Quillow Tutorial

We have recently received a couple bolts of pre-quilted fabrics (reversible--with a different pattern on each side) and we have had many questions about what to do with this stuff!

One option is to make a Humbug bag

 since the first (and most time consuming)instruction in this pattern is to quilt two fat quarters together! So using pre-quilted fabric would be a huge time saver! From one half yard you could get two large humbug bags and you could do one from each side of the prequilted fabric! 

We also have this new purse pattern 

which requires an 18"prequilted square and 1/4 yard of fabric for the binding and handle.

And then I started thinking about what else you could do with this and I thought, it is like a little ready made quilt so how about making it into a Quillow? 

A small quilt that can fold up into a pillow!

Here's how!

You will need

2 yards of prequilted fabric to make one 44"x54" quillow

and 8 yards of ready made bias binding:

in a color that matches your prequilted fabric. I chose black since it matched this nicely:

              

Cut off 1/2 yard from your 2 yards of prequilted fabric.

Square up your large piece just as you would a quilt you are readying for binding.

Cut the remaining prequilted fabric into a 14" square. Set the remainder aside for another project.

You will now bind your 44"x54" piece with your bias binding and your 14" square also in the method you prefer. 

You should have these:

Once your two pieces are completely bound center the square piece towards the bottom of the quilt piece as shown.

Stitch the square down on three sides leaving the top open.

Reinforce your beginning and ending for a longer lasting quillow! Keep in mind the side that faces down will be the side that faces out when the quillow is folded into pillow form.

I chose to have contrasting side up as shown.

To fold up to Pillow form: Turn the quillow pocket side down and fold the length on each side in towards the center in thirds. 

Then fold the length down towards the pocket until it is right on top then turn the whole thing inside out revealing the Pillow face with the blanket part inside the pocket!

 Bonus:Another option is to just use 1.5 yards of the prequilted fabric and use a leftover quilt square for your pillow. 

With this option you'll need to sandwich and quilt your pillow portion but otherwise the method is the same. 

You can also make your own binding to match as I did with this sample:

You can of course buy and quilt two 1.5 yards of fabric to make a quillow as well! So there are lots of options for this project! 

You could even have your pillow front embroidered with a name or initials etc... This could be a great gift, a nice blanket for a child or in the car, to take to games or the drive in where you don't want to bring precious quilt but still need a little cover! 

This little froggy seemed to find the pocket a comfy spot!

                                                                                                                                                   

New Stuff

With the holidays coming up soon we thought we'd start stocking some new patterns that were do-able in time for gift giving. Watch for upcoming tutorials as well as these new products in the shop.

Several are garment patterns by Pink Fig like this tween/teen skirt pattern:

 Little girl twirly skirt ( we know the twirl factor is important when you are a 6 year old girl!)

 Little Girls dresses:

 Stocking ornament:

 Zip Bags:

 Newborn Booties:

And we received these luscious combed cotton plaids

 ( much like a flannel) 

from Moda on Friday called "Preppy Plaids". 

They are so soft I am thinking I need some new pajama pants made out of these!!

Peggy's Finish!

This is Peggy's beautiful Home Tweet Home Quilt based on McKenna Ryan's patterns. Peggy went with a layout similar to McKenna Ryan's by using the ombre fabrics that fade from the center out giving the sashing and borders a watercolor effect.

 Peggy's friend Carol suggested a slight change to McKenna's layout, see the two shots below:

 Peggy agreed and stepped up the setting by making the bird house pole and tree extend into the sashing area.  A really great layered/dimensional effect happened.

Also Peggy's birds are made with hand painted and shaded fabric! Wow.

Gorgeous! Thank you for sharing it with us Peggy! Very inspiring.

Sewing with Oilcloth

Check out this new book!

by the author of The Oilcloth Addict blog!

And we now have a few rolls of laminated cotton to try these projects out with!  Here are two of Kate Spain's designs from Moda

Using these I made up this wallet in less than 2 hours! Can't wait to try some other projects from the book- great gift ideas!

Now to find some more money to put in this thing?!?!

Terrain by Kate Spain

We received one roll of pre-quilted fabric for purses, bags, placemats etc.... and we got 2 rolls of laminated cotton from this line too.

 

 We got every bolt in this line because we just couldn't decide!!

 They are all so pretty

 There are a couple of patterns out using this line that we are acquiring....

 One is Taffy put out by Jay Bird Quilts and the other is on Moda Bake shop's site and we are working it up into a sample. 

It uses the layer cake from this line and Bella White as well

 

 Several people have commented this line would be adorable in some little girl clothes...

 I can't wait to see what our customers will come up with for it!

Curio and some Customer Finishes!

Quilt Across Texas is still going strong! 

Seeing more and more stamps in the guide books and the fabric line is really flying off the shelves. 

Thank you for the kind compliments about our sample quilt.

This week we got a beautiful line of fabric in from Moda called Curio:

 Lacey looking and feminine

 Soft Contemporary color palate

 Lots of coordinates

 Several prints and color ways

We had just enough fabric for two more kits of this Forest Friends quilt:

Seen Here:

And then there won't be anymore so..... if you were interested in this cute quick and easy project stop in soon!

We had some beautiful customer work brought into the shop this week too:

This is the Dakota horse pattern with several prints and batiks put to brilliant use by Kim! She sure picked a beautiful background to spotlight this machine appliqued horse! 

 Gillian was inspired to do a little sewing by the Moda Hometown line and she made the Frenchy Bag!  

Great job ladies! Thanks for sharing.