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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Lots of squares and a circle

Chequers throw quilt

Stitch, Winter 2012The Winter 2012 issue of Stitch is out, my first as a contributing editor! Three of my projects are in the issue, including the Chequers Throw Quilt above. Since Stitch is a sewing magazine rather than specifically quilting-oriented, the quilts I submit to them are usually fairly simple—things any sewist could make without needing a lot of experience in quiltmaking. This is definitely one of those.

The inspiration for the design came from a wallpaper by Lucienne Day, one of my favorite mid-century pattern designers. The wallpaper was similarly made up of blocks of black, solid color, and more textured designs, which struck me as lending itself very readily to a pieced quilt. Rather than mimicking the textures of the squares in Day’s design (the reference photo I had was too small anyway), I picked fabrics with gridded and crosshatched designs that would echo the piecing pattern (that’s what the text in the magazine should say—a line got dropped from the intro). For such a simple quilt, I’m pleased with how much depth the prints lent.

Wool Tiles Pillow

Clearly I had squares on the brain when I was working on this issue. For this Wool Tiles Pillow, I went for a looser, more freehand look. I always like wool projects that only need bits and pieces, since I can never seem to find yardage of nice wool when I need it.

Pleated Pillow

One of the fun features in this issue is a “Pillow Fight” challenge, for which fellow Stitch contributors Carol Zentgraf and April Moffatt and I each came up with a pillow using fabric designed by Anna Bondoc in the course of a Cloth Paper Scissors series. In the article I describe how I tried to play “fabric whisperer” and let the fabric speak to me—see what it said to the other designers and get patterns for all three pillows and plenty more in the Winter issue of Stitch!

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Free pattern: Hexagon pincushion

hexagon pincushion

When I originally posted my hexagon pincushion tutorial, it was with the assumption that you’d use an AccuQuilt die cutter to cut out the fabric. Of course, that’s not to say you couldn’t make it with templates and scissors! To hand out at my quilt guild, I made up some “recipe cards” with illustrated steps on one side and templates on the other.

AQ_Go Baby tutes

If you want to make your own hex pincushion, you can download the PDF here and print it either onto a 4×6" index card or 2-up on a single letter page. I’m partial to the index card format myself, but then again, I’m a sucker for anything formatted as an index card. I can’t be the only one…

Thursday, August 02, 2012

A trio of corded pillows

corded pillow trio

Between visiting family, a retreat with my appliqué friends, and some big work deadlines, I haven’t had a lot of time to commune with my sewing machine lately. But when I got the samples back from shooting my video, I fit in a quick sewing session to make some siblings for the corded houndstooth pillow from the demo.

corded pillows, closer

I really liked the original pillow’s black-and-white woven suiting framed with bright cord, so to round out the trio I used two more classic suitings, a herringbone and a nubby textured fabric, each with a different color for the piping. Using the envelope backing I show in the video made them quick, cheap, and easy additions to the sofascape, with just a bit of color and just a bit of texture.

What are your favorite simple pillow ideas?


cover_stitchwrksp_20010Learn to sew cording, envelope-backed throw pillows, and more in Secrets of Home Décor Sewing!

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