Here are some pictures of the "garden" pillow I made. I saw this on Pinterest, and the Dance Team Coach saw it on my page and asked for one for her team's fundraiser. Of course! I followed the link to an online free pattern. Once I find the link again, I'll link it here. It is raw edge applique, and I adjusted the pattern to an oblong rectangle as opposed to a square. I think it came out super cute, and I like it a lot more than I thought I was going to. 
The pillows came out awfully cute. I started with IKEA pillow forms. They are inexpensive, and down. They are soft, and give great support. Starting with such a great base, how can you go wrong? Well, actually, it's pretty easy to go awry...I started with 2 layers of white fabric, and drew a line with a Sew-line air erasing pen. I did a heavy stitch, twice, as the "line" the hearts were hanging on. The hearts were drawn on fusible paper, ironed onto fabrics in red and pink and purple, cut out, and ironed on the line I outlined the hearts, and Voila! I did envelope style closure, and they are OK, but I really need to work on my invisible zippers I did a binding,, because it just seemed to frame it so well - it really completed the look. I am enamored with the effect of binding the pillow. 
The closure fabric was made from a variety of fabrics I had about the house. The "I LOVE YOU" fabric looks like there are blank lines between the red words, but in reality it is printed with glow in the dark words It says things like "Take out the trash" and "You don't bring me flowers" and so on. A guild mate said it perfectly summed up marriage! 
I made mostly 16" x 26" sizes, but a few 20" x 20" tucked in for fun. I made one with lots of little hearts in a heart shape It was cute, but not what was in my mind's eye. I gave it to my folks who were visiting. My chiropractor ordered a custom one for his wife. While he was adjusting my husband's back, he described what he wanted I sketched and before it was my turn, we had a design. I think the initials turned out super cute! He was pleased, and more importantly, his wife was thrilled and surprised. It's a win all the way around.
I hope your Valentine's Day had some joy in it, and that you got to sew and let a loved one know you cared. 
I emailed a longtime friend and "boss" and asked if we were doing anything to say Thank You. Other than just saying "thank you". Nope, we didn't have any plans. Well, that seemed like an underwhelming response. I asked if I could make a quilts/wall-hangings for the districts that had shown us such kindness. And they said yes! 
Making 9 wall hangings that are all almost the same wasn't difficult. Boeing says, anyone can build a plane, it's doing it repeatedly, identically, and reasonably priced that's the challenge...Pretty accurate. The first, and the second, and the third were fine. The fourth, and fifth, and sixth I was slowing down. And then there was seven, eight and nine to go! I did it assembly line style, 18 wheels, 9 frames, and 9 Ts, 9 Hs, etc. Again, not hard...just long.
Now, whenever I turn on my computer at school in the morning, and pull up the attendance and gradebook programs, it opens to the district web site, and there's my face! I jump a little each time. I cut my hair after seeing these photos...I worked hard on my hair that day, and it was good, but not doing what I wanted it to. Also, I've been working on losing weight. This encouraged me some more to keep on keepin' on. I laughed at "marrying into the well-known Mahaffie family", but it is true. My husband is from an old family in town, and there was a family business in town for many decades. My husband (and his brothers), his parents, and his grandparents all grew up here, and went to Puyallup High School. My son will be 4th generation when he attends PHS. 
I was given a copy of the article, so I'm mailing it to my Grandma (she's 99!). It really is true, I come by my quilting habit honestly. My Grandma and Aunt on my Dad's side, and my mother all sewed and quilted. I remember being 7-ish learning to hand sew - bear paw pattern in yellow and yellow calico, 4 patch, as a pillow - with Grandma. I really didn't stand a chance of not sewing.
This quilt glows. The pattern is "Long Tall", hence Long Tall Glowing. This is a great example of how much a difference the fabric makes. The pattern cover is in shades of brown, and, to my eye, meh. At the sewing expo (every February at the Puyallup Fair Grounds!), I had seen a glorious quilt in spectacular greens and aquas. It was Amy Butler "Glow" fabric. These pictures don't do the glow-i-ness justice. I walked past the pattern many, many times, and had to ask the clerk where I could find it. When she handed it to me, I was surprised, to say the least. 
The picture of the back is so gloomy, I'm not even putting it here. In reality is it a gold flecked aqua, and pieced with a variety of leftover fabrics from the front. 
It's been a whirlwind of sewing 'round here! I actually have several posts worth to talk about, as I mentioned last time. This project wasn't even on the list when I said that. Do you ever have a date in your head, and even though it is swiftly approaching, you somehow think it's farther away than it is? Yeah, that was this project. My husband's niece is expecting, and the baby shower was last Saturday. In my head it was coming up this next week. Last Friday, my husband chatted with his/my Sister-in-Law and they chatted about the shower...that was Sunday. Yup, 2 days away. He mentioned it to me Saturday morning. And we already had a full schedule until late afternoon. Oops! 
When we got home from all our activities, I looked through magazines of quick quilts. I messaged the Mom-to-be's sister and asked about colors. Lavender and Aqua! In a magazine of Kids Quilts, I saw one that would be graphic, and straight forward. I did have some Warm n' Natural that would just fit the finished dimensions. I didn't have a lot of lavender, so off to the quilt store I went. At 4:20 pm, I arrived at the quilt store closest to my house. They had closed at 4:00pm. I took off for the next closest shop that was 30-ish minutes away. While driving (I was at a light) I looked up their hours, to see that they closed at 5:00pm. I got partway down the hill and realized there was no way I would make it. 
I turned around, and landed at JoAnn's Fabric at 4:45pm. I had some coupons on the phone. I went in and looked for lavender and aqua in the nursery fabrics. I found some cottons, and some flannels. I eventually made a set of cotton, and a set of flannels. They each had a bit of gray tucked in. I decided on the cottons and off to the cutting counter I went. 35 minutes later, I was on my way up to the checkout stands. 30 minutes later, I was out the door. I got home about 6:45ish. I ate something quickly, and started the quilt. 
Round about 1am, I hand wrote the label, and was tossing the finished gem into the washer. Of course, I had to be at church su-u-u-u-u-u-per early (choir was singing at 1st service). Before I left the house, I tossed the quilt into the dryer. When we got home, we bagged it up into a gift bag with some super cute baby tissue that was on hand, and out the door we went to the shower and hour and a half away. 
The Mom and Dad liked it! I always sort of hold my breath when folks open a gift quilt. They are such personal gifts - what if they didn't like it? Of course, who is going to say they don't like it, right? But they seemed to be pleased. 
You know, as I look back at these pictures, I see that these were made while my Brother (Oh, my goodness, I LOVE my Brother!) was down for repairs. I was using my Great Grandmother's 1938 Featherweight. And it is amazing. I need to wax it - I got post-it stickum on it, and tried to use water and soap to get it off. Rookie mistake! The lovely sheen just disappeared in front of my eyes. Making a teeny tiny problem much larger! I need to go buy the wax, and polish it. I'm hoping it's as easy to fix as the on-line references make it sound. I got this from my Grandmother, who purchased it from her mother. I will not mention my oops to her - she'd just laugh and shake her head. I bet she never made that mistake...
