A Pillow Plan : :

This week is flying by and we haven't found a single moment to photograph my newest finished quilt, Wanderlust, that I so badly wanted to share here this week. Hopefully that will happen this weekend for a Monday blog post! The rest of this week's sewing time has been spent filling Etsy orders, so all those colorful quilt wips I shared last week are still hanging around and likely won't see any action until next week, since those projects are all about tiny piecing that are pretty time consuming. So for today, incase a little stretch of sewing time does present itself, I have a pillow plan ready!


Just as excited as I was to combine April's Wanderer fabrics with my own Wild & Free collection, I've been waiting for the right idea to strike to mix Wanderer with my most favorite AGF collection to date, Pat Bravo's Indie! Our bedroom is decorated with this beautiful, bohemian collection. My Indie Symmetry quilt lives happily on our bed...



Along with my most favorite pillow, this scrappy chevron Kantha inspired creation!



It's hard to believe this pillow is nearing three years old! But since it is, I think it's time to make another -- a perfect use for a Wanderer + Indie mash-up!



I'll share how it turns out next week! Be sure to stop back tomorrow for a wonderful, new Giveaway, and to have yourself a beautiful weekend! ♡ Maureen    

Indie Symmetry Quilt : :

It's the first day back to school for my kids, I can hardly believe Summer vacation is already over! I never handle these big events well so, I'm extra grateful to have saved this new quilt to share here today rather than trying to fit blogging into our busy day yesterday. I needed something exciting to blog about!



Having this big, beautiful Indie quilt finally finished is honestly the most excitement I've felt since I began quilting! It's almost a King size quilt, measuring in at 90"x104"! It's made in all Indie fabrics, a collection by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics, in a simple symmetrical layout of both large & small, square & rectangle cuts of fabric. When I sketched out the pattern more than a year ago, I was inspired by a few quilts I had seen at my most favorite store, Anthropologie. These Indie fabrics go so well with that colorful, bohemian style!





It's on our bed now, along with my favorite Indie pillow, and a few more cozy layers of bedding that I've been collecting to go with this quilt throughout the year. A work in progress still, but I like how our room is starting to come together.





The quilt top was originally made about a year ago for Pat to use in her Indie promotional ads and video. Then just a few weeks ago I finally pieced together the largest quilt back I've ever seen and shipped both the top and back off to Sew Shabby Quilting, a professional long-arm machine quilting service I was recently introduced to. For this quilt, keeping with it's pattern of squares and rectangles, I chose their Square Dance .01, a perfect pattern match in my opinion! Melissa did such an amazing job!!



The back is finished in the Indie Afro Fusion in Dusk print and the binding is Dynasty in Saffron, my two most favorite fabrics in the collection!





Because of it's large size photographing this one was such a challenge, but we still managed a few fun shots! I'm so grateful for my husband and kids for being so awesome and careful when it came to taking these last photos!

I still have to finish up tutorials for a few of my other quilts, but I'm curious how many of you would be interested in making a quilt this size? And, if taking the time to share the pattern at some point would be a good idea? When it comes to making a quilt this big, I love the large piecing myself, and don't feel disappointed at all with the symmetrical look as opposed to making up a quilt this size block, by block. What do you think?

Wishing you all a wonderful week!  ♥  Maureen

A Pillow {and A Break} : :

I finished my first Indie Pillow inspired by those West Elm Kantha Pillow late last week! It was so, so fun to make!! I had planned to share it, along with a final post on our 'A Question' discussion this morning. I had finally gotten the chance to spend a few hours last Thursday morning, reading through each comment, following the wonderful links you all left, and writing up a final thought.

Then, decided through lots of thinking, chatting, and listening since Thursday, throughout this past weekend, and still this morning, that I need a break!

I mentioned last week quickly that I wasn't feeling that well. I had gone to Hershey Medical Center last Tuesday to see my doctor and since, honestly I've been having a really tough time with how that all went. Added to that, in just a few weeks the kids will be heading back to school. My daughter who has been my side-kick from the very beginning of this sewing, blogging adventure, will be joining my boys. And it's all hitting me really, really hard. It has always been the plan for me to attempt to make my sewing and hopefully this blog a full-time gig for myself this Fall. I am SO excited about that next chapter! But for now, I just need to take a step back. Enjoy this time with the kids, get more rest, slow down. I know I've mentioned doing this a few times here, and then I convince myself that if I just stay positive and motivated, that if I just keep going, then one day I'll wake up and I'll feel all better. Well, sadly that's not working!







That is not at all easy for me to share. Of course I'm a little scared and nervous about stepping away, too. I'm sure you bloggers know what I mean?! I know I'll keep sewing. I'm certain I'll keep buying fabric! I do still plan to put together a tutorial for this pillow. I'm sure I'll still pop up on facebook and here to check in throughout the next 4-5 weeks. I also have a new fabric giveaway scheduled each weekend, along with a few others as part of some special blogging events. Please don't forget about me!!

Thank you all for your understanding! THANK YOU to everybody who is kind to me, this blog, and my sewing! I'll miss you!!

x & ♥, Maureen

A Question -- UPDATE : :

Happy Monday! If you follow me on Facebook, then you already know that I heard back from West Elm in regards to my "A Question" post from last week.  How wonderful is that?! From the comments that were left, it's obvious that as a community we all share a very similar opinion on being original, where it is acceptable to get inspiration from, and most importantly -- to always give proper credit!

I'm so happy such a wonderful conversation emerged!

photo from West Elm

From the moment I first saw the Kantha Chevron Pillow Covers come through my facebook feed, to the time I hit publish on that post, was less than 10 minutes. I didn't even think it through fully and I left out some important points initially --

It wasn't my intention to make the pillows, sell the pillows if I made them, or to create a tutorial, when I asked the question.

I was not asking about "copying" or showing an example of an individual artists work, asking if it was alright to "steal" their design.

I was asking as a maker, who so often sees something in a magazine or in a shop, and thinks, "I can make that."

When I asked the question, I used the word "inspired" because my goal would never be to see this pillow and to try my best to make one as similarly as I can. If I were to decide to make one, I would of course want to make it my own through color choice, fabric selection, dimension, construction, process. I would of course give credit to West Elm for being my inspiration!

My Blogger Bundle Inspired by West Elm Mugs

So, here's what a West Elm representative had to say about it...

"Hi Maureen! 

Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. At west elm, we're happy to provide inspiration any way we can — whether it's the catalyst for a DIY project or desire to purchase our designs for yourself. We embrace the expression of personal style and to keep our own in-house team of designers inspired, we continually seek out designers and artists around the world as collaborators. You can see our current roster of collaborators here: Our Collaborators

In addition to designers and artists we have been partnering with Etsy for the past two years. We work to feature handmade Etsy products and artists in our monthly catalogs and host a number of events in our stores to celebrate local makers in our We <3 Handmade Art events. More on our partnership with Etsy: Shop . Collaborations . Etsy

We like to celebrate personal style on the west elm blog, Front & Main and you can see how some of our fans "make it yours" by taking inspiration from west elm designs and transforming them to meet their needs: Make It Yours

Thanks again for reaching out — if you decide to make a tutorial inspired by our pillow, we'd be happy to feature it on Front & Main!

Best -- AARON"

Are you surprised by their answer? Do you think that their response is rare? Are most companies this supportive of the handmade community? Or, can we truly believe now, what many of us assume -- that these large companies ARE just as inspired by what the handmade community is making?

Should I make the pillow with a tutorial now?! It would be fun, now that I have permission, and that sounds like a pretty good opportunity!

I could use up some of my fabric scraps! Or better yet, wouldn't Indie be the perfect fabric to make one in?!

Indie by Pat Bravo on Facebook

I had also mentioned to my friends Nicke and Jessica, that it would be fun to use this opportunity to do a challenge -- to have a bunch of us make a pillow, all inspired by the Kantha Chevron Pillow Covers, and then we can prove that even with the same image as inspiration, we will all make something different.That everything we make, no matter where the inspiration comes from, can be uniquely ours with our own creative flare! Of course, I would have to get the approval from West Elm before I did anything like this.

So, again today I'm asking one last time for your thoughts on this -- please share!! ♥ Maureen