Rear Window finish

A July finish that is finally photographed! One more quilt off of the UFO list!!

I used the "Rear Window" pattern from Blue Underground Studios and started with a bunch of Amy Butler prints from her early Daisy Chain line. The designer's original quilt was in a trunk show at a local shop a couple of years ago, and I really loved it just as it was, so I tried to use many of the same fabrics.

But of course there are some Kaffe prints in here... Bekah in Green, Paperweight in Sludge (one of my all-time favorites despite the unfortunate color name), and another fabric from his collective that I just can't recall the name of...

All mixed in with some Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley greys and other random teal/turquoise prints. The overall swirly quilting pattern was done by Carol Linder in Hampshire, my go-to long-arm quilter :)

The backing is a mix of two Amy Butler Daisy Chain prints that I scored on clearance at QuiltHome.com - yay! - and the binding is an ombre-like blend of teal, turquoise, and sea glass green that blends well with all those prints in the quilt top.

A close up photo of the backing center section shows off the quilting in sea glass green thread.

And here's a shot of the full backing.

This quilt has seen a lot of use recently by my girls during family movie nights on the couch. Yes, it is summer, and yes, the A/C is usually running, but that hasn't stopped them :) In fact, Thing 1 has decided that we should stop using our lightweight fleece "TV watching" blankets and start using more of "all these pretty quilts".

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.