Tumbling blocks with aqua and linen

Yet another tumbling blocks pillow, but this one will live in my house.

After the last pillow talk swap, the boys in the house were really loving the tumbling blocks design - they like everything that looks 3-D, so I decided to make another one.

This time I chose natural linen and aqua colors because they fit in well with the living room sofa and coordinate with the other existing pillows. I also used a gray linen and lots of different prints of aqua fabric.

I used 2" 60 degree triangles this time, so my blocks are a bit bigger. I also got to try out my new free motion quilting design which I've been practicing for the ORBC FMQ QAL ~ translation: Old Red Barn Company Free-motion Quilting Quilt-along led by Debbie Brown. ha! That's a mouthful! Here's a close-up...

And on a completely different note: I made key lime cupcakes using a recipe recommended by Emily of Crazy Old Lady quilts - I made cupcakes instead of a cake because we are on a cupcake kick at our house. OMG! So Yummy!! I modified the recipe by adding some lime zest to both the batter and the frosting oh and I used regular white cake mix because my store didn't carry lemon. Delish!! Try it out!

Happy Sewing and Baking!

Summertime!

Summer! It's officially here! And it calls for a new beach tote, don't you think?Well, yeah! And all things beachy and water-related and well, you know, summery!

I really love large-scale prints, and I thought this new Loulouthi print from Anna Maria Horner would be perfect for summer.

I used the laminate version for the outside of the bag to help keep it from getting soiled/wet. I don't think I've sewn a bag with laminate before and I will say it was a bit of a challenge but more on that later. I used the multi-tasker tote pattern for this bag which I have made many times and it's the perfect all purpose tote-about and a great size for just about everything. Plus it whips up super fast, what's not to love?

So I guess if you are going to sew laminate you really need to get one of those teflon coated feet or roller foot to help the foot glide over the plastic. I don't have one of those feet, so I made do by placing a sheet of paper over the seam and sewing on that to help it glide which worked pretty well. The paper rips off easily afterwards, but I really should've used something more like tissue rather than standard computer paper. Some of my top stitching is a bit wonky where the paper pulled the stitches a bit - so I'm not going to show you any close-ups. It's a pool bag so I'm gonna roll with it - drink another margarita and forget all about my wonky stitching. It's summertime right? ~ no stress allowed!

Happy Sewing!

PTS 5

It's that time again in Flickr-land, time for the ever popular Pillow Talk Swap, round 5.

This is a quickie round without the full compliment of usual cohorts, but quite fun nevertheless. Partners were given out a few weeks ago and I've just finished up my pillow for this round. I hope my partner likes it! My partner is a bit more of a traditional quilter from what I can tell, so I hope that this choice reflects their tastes. I chose to go with english paper-piecing of 60 degree diamonds into these tumbling block shapes.

The Y chromosomes in my house both liked it but then again, they are always eyeballing things with Escher-esque overtones, so that was no surprise.

Lots of bright colors which my partner seems to prefer and paired with starkly contrasting black and white. I used some of Carolyn Gavin's Spring street line as the border/back and added some gathers to give it more texture.

Off to other parts of the union she goes....where will she surface next?...

Happy Sewing!