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Monday, August 12, 2013

pillow finish for Alexis

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram (yes, I caved and put myself on Instagram - and it's been FUN - but more about that another time), you know that last Monday I started an impulse project. While shopping at JoAnn Fabrics recently, I spied some fun orange and navy prints in the Denyse Schmidt collection. That started the wheels turning thinking about our niece, Alexis, who LOVES the University of Illinois sports teams, and the Illini colors are... wait for it... navy and orange!! Since she is leaving for college in a couple of weeks, I decided she needed an orange and navy pillow to coordinate with her navy comforter in her new home away from home.


Now she isn't going to be attending the U of I, but that will not change her love for their teams :) Here's a look at the fabrics I bought, all strip cut and ready to piece...


Using this pattern from the book, Scrap Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett.


Here's what the blocks look like after piecing...


And this is the layout before sewing. Since the blocks are set on point to resemble "X"s, there is some waste from trimming the sides. The end result isn't quite what I had envisioned - it feels to me like the intended design is a little bit lost, and I'm not sure if that is from the dots on navy causing distraction or because the orange fabrics are blending too much. But Thing 1 here at my house assured me that it was "cute" and that Alexis would "love it".


So I added a border of the dots on navy, layered the completed top with some lightweight flannel and a muslin backing, and quilted around the "X"s with an orange thread.


An envelope backing of the navy dots (which is the fabric that first caught my eye and launched the idea!) trimmed with a thin strip of orange print finishes it all off.


I'm happy to report that the pillow is now in the care of it's new owner, and it will be moving to college with her in a couple of weeks :)

Pillow stats: 18" finished. All the fabrics used were designed by Denyse Schmidt and were purchased from JoAnn Fabrics. I used 1/4 yard of each of the four orange prints and 1 yard of the dots on navy.

2 comments:

  1. Nice pillow! I like your way of showing the progress.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a sweet aunt you are! I have several patterns marked in Kim's book...this design is one of them...I also just bought several of the same fabrics this week while they were on sale for 40% off!

    ReplyDelete

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