Tuesday, May 28, 2019

An Hourglass Quilted Pillow {Tutorial} & News!

Hourglass Pillow Cover

Hiya friends,

Today my intention was to simply share this new tutorial with you all, as I've finally been back to sewing for about a week now after badly injuring my knee and then my finger, but unfortunately now I'm dealing with more troubles. On Saturday evening around 7pm I was scrolling through my personal Facebook feed when I received a pop-up that read, "session has timed out." I immediately  tried to log back in and it said that my account had been disabled. I then panicked and went to my Instagram app and I was logged out of there, as well, and my login info was coming up "no user." While I restarted my phone, I opened my laptop and tried to login with no luck still, so I checked my email and at 6:46pm I had received a Login Alert Facebook email that showed a suspicious login from "near Elk Grove Village, IL" and I live in Pennsylvania. I read and followed all of the proper dispute claims for being hacked and/or mistakenly disabled through both social media platforms and I finally heard back yesterday morning that both accounts were permanently disabled. What??!! I attempted to respond to that email and I received one final email saying that "your account has been permanently disabled for not following the community standards. Unfortunately, we won't be able to reactivate it for any reason. This will be our last email regarding your account." Now if you read through what one would have to do to have their account permanently disabled, please believe that in NO WAY have I ever or would I ever do anything harmful to anyone on social media! I have simply used it as a way to stay connected to family & friends and now all those videos and photos of my growing three children are gone. I used as a way to build community through a shared love of fabric and sewing and now all 131,000+ Maureen Cracknell Handmade Facebook Page followers are gone. I used it to post pretty pictures and to share news, new fabric & projects of my own work and the work of so many wonderful makers and now all 30,200+ Maureen Cracknell Instagram followers are gone. Years of memories, friendships and hard work. Gone. It's heartbreaking to say the least. I'm trying to hold onto hope that somehow it will all be restored, but I've also decided to move forward with a new Instagram @MaureenCracknellHandmade and I hope you'll find me there! Please, please everyone add two-step verification to your social media accounts. I was not cautious and I have lost everything I've shared for the past ten years!

I don't know that I will attempt to rebuild on Facebook for several reasons, but my making and sharing will continue and it does feel pretty perfect that I just so happened to have a brand new tutorial prepared to share today!

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My dear friend and fellow AGF fabric designer, Sharon Holland, has a stunning new collection just hitting stores with a LookBook due out later today for, Everlasting! I'm so happy to have been back to sewing just in time to make this set of pillows to contribute and I hope you love them as much as I do!

Everlasting by Sharon Holland rolls

What you'll need:
  • 8  - 6" charms of fabrics of your choosing, four blue/navy and four red/peach/cream
  • 2 - 11.5" X 15" cuts for the pillow backing fabric
  •  Hobbs Tuscany Cotton Batting for pillow front and back pieces
  • 1/4 yd of binding for finishing the pillow 
  • 1 - 14" pillow insert
  • Coordinating Thread
  • Rotary Cutter/Mat/Ruler

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Steps: 

1. Cut eight 6" charm squares from the fabrics you've chosen for the pillow front

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2. With right sides facing, pin and sew together two blue prints using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Repeat with the two remaining blue squares, pressing all seams open as you go

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3. Sew the two sets of two blue squares together, with rights sides facing to create a four patch block. Repeat this for the second set of four red/peach/cream 6" charm squares. When finished you'll have two, four patch blocks

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4. With right sides facing, place the two four patch blocks together, pin and sew around all four edges sewing a 1/4" from the very out edge

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5. Use a ruler and place it across the middle of the sewn square. Be sure to position the ruler to ensure the cutting will pass through the point where the stitches meet at each opposing corner. Once the ruler is in place, make the cut using a rotary cutter. Repeat across the other direction to create four triangles

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6. Press with seams open, trim away any exposed seam allowances, and square up each block to make four nice and neat 8" hourglass blocks

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7. Arrange the four blocks in a layout keeping the blue/navy prints at the center and the red/peach/cream on the outside or visa versa. With right sides facing, pin and sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance two blocks together using a straight stitch. Repeat with the two remaining blocks, pressing all seams open as you go

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8. Sew the two sets of two blocks together, with rights sides facing to create the patchwork pillow front and place the pieced pillow front onto a piece of batting so the wrong side of the pillow front is facing the right side of the batting. Baste using your preference with spray or pins

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9. With stitches space a 1/2" a part, quilt the pillow front to the batting. Trim away excess batting to finish a pillow top that measures a 15" square

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10.  To prepare back pieces, using one of the pillow back fabrics measuring 11.5" x 15", baste to a piece of cotton batting measuring the same size and fold over one of the sides measuring 15" a 1/4", press, fold over again a 1/4", press. Sew along inner folded edge and along the outer edge, staying close to the fold. This will create the double seam finish. Repeat this step with the other pillow back fabric

Tallinn Pillow Back

11. Place the pillow backing fabrics onto the wrong side of the quilted pillow front. Sew a basting stitch all the way around the very outer edge of the pillow layers to attach them. Finish the pillow using the 1/4 yd of binding just as you would adding binding to a quilt

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Insert your pillow form and now you have a very cute Hourglass Quilted Pillow!

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I hope you love these hourglass quilted pillows as much as I do, but honestly with Sharon's Everlasting fabrics it's impossible not to create something you'll love! My Everlasting sewing didn't stop with this pretty pair of pillows, I'll have another project in the LookBook that I'll be back to share this week! If you give this tutorial a try and you post on your social media, don't forget to share with me on my new Instagram @MaureenCracknellHandmade!

xo, Maureen

26 comments:

  1. Thank you for the wonderful tutorial!

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome! I'm already working on a quilt using the same method for making hourglass blocks!

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  2. These are so very cute! They are on my make list for this summer. Looking forward to seeing future tutorials from the Lookbook!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you!! You'll want to make more than one, I did!! :)

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  3. How tragic! I am so sorry to hear that you have lost so much. :(

    Love the tutorial and will be giving it a try. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, I appreciate that. It's a huge loss and I can't believe how fast it was all gone.

      I hope you enjoy it! I loved making these pillows!!

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  4. Thank you for sharing this tutorial and making these gorgeous pillows for my Everlasting Look Book, Maureen! I'm grieving for your loss of years of memories and photos being taken away by hackers. I've faith in our sewing and quilting community that you can regain your loyal following but the total disregard for property by hackers is hard to stomach. We love and support you and thank you for all you do to inspire and make this world a more beautiful place. Big hugs, Sharon

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sharon! I appreciate that so much. It is hard to stomach, I have felt sick all day. It's sad and scary, but I'm staying hopeful and positive because of people like you!

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  5. What an awful thing to happen. This may sound crazy, but perhaps you can research and find the contact information for Facebook (via telephone, snail mail, or direct email) management that could help you to resolve the issues and restore your accounts. IT's worth a try. I certain that all of us who follow you will continue to. I appreciate your posts, emails, and creativity shares. This hourglass would make a nice QOV quilt. Sending hugs and good thoughts

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  6. Thank you, Kay! Yes I did some of that and both the old direct email and the phone number are dead ends. I'm not giving up yet but it is hard to stay hopeful. Thanks for the hugs!!

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  7. I am heartbroken for you Maureen. I am absolutely crushed that such a terrible thing happened to you, and your wonderful pages and all of our sewing friends have been separated. This is just terrible. I believe there could be something done to resolve this. I would contact Facebook and make them fix this.
    I know.... that sounds like a self inflicted headache. Maybe you can find someone with an incredible amount of patience.....

    I love your new fabrics so much. I want to have a bundle very soon.
    God Bless you Maureen. ❤️

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  8. Thank you, Rosemary. I haven't stopped trying to contact them but none of my efforts have been successful. I just receive auto responses. I wish they would fix it, too, but it's not looking good! Thanks for the uplifting message!

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  9. I always love your tutorials and projects. It still angers me that someone can have your account suspended without any proof of "community standards being violated"!
    I wish there was a way for us to contact FB in your behalf.

    ReplyDelete
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