A New Favorite Pillow Set : :

I am so excited to finally be able to share these pillows with you - they are a set that I made for my Mom to gift my sister-in-law Anne for Christmas. And they're also my favorite finish from my holiday break sewing! I loved making this heart pillow project so very much that I'm wondering if I should put together a tutorial to share? Let me know if you're interested!



The pattern was completely inspired by my new Love Garden panel print from my Garden Dreamer collection. The large scale print includes a big heart, perfect for raw edge applique! Shown here is the Calm coloring of Love Garden with AGF's denim underneath quilted with Aurifil!



I used my go-to Quick Quilt As You Go to create the entire pillow top combining additional denims, linen, & Aurifil quilting, finishing with denim binding in my favorite color, Cool Foilage!

To include with the heart pillow I made two, big herringbone pillow covers. Again using my Quick Quilt As You Go technique, choosing several matching prints from both Garden Dreamer and Nightfall. I love how these two collections play together!



These herringbone pillows inspired me to finally get all of my collection together - Wild & Free + Fleet & Flourish + Nightfall + Garden Dreamer to start dreaming up a new quilt design that I can make using all of them together! If you have any pattern suggestions, do let me know!



I can't think of a better way to start a new year of quilting than this!  ♡ Maureen  

Quilted Heart Throw Pillow Tutorial : :

Today's tutorial is for a fun and sweet Valentine's Day pillow cover -- A Quilted Heart Throw Pillow. Using several cuts of my very favorite red and pink fabrics, cherry red wool blend felt, and little hand stitching, I created this pillow for a fast and cute V-day decoration!

What you'll need : :

• 1 - Pillow Insert measuring 12" x 12"
• 9 - pieces of quilting weight fabric measuring 2" x 13"
• 1 - piece of batting (I use a bamboo/wool blend) measuring 14" x 14"
• 1 - piece of bright red wool blend felt measuring 12.5" x 12.5"
• 2 - 9" x 12.5" pieces of fabric for the back of the pillow (I used a white and red polka dot)
• Fabric pen
• Sewing pins
• Sharp scissors and/or a rotary cutter/mat set
• thread and embroidery floss/baker's twine

Creating the Quilted Pillow Top : :

1. Cut 9 strips of fabric measuring 2" x 13" 2. Piece together using a 1/4" seam allowance 3. Use iron to press seams open




4. Trim pieced together fabrics to measure a 12.5" square 5. Using pins, baste the pieced together fabrics (pillow top) to the piece of batting




6. Use coordinating thread to add quilting stitches to the pillow top and batting layers 7. Once finished, remove pins and trim away excess batting




8. Using a fabric pen, draw a heart on the wool blend felt large enough to show off the quilted fabrics 9. Cutting along the outside of the drawn heart, cut felt away to show the heart 10. Pin felt heart piece to quilted fabric layer and sew around the heart leaving a 1/4" seam, removing pins as you go




11. Use embroidery floss or a red and white baker's twine to hand sew a running stitch around the heart




Your pillow top is completely finished! Now, for instructions on finishing the envelope style back, please see my Quilted Stripes Pillow Tutorial here. The directions needed can be found in the "Sewing Pillow Together" section of that tutorial.

Insert the pillow form and Voila! You're done!

I had a lot of fun making this pillow, I hope you do too!

In the Studio -- Tutorials : :

So far this week, I have spent most of my sewing time creating two new very detailed sewing tutorials. It has certainly given me a new appreciation for how much work goes into these, but honestly I have enjoyed the process!

First, here's a little peek at my "Heart Felt Pillow Cover." This is a reverse applique project combining felt and fabric that I just finished for the next issue of Fat Quarterly. I'll be sure to share all the details as soon as I can!


And, here's my "Fabric Lover's Apron" I promised! Still a work in progress at the moment, but so very close to being finished! All that's left are the waist straps and typing up the instructions and I.AM.DONE! This photos makes me think a Loulouthi cafe curtain would be super cute!

If all goes well, my apron tutorial should be ready for action tomorrow! Get your fabrics ready and be sure to stop back!!!

Purple Stitch Pillow : :

This project is the result of a little experimenting with reverse applique that I started over this past weekend. To my surprise and delight, I was asked to put together a project for the July issue of an online sewing magazine, using an alternative fabric to the typical quilting cotton. I knew I was going to use felt and right away I started scribbling down ideas. I have been interested in the process of reverse applique ever since I read this blog post and saw the work of  Natalie Chanin. Without doing any research I decided to just give it a go -- I immediately loved the outcome!

For the front I used a beautiful quality wool blend felt in this smoky purple shade and one of my favorite prints from Kate Spain's Central Park collection for the fabric layer. The back is a cotton I have had for quite some time. I am not sure where it came from, all two yards of it, but it sure is sweet, isn't it?

I am going to enter it into this months Blogger Pillow Party, as well as The Great SMS Pillow Contest. My husband has declared this pillow his favorite one yet -- so I already feel like I won something! It is for an old friend whom is expecting in June and has painted the walls of the nursery purple. I hope she likes it, too!

Happy Creating! ~ Maureen