There’s a party in my pillow…

Or on my pillow?  A party quilted onto my pillow?

Party pillow does a little resting after a long night of sassing up this chair.

This is a super-fun piece of quilted pillow goodness.  I had a great time making it, and I feel like it’s an instant room brightener at a dramatic 18 inches square.  For when your sofa or bed needs a pick-me-up, you know?  Maybe your sofa knocked back a whiskey sour too many last night (that’s what my sofa favors, anyway), and it’s looking a little worse for the wear this morning–this will totally detract from the bags under its eyes and the burgeoning spot on its cushion.

Oooo, look at all that scrappy goodness.

It’s quite the grab-bag of bits of new and vintage fabric, all linen or cotton.  It’s quilted raw-edge-style onto an Essex linen/cotton blend, which has a wonderful texture, and the envelope closure back is pieced with a fun strip of cotton color.

Just look at this pillow back.

Did I mention mismatched buttons?  Oh yes.  We have those in spades here!

"No, don't touch those, Mama. Those are very magical."

In fact, this is my little button-jar impresario.  She rules the button jar with an iron fist.  She will tell you which buttons are for you and which are for Jenny the (Imaginary) Cat.  To eat for dinner!!!

If this pillow needs to grace your hungover sofa or under-the-weather bed, you can find it here.

Wherein I finally share something I made…

Terrible way to start a blog about things I’ve made, no?  Two posts in and not a stitch of my own (well, aside from the banner up top) to show for it.

Shall we rectify that situation?  We shall.

And yet.

It’s funny that the first handmade-by-me things I’m posting are ones that aren’t staying with me.

Baby, please come soon. I finished your quilt, like, a month ago.

This one is a quilt for Baby E, set to arrive any day now.  This baby’s mama and papa are some of my dearests, and it was SO much fun making this.  The color scheme is slightly more subdued than my usual palette, but so perfect for them and their lovely home and aesthetic.   The four main prints are from the “Arcadia” collection by Sanae/Moda–aren’t they divine?  This collection came out a year or so ago, and I snatched up some half yards because I NEEDED it, though I didn’t know why.  Turns out this was the “why”–who knew?  The soft blue is from “Sweet Dreams” by Robyn Pandolph, and the funky orange faux-bois is Joel Dewberry.  Oh–the lovely, slightly flecked off-white is the Kona solid  “Natural”–these photos don’t do it justice.  It’s so soft and vintage-y in its whiteness.  (Does that even make sense? Oh,  well–such are the musings of a fabric fiend.  What did you expect?)

A zig-zag back, you say? No!

A wonky log cabin front…  with a zig-zag back?  It’s madness, I know, and the only quilting scheme I could really envision was one that ignored the geometrics of both sides–hence the wobbly concentric circles.  Which I ended up COMPLETELY loving, though the execution of said wobbly circles made me want to throttle small animals.  Which I refrained from, I assure you.  But just reliving it is making me shoot lightning out of my eyes at the squirrel that’s invading my bird feeder as I type.   Zap!

ziggy-zaggy fun (and not-so-fun-yet-very-attractive concentric circle quilting)

I bound it in the blue solid with a few little bits of the orange faux-bois for zest (though it didn’t make it into this pic).  I think it works, no?

blue binding and quilting detail

And since I had scraps…  this pillow!

a wonky log cabin Arcadia pillow

It measures 18″x18″–wonky log cabin (it’s my true love right now), machine quilted, and all that.  Same fabrics as above, with some nice natural-toned buttons on the envelope closure on back.  And this, my friends…  is an inaugural item in my Etsy shop!  Indeed!  She’s finally doing it!  After all this time…  finally making an honest woman/entrepreneur of myself and getting it together.   So…  if you like…  you can buy.  It’s crazy like that!

But I assure you… this not merely a forum for me to shill my goods.  Oh, no.  It will be more, much more.  I’m just slow gettin’ started, ya’ll.  It’ll come.  As they say around here (and as I say myself), “I swar.”