmer's Wife Sampler Blocks

Elaine, over at Summercrafter.com ,  has started a linky group ,  called Friday Night Block Party.  We can link up a block that we made during the week, and see what other blocks everyone is making. 

Recently, Elaine began to make some blocks from The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Book, by Laurie Aaron Hird.  I looked up my book, and decided to join in with her.  I want to try to make as many of the blocks as I can, to continue to  improve my block-piecing skills. (But am not worrying about being late or missing some blocks.)  I also joined in the Yahoo Farmer's Wife Sampler group,  where I can access foundation paper pieced patterns for the same blocks and get some advice on the hard blocks. I really love to paper piece, but will challenge myself to do many of  the template pieces, too, for the experience.

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book   sold at Amazon.com

I am going to use my stash for making these blocks.  (Good girl!!)   I have a lot of Denyse Schmidt fabric , in  DS Quilts line, in turquoise, gray, blues, oranges, and teals that I love. 
It will be a scrappy look, I think.

Before I began to sew, I wanted to make sure that several 'size issues' were cleared up in my mind:

• Use scant quarter inch seam allowance?  

 Yes.   I verified that my sewing machine and quarter inch foot worked well, when I sewed  a SCANT quarter inch. After  pressing the seams, it turns out to be a quarter inch seam allowance.   Now, this should allow my templates to be put  together with the right seam allowance size. 

• Print options... print like usual, with "no scaling to page size" ?

Yes.  And,  I  verified that when I also checked the "borderless" print option, the pattern prints out much larger... to make a 7 1/2 inch block , rather than the 6 inch block 

Checking the "borderless" print option made the block bigger than the intended size of 6 inch

• Is the template method or the paper pieced method more accurate (for me)?

 Paper pieced method is more accurate, for me,  for meeting points and keeping the 1/4 inch  seam allowances needed  for putting the blocks together later.

Left block was constructed with templates... I did not have a 1/4 inch seam allowance at the intersection on the right (marked as "here *" )
Right block has all of the seam allowances and the square has all of it 4 points, using the paper pieced construction

After studying all of these issues, I am ready to make the blocks finally!

Elaine started out making the block # 58   Mother's Dream  (page 185 in the book)
My block:    I chose to paper piece it this time.  

#58  Mother's Dream  FWSQ block    by Susie's Sunroom

It did turn out to be a slightly small, measuring in at just under 6 " all around.   I am not going to trim these blocks until I am ready to use them in a project.  I really liked making the one!  You might see some project using this block some time down the road....

The second week, Elaine made Block # 1  Attic Windows.    (page 128)

 #1  Attic Windows   FWSQ block  by Susie's Sunroom

I made it initially using the template method, and had to use the seam ripper a few times to keep  the square "square at the corners".  It is trickier than it looks!  I made this one by paper piecing and was happy with it.

Last week, Elaine  made the #2  Autumn Tints block.  (page 129 )

#2  Autumn Tints  FWSQ block    by Susie's Sunroom

I used the paper pieced method again, as I was under a time constraint.

Since I have 3 blocks made, I'll show you how they look together!

My blocks so far                 Susie's Sunroom

I have some bigger projects to complete soon. But it was very  enjoyable to make these blocks.  I know that I will have fun making a lot of these, and then pick out favorite block patterns to use in other projects.

I'm off to my sewing room!

Linking up to:   Friday Night Block Party @ Summercrafter
          and         Paper Piecing Party @ Quiet Play