Cathedral Window Pincushions - Spring 2016

Hello, Friends!

I'm getting ready for a fun spring craft fair,

so I've been making some new Cathedral Window pincushions.

{Have you seen glimpses of them on Instagram? My Instagram name is @eamylove.}

I always use a fantastic free tutorial from Kim at My Go-Go Life blog.

I've made lots of these sweet little pinnies.

 I kind of have it down to a science now.

I love to prepare the backgrounds for several pinnies, all at once.

There is a lot of pressing in the first steps,

and I can do the prep work even if I have no time for sewing.

Later comes the fun part...placing the fabrics.

If I have more than one background prepared,

I don't have to fret over selecting the PERFECT combination

of colors and prints.

Instead of stressing, I can actually experiment and play

with various combinations of prints and colors.

Here is a sweet set I made from

Happy Go Lucky prints by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.

This dynamic duo was made with Strawberry Fields Revisited
by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda.

I have a "thing" lately for that brown, yellow and green palette.
The final touch is the covered button.
They are really fun to create,
especially with a lovely tiny print like this one.

These pincushions look so adorable stacked up together.
They're just a wee bit pudgy...I call them pleasingly plump!

I also made this darling little white pincushion...

in my humble opinion, it's absolutely exquisite!

I will be making one to keep for myself.

The fabrics are Flower Sugar from Lucien.

You can never have too many, or make too many of these pincushions.

Also...you can never take too many photos of them, right?

I hope you don't mind this photo-heavy pincushion post!

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Cherry Christmas in March

So far, so good...

I'm making at least one Christmas-y project

per month in 2013,

and here's my finish for March.

I've been dying to try out this pattern from Cotton Way,

called Cotton Way Candy.

{I purchased the PDF version, and I can follow it on my tablet as I sew...

no more wondering where I might have stuck that paper pattern!}

Pattern for Cotton Way Candy - from Cotton Way website

I had so much fun placing the folded squares from my

Cherry Christmas charm pack!

{I used dozens of pins, to hold the folded triangles in place for stitching.}

When they were all stitched into a checkerboard pattern,

I added only one narrow border.

It's for my kitchen table, and I didn't want it to be too large.

Can I let you in on a secret tip?
I used a 100% cotton batting, 

and once I smoothed down my quilt sandwich,

the fabrics gripped the batting so well

that I didn't even use one single pin to hold it

while I stitched some stabilizing lines

along the border and basted the edge!

{Gasp!  I'll wait while somebody gets you some smelling salts.}

If you are a "Pinner", I have a nice resource for you to find dozens of pins!

The next step was to do some quilting...

nothing too fancy, just diagonal lines across the white squares.

Whenever I want to keep my lines super-straight,

I use masking tape as a guide.

That way I don't have to worry about marking lines

that refuse to come out later!

I turned the quilt and stitched more lines

in the opposite direction, to make x's.

Here's where I made a slight departure from the pattern!

The blocks looked too large to me

for folding over the edges a la Cathedral Windows.
I didn't want those windows to be opened very far.

I decided it would be perfect, 

if I stitched another set of diagonal lines

across the folds,

in effect reducing the size of the "windows" by half.

Then I went ahead and created the Cathedral Windows,

folding and stitching each of them by machine.

{It was so easy...I didn't even use any pins...again!}

I love the back, too...nothin' but fresh clean white.

{It's just for show...clearly I must explain that to my family...clearly!}

I can always remember that I made this
Cathedral Windows project

while Pope Francis was being elected!

There was even some snow available for my little photo shoot!

Come along with the Crafty Quilter and me...

and we'll make Christmas happen every month!

Stop in again soon...I've still got lots of Cherry Christmas fabric left!

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