Another Santa's Belly Pillow

When Dayna saw my first Santa's Belly cushion, she immediately texted, "I want." So what's a mother to do? Comply with her daughter's wishes of course!

This fun, quick-to-make design is by Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation from back in 2018. Little did I think I'd be making not one, but two of these in the space of about a week!

Two Big Bellies

On Instagram I alluded to making two new cushions, both of them bellies. The first is Santa Baby, designed by Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation. I've intended to make one since I first saw her post back in 2018! 

You can read Kelly's post here where she gives you a diagram with finished measurements to make your very own pillow.

Kitty Love

I’ve had this project in my head for a couple of months, so it feels good to finally have it finished and now gifted. 

Once again, it is all from stash and once again, several fabric companies blend together to create this pretty cushion.

Orinoco Flow Pattern Release

This is my latest finish in my favourite colours. It is the throw-size version of Tinker Toys, which was published last summer in the September issue of Love of Quilting magazine.

Unfortunately, they hold the rights until August 2025, yes, the contracts are now two years, so I cannot publish the baby size pink and orange quilt. However, I contacted them to ask if I would be allowed to publish a throw size with a little bit different construction method than they use and different colours and they said, yes. So I am very happy to have this quilt available as a stand-alone pattern. Next year I will be able to release the baby size as well and will update the pattern. Know that I will send the updated pattern free to anybody who buys it this year. The pattern also has instructions to make a cushion cover.

O Canada!

I got several smaller projects sewn over my July break, one being finishing a USO (UnStarted Object). I don't have many UFOs (UnFinished Objects) but I sure do have a lot of USOs. It feels good to see a bench pillow for which I bought the pattern several years ago come to life.

I like the non-traditional colours of turquoise and red with pops of grey in these fabrics.

Grandma's House

Quilt names don't usually come easily to me, but sometimes they do and this was one. I am excited to share my original design, a bench pillow, with you today!

It is one of four projects in my newly-released pattern, 'Rainbow Neighbourhood'. Did I mention the pattern is on sale all week? 25% off. It's a pretty darn good deal if I do say so myself: $10.50CA which is $8US for four projects, two of which are a throw quilt and a twin quilt, each with a completely different layout, a 22" cushion cover and this 20" x 36" bench pillow. 

Rainbow Neighbourhood Pattern Release

It's been a long time coming, but I'm thrilled to finally have my houses pattern together and released! You'll be seeing more of it all week, as the pattern has four projects within it: a throw, a twin sized quilt, and two pillows, one of which is a cushion and the other a bench pillow. I made the throw using the original blocks I made back in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of (would you believe) 2017.

It is so good to see these fun spectrum of houses finally 'grown up' into a quilt. The pattern, which I've named Rainbow Neighbourhood, is on sale all week for 25% off. You can get it in my Etsy shop, SandraJaneQuilts. 

Project Quilting 13.6 and Wrap Up

I finished Project Quilting, at Persimon Dreams, made every one of the six projects, and got them linked up on time. I'm pretty pleased with myself. Here is Challenge 13.6 Flying Geese.

I have had the Kona Nightfall for a while with the idea of a quilt background, rainbow colours on it, and haven't done anything about that thought. Until this challenge.

Reading Takes You Places and Pattern Update Release

First of all happy Full Sturgeon Moon, extra rare Blue Moon of the summer season (source Live Science). It's been gorgeous gazing at it the past few days. I thought it a fitting day for my newly updated and added-to suitcase quilt pattern! And, you guessed it, it's on sale this week.😊

Back in late July, I made this large reading cushion for Brady for his birthday which was July 30. Like me, he likes to read a book in bed before turning out his light. I always prop myself up with two pillows, so I figured this large cushion would be just the ticket for comfort while he reads. He also loves to listen on his phone to one of my favourite CDs by Suzanne Ciani, an artist I discovered on a New Age station out of Detroit, WJOI, when we lived here in the 80s. His phone can tuck into that actual pocket!

Some of you may recognize the block. It's one from my Oh, The Places You'll Go! quilt I made for Island Batik way back in January 2019. The pattern has been in my Etsy shop for almost as long. For the past two-plus weeks I have been updating the pattern, bringing it up to the level of my others, now that I know what is 'standard' in the pattern world, and also adding instructions to make the cushion and the appliqué blocks.

Greybird

 About a month ago, my good friend Liz had to say goodbye to her beloved cat, Greybird. She was 15 years old, a good age for a kitty, but still... I knew I wanted to make her a little something to show my sympathy and empathy for what she was going through. I had originally thought of a mug rug, maybe a mini cat with the Snail's Trail block tail.

That's not a cat, I know! And it's not a mug rug either, if you look at the size of it compared to the thread! As with many projects, things have a way of just flowing along in the way they mean to; I just have to listen, and then follow.

Cushions for H2H

When I read guest blogger Carole's post on Sarah's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, I immediately thought that's what I'll do for my neighbour to go with her quilt, make her a pretty cushion. I had made her a family couch time quilt which you can read about here. She works at one of our two grocery stores in town; we share part of our back fence. A single mum, she has two young boys, who are often babysat by her mum, who has a dog, Shadow. It was through Shadow and our dog, Rocco, that we first met.

Here is her very own cushion, which is meant as just for S.

Kaleidoscope Dreams

Well I have a finish, and I am pretty stoked about it! For those who have followed the build on Instagram, here is the final cushion cover, which I've named Kaleidoscope Dreams.

I made the first cushion cover using Paula Nadelstern's line 'Wonderlust' for a Benartex blog hop in 2018. When Sheila was at our house for Dayna's wedding in November that year, she fell in love with the cushion, and asked me to make her one.  Exactly the same. Time went on. Earlier this year we were chatting, and she brought up the cushion again because she had seen it in a yoga photo I put on Instagram. I said I might have enough of the fabric left but I wasn't sure... She said she'd pay me for it, and I told her no, there was no need, but within 24 hours, she had emailed me some, and refused to hear otherwise.

Holiday House

This is my first project for the December challenge with Island Batik. We were to incorporate 3D elements into our project. As you know, I love depth perception, shadows and layers in quilting, so to say I was excited about this challenge is a bit of an understatement! Truth tea: I have exactly six project ideas for the challenge... Here is the first:

It's my House Block pattern (see sidebar link to it) with a 6" presents block on the side! All of the fabrics were supplied by Island Batik.  Hobbs Batting supplied the 100% wool batting (which I originally used in my suitcases quilt Oh! The Places You'll Go!) and Aurifil supplied most of the thread I used in the project. Some of the threads and the embellishments are my own.

The Marauder's Map OMG

I am happy to report that just past the mid-way mark of the month I had one of my two OMGs finished. This is a cushion, or as Dayna calls it, a pillow cover. It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but it got pushed out of the way, forgotten, remembered, no time, forgotten...and now DONE!

I picked up this fabric at JoAnn's to make Dayna a pillow cover at the same time as I picked up the Slytherin fabric for Brady's and Game of Thrones fabric for Brianne's. I got theirs done in record time since I was flying out there in a couple of days for Christmas. I meant to do Dayna's, but the suitcase quilt, and a Mexico trip got in the way... And then I forgot about it because I'd put the fabric in a cupboard, then remembered, then forgot...sigh. When I was packing up my sewing stuff for the renovations, I found it, and was stabbed with guilt, so I kept it out, and made it my OMG.

A Roll of the Dice Cushion

Last year I was part of a blog hop for Amanda Murphy's beautiful line, Free Motion Fantasy for Benartex. Teaser: I'm part of one coming up the first full week of May and I get to use her latest line, a Fall one, squeal! Once I designed the blocks and the runner for last August's hop, I had the idea to make the blocks smaller and create a cushion, and I finally have it done. Sadly I do not finally have the pattern finished, but the plan is to have it and my suitcases quilt, Oh! The Places You'll Go! both done by the end of my Beothuk Star QAL, which is June 15. This is the second finish for the Q2FAL. You can see my list here. I actually had this done over a week ago, just hadn't written it up.

Postcard Cushion

Sneaking in another finish that was on my Q1FAL List. This cushion cover is made from leftover HSTs from my Postcard from Sweden quilt. Cool: that finish post is April 20, almost exactly a year ago! I've had this top pieced for a couple months...

TBT #14 A Cozy Quilter's Christmas

Would you believe I have a couple of Christmas items still around my house? A snowman quilt or two, à propos for January wouldn't you say? A Stars and Mittens quilt... and this cushion, or pillow.

That other cushion is one of the items I made when I was chosen to do the Desire to Inspire Challenge for Henry Glass Fabrics back in 2016

I need to get back into stitchery. It is so portable, I enjoy do it, and I love incorporating it with quilt blocks. Welcome to Throwback Thursday Quilts if you are new here! This is a place where we can write posts about those quilts we made prior to our blogging days, and let others see our quilt journey. I find it's kind of therapeutic to revisit these, and discover stories you might not have realized are held within the fibres of those projects.

DrEAMi! #19

Yikes! Nearly forgot about DrEAMi!; how can August be nearly over? But next Saturday is September 1...

Welcome to the 19th linky for those squirrelly distractions in your quilty life. No guilt here, just pure celebration of our quilter ADD natures right? I was thinking just now of how my DrEAMi! came from a DrEAMi! of Anja's, and so squirrels breed more squirrels, just like rabbits....

Does that make my DrEAMi! this month a squabbit?! 😂

That's 'our' bunny, a gorgeous, huge, clearly used-to-be-domestic rabbit we see quite often who lives on the side of the road by where we park to walk the Greenway. And that's a hind end of a black squirrel, common here in southwestern Ontario. I need to brush up my melding skills, ha!
Update:
Yay for Rose of Something Rose Made! My new art department...

Funny caption forthcoming. OMG be sure to check out the graphic on her DrEAMi! post!

Throwback Thursday #6 Fan Cushion

Welcome to TBT for June! This is where we bring out quilts we made before our blogging days, photograph them and tell their stories. There are always stories. Remember the Chicken Soup books that used to be so popular? I think a collection of these quilty stories would make an awesome book right? Well, it's like you're getting that for free, so meander through the links below and enjoy.

I mentioned earlier this week in my Playful Pillows post for Island Batik that I would be telling this cushion's story on TBT.

Playful Pillows

Our Island Batik Ambassador assignment for May was to create a pillow, aka cushion, cover, incorporating piecing or quilting. I had so many ideas! That can be not so good when trying to focus. So I thought I'll let things percolate on the back burner of my brain and work on one of my H2H quilts which were also due in May. This is another item on my Q2FAL list.

And then as you know life threw me a curve ball and before I even got the binding on the H2H quilt, I found myself 2000 miles away and lost nearly three weeks of May. On the way back to reality and home and routine, I knew exactly what I would make for my assignment: I'd recreate the pieced and quilted cushion I made for my mum many years ago.