The Great Pillow Fight Swap 2014

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I regularly like to participate in the Pillow Talk Swap on Flickr. Now recently it hasn't had any swaps, so another group was formed by the people who wanted to keep going, called The Great Pillow Fight. This is its first round, and my partner mentioned liking linen and "clean", so this is the mockup I originally created for the pillow:

After playing with the pieces a bit during actual construction, I did change up my design a bit, and ended up with this for the top:

And here is the completed pillow I made for my (still secret) partner:

I quilted it with lines 1/4" apart, and added a zipper at the bottom for inserting and removing the pillow form.

I sure hope you like this partner. :)

<3 Kelsey

Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge 2014

Hey folks. Last night I finally finished sewing down the binding on my entry for the Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge.  Each of us that chose to participate were given a subset of the fabrics from Petal Pinwheels by Michael Miller. These are the four I received:

I decided to pair them with Kona Nightfall, as I thought the contrast really made them stand out, and might be a bit of a different color combination than others might choose in the challenge. Our guild specifically made the challenge to make a pillow.

I decided I wanted to use the paper pieced hedgehog from Artisania (free pattern here) centered in a wreath of yo-yos. I think that yo-yos are under utilized in modern quilting, and wanted to make a modern interpretation of them.

A few close-ups of the different elements (the dime is for scale):

I quilted the whole piece aside from the hedgie in a small meander with matching navy 50wt Aurifil thread. As for all of my pillows, I used fusible fleece in place of a batting and lining. It always gives it a nice structure, and saves me the fabric for a lining.

Lastly I framed it in a scrappy binding created from the challenge fabrics. I love the look of binding on a finished pillow - it has a similar appearance to piping, and doesn't have the "bulky corners" problem I've faced with turning so I can get nice sharp points.

Now to find time to go shopping for a new pillow form.... ;)

Linking at Fabric Tuesday.

<3 Kelsey