Purple Pillow for Michele

I made this purple pillow for one of my best friend's new apartment - actually I made two identical ones for her. I used the same pattern as I did for the bunny pillow and the Joel Dewberry faux bois/birds pillow.

The flowered fabric is a Japanese imported fabric I bought from purl soho, and the striped fabric is from the American Jane series from Moda. I think it's an ideal stripy fabric, and it comes in lots of nice colors that have the feeling of being just slightly faded.

You may notice that I'm trying to make a leap forward here in terms of setting "set dressing" my photos. The chicken and I enjoyed playing with props and creating a "view in a room" feeling (like in westelm.com) though there's a lot more I'd like to learn about my camera in terms of light and clarity.

French Knot/Stacked Coin Pillow - First Etsy Post!

After many months of putting it off, I've finally opened my Etsy store!! You can check it out here:

http://swallowdesigns.etsy.com

... and this project is the first item I've posted there!

This is a fairly unique project for me, because I did it pretty much on the fly - I didn't sketch it out on graph paper beforehand. In fact, what I really wanted to do was something more liked a traditional "stacked coin" design. I'm having trouble finding a definition of what this means, but as far as I can tell it's essentially a design that incorporates strips of stacked patches, framed in neutral sashing.

I wanted to show you some examples on Flickr but got these results instead.

This quilt from Miss MeShell was really the inspiration - I love how she combined a deliciously simple linen with citrusy fabrics. She blogged it here and it's well worth checking it out!

My project veered off this plan, as you'll see soon...



I started with a pile of strips from my scrap box. I sorted them out for the blues, oranges, tans, and browns - which wasn't really hard because most of my projects lately have been in those spectrums. It was more a matter of weeding out the odd green scrap.



This part of the process went super-quick - I actually placed the sewing machine on my ironing board and did the whole thing standing up. This saved a lot of time. Plus it made it easier to watch TV. Can you tell I like to multitask?



I ironed each strip just before sewing it to the previous one, but I didn't iron the whole patched piece until I was done. Enjoyably spontanous compared with some of my more laborious projects, and certainly efficient.

When I finished preparing the large strip patch, I cut it into 4 pieces. However, after some thought, I ditched the traditional vertical parallel lines of stacked coins. I didn't have any linen, and it just didn't look as cool on the dark brown background.



So, I decided to use them as a frame for one of my French knots projects. I made this particular one a while ago, and they were inspired by the Connect the Dots tutorial from the purl bee, one of my favorite blogs from my good friends at purl soho. And by good friends I mean advisors/teachers/dealers of irresistable fabrics!



The back is an envelope flap, using the remaining "stack coined" (if I can call them that) strips:



Remember folks, this item is actually live and on sale on my store on Etsy! Why now? How did I finally set it up? Well, I ran out of room for my pillows. I'd love to keep them all, but there's only so much room I have on my bed and couch. The good thing is, it frees me up to use different colors - ones that don't match my lamp, sheets, and other accessories. I'm looking forward to seeing how that frees up my creative process.

bunny pillow - preview

I don't typically publish works-in-progress to my blog or to my flickr photostream, but I'm so darned excited by this pillow top I just can't help it. I'm also a little tired of seeing my previous project at the top of the page!



I've been working my way through the book Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match, and I've had my eye on the above pattern for some time. I like they way the stripes cross over each other and give the appearance of interlocking, and I've been on the look out for an appropriate striped fabric to try it out with.

The name of the pattern is Yosegi kawari royagoshi - translated in the book as "Prison grille check variation." I am trying to ignore the unfortunate jail reference, and think of this more as a decorative window onto a field of bunnies!




I stumbled upon this Japanese bunny fabric in Purl the other day, and I quickly purchased it. Who can resist bunnies? I really like the simplicity of these, especially against the unfussy background. They also reminded me of some little bags I picked up when I was in Kyoto a couple of years ago, so there's sort of layers of built in nostalgia in this fabric for me - good memories of my pet rabbit Hazel from childhood, and of one of my favorite trips in adulthood.



Here's the finished pillow-top. Weird angle, I know! The orange stripes are from the Peas and Carrots series - I've enjoyed some of the other fabrics from this series - for instance, the kind of cartooney ovals I used on my South Park pillow. The border is from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope series.

More to come when I've completed the back of the pillow!

Mmmm... More Japanese Quilt Block Pillows

My latest project is another one from the book Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match.

I had purchased some blue fabric last week, and constructed block #5, otherwise known as Kurume kasuri igeta.

I was very happy with the results, and have been plotting since then about what block to do next. I settled on the very next one, #6 - Yamato kasuri igeta (Yamato well curb).



I am truly attracted to the simplicity of the designs and colors laid out in the book, but I like to add just a little bit of pattern to add more texture and fun to the look.

First I pieced 5 strips of fabric together...



... and then cut them perpendicularly to create the 1st, 3rd, and 5th columns below.



I did this as a "time saving" method, but it left me with a lot of extra sewn fabric that I couldn't use for this project. Hopefully I'll be able to apply it another one.



I chain stitched the remaining squares for columns 2 and 4:



After I sewed the columns together, I added the outside strips. I adapted the "recipe" in the book from a 9" block to a 16" block, so there was some slight redesign involved, which I plotted out on a small piece of graph paper before starting.

The most major change was adding this colorful 1 1/2" border. Visually, I like to think it looks like the binding on a quilt.



So, here's the two blocks as they appear in the book:



And here they are transformed into pillows!



I was very pleased with the results and took many glamour shots:



As always, I couldn't resist putting some quirkiness into the back:



I like how splashes of color peek out when you pass them from diffferent angles:



Look who's happy for new pillows!!

Blue for you

I just completed my second project from Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match. The first one I did was for my dad.

This time I tackled block #5, otherwise known as Kurume kasuri igeta.



I have to admit, I was bad. I a) bought fabric yesterday when I was supposed to be adhering to my self-imposed fabric-buying freeze and b) used the fabric before washing it. Sigh. I just couldn't wait. That's okay, I just won't wash it. Ever.

Here are the culprits:





Who could resist these charmers?

These actually represent some of my favorite fabric patterns, but these are the first time I have played with these particular color variations. Again, dark blue is a new thing for me.

Before I get started with cutting and sewing, I translate and re-do the pattern a little. The blocks in the book are set up to be 9" squares - perfect for a quilt, or a small, fill-stuffed pillow, I suppose. When I did my dad's pillow, I simply "doubled the recipe," and made an 18" pillow. However, I greatly prefer 16" pillows for myself. They're just, well, cuter.



This was a little more complicated than just doubling all of the called-for sizes; instead, I decided to make some variations, including adding some kind of "binding"- looking border with the brown/blue flowered fabric, which is from Denise Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope series.

The pattern in the book called for pre-cutting every piece, but I like timesaving techniques, such as this. Do you really want to cut 15 individual squares and then sew them together? No.





Completing the "border":



The top is done!



And here's some detailed shots of the sides and back. I really like to see those white on blue polka-dots peaking out.



I couldn't resist adding a splash of color! That orange fabric is also from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope series.





Et voila!

French Knots - Friend or Foe?

I did more French Knots this weekend. I was experimenting with the color brown. I did three variations.

Brown with blue and orange:



Brown with red and cream:



Brown with tan and blue:



Why are French Knots my friend? Because they enable me to relax and have fun with color. Because I can do them on the subway and people are curious and friendly about them. Because they are quick and satisfyingly obsessive.

Why are French Knots my foe? I feel I should be spending my time developing my more original embroidery designs/portraits. But they are some flipping fun!

The flowered fabrics are from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope Series, and the gridded fabric is my favorite Japanese fabric - I have it in four different shades now.