Today I'm so excited to be a part of the
Liberty Stiles Pillow challenge,
hosted by Sew Mama Sew blog.
It's always a great day when fabric arrives at my door,
and this special delivery all the way from London
was received with a big old "Yee-haw!"
There were 8 fat quarters of the lovely
Liberty Stiles fabrics shown here.
For the Sew Mama Sew challenge,
we were asked to use at least four of them
to make a pillow.
{I chose to use the top 5 prints in the stack.}
I had a vague plan in my head,
and I cut a whole bunch of little pieces...
1" squares of white
stitched into triangles on opposite corners
of printed 2" x 3" rectangles.
When I put the rectangles together, though,
I was less than impressed.
The whole block only finished to 9" x 10"
and I was already too bored to make more
of those little blocks.
{Here's how they looked, lined up on my cookie tray, before I stitched them together.}
{Here's how they looked, lined up on my cookie tray, before I stitched them together.}
I pouted for a while...took a nap...then paid a visit
to my Pinterest boards for inspiration.
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| From s.o.t.a.k. handmade blog |
I have a soft spot in my heart for the Granny Square
quilts lots of folks made last year,
using this Blue Elephant Stitches tutorial.
Svetlana used a single Granny Square block to
make such a simple but dramatic pillow!
It seemed to be just what I was looking for,
to show off the vibrant prints
against a fresh white background.
I spent next to no time cutting out the 3" squares
and stitching them into the block.
Once I trimmed the block,
I added mitered borders using two of the green prints.
I backed the finished block with some Pellon 987F fusible fleece
and a square of muslin to make a quilt sandwich.
Quilting was simple...
straight lines 1/4" away from the seams of the granny square
and parallel stitching along the borders.
Sweet!
Uh-oh...this pillow needed a good-lookin' backside, too.
{Don't we all?}
I picked up my rejected block,
stitched on some wide white borders,
and added soft support with Pellon ShapeFlex
SF101 fusible interfacing.
Normally I make a pretty flap to cover the zippers
on my pillows,
as described in my free tutorial for making pillow backs.
This time I didn't need...or want...a cover
for that hot pink zipper.
{Wow!}
I left the zipper exposed,
and I am so in love with the way it sets off the back.
{My little "eamylove" label looks pretty cute, too, I think.}
I always enjoy a good challenge,
especially when it involves pillows and pretty fabrics.
Thank you, Sew Mama Sew, for choosing me to participate!
I think I'll settle down now with my Granny Square pillow
and a nice cup of tea in my white Cath Kidston mug.
I'm in the mood for a little bit of hand-stitching these days.
Stop by any time to see what else I'm making.
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