Fox Pillow Making : :

This morning I have three fox pillow orders to finish to ship out later today. I really do love making these applique pillows, you can always find them made to order in my little etsy shop!



While the pale aqua and orange fox pillow combo is by far the most popular, I love it when a customer requests a different color combo or a little extra added embellishment like this dapper tie!



Or a sweet lady fox with a purple bow!





After finishing up each felt pillow front, I audition fabrics for my pillow backings. This time I was able to use up some large, quilted patchwork scraps for one, and settled on my Folk Plaid print for Mr. Fox and a cute polka-dot from my stash for the missus.





These fun pillows make such a nice break from all the quilt work and birthday crown making!



Now my busy week of sewing is finally off to a good start! How about you, what are you working on this week?
  
♡ Maureen   

Found : :

Yesterday while rummaging through my collection of scrap holding vessels in search of more yellows to add to my new Autumn Sun quilt work in progress, I uncovered this long forgotten baby quilt project that I started more than a year ago! Discovered again at the most perfect timing, as my sister Catherine who lives far away in Hawaii just delivered a healthy baby boy during the night while all of us on the East Coast were fast asleep!



I referred to this baby quilt planning blog post to refresh my memory on where this one was headed, but already I'm considering a completely different direction, hmn? I do know that my love for this Reminisce inspired Pure Element solids bundle and the super cute & cozy FanFare flannel by Rae Hoekstra for Cloud9 Fabrics combination is definitely still there! Look how pretty!



After etsy order duties, turning these into a finished woodland celebration quilt for my new, baby nephew is priority number one!

Happy sewing!
♥  Maureen

this week's sewing time

It's the last week of Summer vacation and so, since Monday, I've only been taking the sewing time I need to fill my etsy orders, which happens to be alot more than I realized when I took time to sketch my feather Sunday night. Oops! Ever so often I receive an inquiry for this Train Pillow set through my little shop. I don't offer this set as a regular listing simply because even though I really do love making these pillows, I wouldn't want to make them more than just once a month or so. I figure if someone stumbles upon my design through Pinterest or a Google search and takes the time to reach out to me, well then the time it takes for me to make these for the recipient will be time well spent!



For all of my fabric applique pillows I love to use ThermoWeb's iron-on fabric adhesive HeatnBond Lite! To create each pillow I first prepare each fabric by fusing on the adhesive, sketching my applique train shapes right onto the paper side of the HeatnBond, cut out my shapes, iron them onto to neutral shades of solid fabric, in this case Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements in Light Gray & Ash. Using a light blue shade of cotton Aurifil 50wt and my satin stitch, I simply stitch around each shape to finish. It's fairly time consuming, but so worth it! These steps create such an adorable, well-made pillow!



The back of each pillow in this set is finished in a bright aqua Amy Butler geometric print, with a little colorful touch of binding on each in Patchwork Plaid by Michael Miller!

Besides this order, I'm a Birthday Crown factory! I'm turning out so many of these, I rarely take the time to photograph them anymore. However this colorful set in my celebration style matched too perfectly with the Moda fabrics I used in this newest set of Train Pillows not to snap and share!



Now that these are done, this afternoon I promised one last sewing session to my girl. We're making a tote bag, which I'll be sure to share soon!

♥ Maureen

Fox Pillow Morning : :

This morning I had four fox pillow orders to make to ship out later today. I really do love making these and someday hope to make a whole mess of them to offer ready-made in my little etsy shop!



These pale aqua and orange fox pillows are by far the most requested, so I love it when a customer requests a different color combo or a little extra added embellishment like this King fox!





After finishing up each appliqued pillow front I auditioned fabric backings and settled on the colorful Cloud9 Fabrics organic, quilter's weight Enchanted collection By Michelle Engel Bencsko!



I pulled out two of my favorite prints and love the way these turned out!





My busy week of sewing is off to a great start! How about you, what are you working on this week?

♥ Maureen

A Train Pillow Set in Moda : :

I recently received a very, very generous surprise box from Moda Fabrics, filled to the brim with up-coming collections in Moda's much loved, classic pre-cut bundles, folded perfectly & wrapped in ribbon!

A beautiful sight!



Inside I found a Fat Eighth bundle of Amy Ellis' first collection for Moda, Modern Neutrals, a bundle of Fancy by Lily Ashbury, one of Lella Boutique's Into the Woods, Bonnie & Camille's Miss Kate, Lauren & Jessy Jung's Pedal Pushers, A Field Guide by Janet Clare, and a colorful Layer Cake of April Rosenthal's Best. Day. Ever!





It was a challenge to undo each neatly tied bundle, but I knew these colorful prints would make an adorable Train Pillow Set, which I had an Etsy shop order for, so I jumped in! Using ThermoWeb's iron-on fabric adhesive HeatnBond Lite, I prepared each fabric by fusing on the adhesive, sketching my applique train shapes right onto the paper side of the HeatnBond, cut out my shapes, and ironed them onto to neutral shades of RJR Cotton Supreme Solids. Using a white, cotton Aurifil 50wt and my satin stitch I simply sewed around each shape to finish. It's fairly time consuming, but so worth it!









The back of each pillow is finished with a print from Ellen Luckett Baker's Quilt Blocks fabric collection for Moda, with a little colorful touch of binding on each in Patchwork Plaid by Michael Miller!



In the Summer weeks ahead I'll be sharing more of what becomes of each of these new Moda collections! I've even promised to share with Haila!

Happy Monday!   ♥ Maureen

Blogger's Quilt Festival -- Applique : :

If you follow me regularly, you'll remember seeing this quilt a bunch this year! It was so long in the making, changing many times, but thankfully turned into a finish I'm very happy with. This is the project that taught me how to quilt, and was made extra special by it's story and recipient. I'm excited for this chance to share it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!



I wasn't sure which category it fit best, but decided on Applique since those elements are my most favorite parts of this quilt. The idea of a Little Folks voile, yo-yo flower garden is what started this project after-all!







The rest came together piece by piece, all unplanned. My "sketch stitch" girl, the patchwork, the appliqued butterflies.







It's made up of Anna Maria Horner prints with a few Pure Element solids, is both machine quilted with variegated Aurifil and a few of the decorative stitches my Janome offers, and hand-quilted with floss. Ans, it now lives happily with my friend Jodi!





I have started a new quilt with a similar vibe that I hope to focus in on finishing after the holidays. This type of slow-moving quilt work is something I really enjoy and plan to continue to develop. Making a quilt each year that includes one of my "sketch stitch" thread drawings and favorite fabrics is one of my personal goals for each year!



 Quilt Stats

name: An Applique Art Quilt
size: lap size
fabrics: Art Gallery Pure Element solids & Anna Maria Horner fabrics
quilting: straight line & decorative on my Janome 12000, along with hand-quilting
backing: Anna Maria Horner's Coreopsis in Lime from her Loulouthi collection
binding: Anna Maria Horner's Hugs & Kisses in Wine from her Loulouthi collection

Thank you so much for stopping by today! ♥ Maureen

Baby Quilt Planning : :

Just a few days after I shared my last fabric stash post I received these adorable new bundles in the mail -- this Reminisce Inspired Pure Element Solids bundle from Stash Fabrics and this super cute & cozy FQ bundle of FanFare flannel by Rae Hoekstra for Cloud9 Fabrics.



Since I love the way these two bundles look together, I decided to begin a new baby quilt-as-you-go with these as my starting point.  I've always wanted to incorporate my fox applique pillow design into a quilt somehow and this is the perfect opportunity!



While thinking up additional applique blocks for this quilt, I remembered these elephant applique pillows I made back in 2011, and thought this design might make a cute block to add in, too!





After making my Stitched Typography Quilt and my recent Butterfly Quilt, I'm really excited for this chance to experiment with applique & quilt-as-you-go once again! Here's a little peek at the progress I made last night.



And now I've decided my fox needs a crown!

I'm thinking of adding in an owl applique block, because I love owls, and maybe a tree block or two, as well. What else do you think would be cute? I always love reading your ideas!

♥  Maureen

An Applique Art Quilt : :

It feels so good to share this finished quilt today! I decided to call it my Applique Art Quilt, but was also thinking of calling it my "A" Quilt. "A" for lots & lots of Anna Maria Horner fabrics, for Art Gallery Fabric's Pure Elements, for Aurifil thread, for applique, and an "A" for the sketch stitch art piece I designed this finished quilt around. Lots of A's!! And, as it turns out my very favorite photo from my picture taking was on this pretty apple tree, perfect!



I tried my best to take photos of the whole finished quilt. A few in some of the beautiful spots we discovered on our walk the other night, along with a few others with a painted church door and an old brick chimney as my backdrop.







Right away, I could tell that this is just one of those quilts that truly shines up close and in person. It really is the details that makes this quilt for me, which I wrote about here back when I shared the finished quilt top.



A quilt that started a couple of Summers ago with a panel of handwork -- yo yo flowers made in Little Folks Voile and many little stitches!



That quilt grew around my sketch stitch girl, with lots of improv patchwork, and one large block made of neutral pure element solids appliqued with fussy cut moths & butterflies from Anna's beautiful Sinister Swarm Field Study & Clippings Loulouthi prints!  



That was finally quilted with several colors of variegated Aurifil, combined with some of the fun quilting stitches my Janome offers, as well as some simple hand quilted stitches that I really enjoyed adding!



It's backed in one large piece of Coreopsis in Lime from the Loulouthi collection. I wish I would have taken photos with a bit more of the sky here, the bright green corn field and the blue sky matched this print perfectly! It was so gorgeous to see!





I finished the quilt by binding in this Hugs & Kisses in wine print, again from the Loulouthi collection. I'm so glad I stashed some extra yardage of this particular print in each color a while back with my owl pillows in mind. It makes an awesome binding!!



I wish you could feel this picture! The Little Folks Voile and the Art Gallery fabrics make this quilt so, incredibly soft!!



This quilt is the first quilt of many quilts I hope to make in this style. I have several sketch stitch pieces & some newly stashed Hand Draw Garden just waiting to become quilts, and I'm excited to jump right into the next one! Throughout making this one I did, at times, put pressure on myself to see it finished quickly. But every single time I would get it out to work on I would end up changing directions. In the end, I learned that that's okay, it came together in perfect timing, and now I'm ready to send it off to my friend!

Last year, right around this time, I had stepped away from this blog those last several weeks of Summer to spend with my kiddos before they went off to school. I was really struggling with my health, but mostly with the changes that were in store for me with my last baby heading off to school. It was tough, that day we took them all to school was so hard for me, but was made so much easier when that afternoon an amazing quilt was delivered to me all the way from Australia, made by my sweet & thoughtful blog friend Jodi. I shared here just how wonderful that was and I promised Jodi a friendship quilt in return. A quilt to be made with nothing but Anna Maria Horner fabrics, lots & lots of love, and hope to be able to show her how much what she did meant to me.



Having this blog and all of you to share with means so much to me, thank you all for encouraging me the way you do. This is such a dream come true!!    ♥   Maureen