Pew, Pew, Pew

I have a few Star Wars fans in my life and my cousin (friend, sister, etc.) is a large one. Her birthday was in May and I knew exactly what to make her! Kristy at Quiet Play designed some amazing paper pieced Star Wars patterns which are up in her shop for free, including the AT-AT pattern I used.

I copied the pattern at 125% and hit my stash for some gray fabric. I used a variety of Konas along with gray and black yarn dyed Essex Linen for the AT-AT. With Kona white for the background I sashed the block in a forest green cross weave and black yarn dyed Essex Linen to make a 20″ pillow.

I used the same hidden zipper technique that I used for my Poison pillow to finish it up.

 

Pillow Details

Title: Pew Pew Pew, May 2016
Pattern: AT-AT by Kristy of Quiet Play
Front: a variety of grays, black and white Kona Cotton, yarn dyed Essex Linens, misc. green cross weave from my stash
Quilting: Aurifil 2600, 50 weight
Finished pillow size: 20×20″

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Poison!

Poison Bottles – Pick Your Brain Designs

My high school self would have loved to have owned Misty Cole’s Poison Bottle Quilt, so I was thrilled when she asked me to do the May block. I collected fun bottles and had them lined up on shelves that circled my bedroom, everything from vintage bottles to new bottles with bright labels. I have since transitioned out of the phase and only have 2-3 unique bottles floating around the house. This block was fun to make because it forced me to think about bottles in a completely different way.

Be sure to check out all of Misty’s blocks and blog posts to see how she and other’s interpret them.

The May blocks feature the Martin’s UBend (top) and Gilbertson’s Wedge (bottom). Based on the history, I decided that I wanted to both bottles to have a broken, fragmented look. I achieved that look two ways – UBend is a solid piece of fabric and Wedge is fabric made from green scraps. The blocks are appliquéd, which is a new technique for me. I densely quilted the shelf with horizontal lines and added some simple diagonal lines around the bottles.

Instead of turning it into a mini, I decided to make this a pillow for my chair at work. I used a new to me technique to add a flap to cover the zipper by following this great tutorial from Sew Mama Sew. I loved their tip of adding fusible tape to help with installing the zipper. I will be using that trick from now on with all of my zippers!

 

Pillow Details

Title: Poison, May 2016
Pattern: Poison Bottles by Misty Cole of Pick Your Brain Designs
Front: Fabric from my scraps bins, background is Quilter’s Linen in Platinum
Quilting: Aurifil White, 50 weight
Finished pillow size: 12.5 x 12.5″

Firsts!

Exciting things are happening this week, I joined my first bee – The Modern Insta Bee – that has been spreading like wildfire over on Instagram. I am a proud member of Hive 13.

The Bee was started by @brazenlisa on Instagram and has over 156 quilters participating. We will each be picking our favorite block from the Modern Bee by Lindsay Conner and once a month for a year we will make a block for that month’s “Queen Bee”. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my book and am dreaming of color palettes!

If you are interested in seeing if there are other Hives with spots, checkout out #moderninstabee2014 on Instagram.

Another first, my first finish of 2014! I started the year off easy with a small project, a throw pillow for the Philly MQG secret santa exchange that took place in January. My recipient told me that she needed throw pillows and that she liked teal, pink and orange.

I love the Spool Minis from Thimble Blossoms and I had the perfect fabrics in my stash in her color range. Bonus, she loved it!

The best part about the Philly MQG secret santa exchange is witnessing the creativity and thoughtfulness of our members. There were so many beautiful things gifted!

Stay tuned tomorrow for a second, bonus post, with the introduction of Betsy!