Tallahassee Anna Pillow



After debating about what to add to my Tallahassee Anna blocks to create a larger quilt, I decided to go with what I already had and put them together to make a big pillow.  It's a little wild and larger than life, so I thought it would be perfect for Jenny who generously shared her Bohemian scraps with me. 

I quilted it simply by outlining the neutral pieces.

I didn't have a large enough piece of Boho for the back of the pillow, so I used another Anna Maria Horner print, this one from the Innocent Crush line.  I did have a long enough strip of Boho for the zipper flap.  Thanks to Jacquie for posting a link to this great tutorial on exactly the day I was trying to decide on a closure.  Seriously, this is the easiest way to add a zipper to a pillow!

This may be the only time I make a project with blue leopard print, so get a good look.

Supersized Part Two

In my second supersized quilt challenge, I remade my Flashdance quilt as a twin sized quilt.  Another challenge was getting a shot of this giant (70 x 86) by myself on a bright, windy, cold day.  Here's what I could get.

You can see I kept the piecing as similar to the original as possible, while still creating the blocks improvisationally. 

I echoed the slightly wonky shapes in the piecing with organic, vertical quilting.  It is no easy task to quilt down the entire length of a piece this size, on a home machine, so organic lines are a nice, forgiving option.  Still, it takes concentration to keep things evenly uneven, just as with the crosshatch I did on the baby version.

My favorite unique touches to this version of the quilt are the pieced back and the touch of aqua in the binding. 

I'm happy to say these two are headed to their new home this week.  I hope they will get lots of use, and that a certain two little girls really like them!

Pincushion Swap

My guild, the KCMQG, frequently hosts fun swaps.  This time, we're swapping pincushions with several other MQG chapters.  I pulled some favorite materials and printed off a paper pieced template.  This block is called Economy, and you can find it here.

I had fun with the directional newsprint and fussy cutting the center.

My first attempt finished at three inches (tiny!), so I'm including it is a mini extra.  Four and half inches seems like a more useful size.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the other great pincushions at our meeting tonight.