Fancy Fox II: Pillow

Every year, I donate something handmade to the silent auction at my friend/former co-worker's ringette team fundraiser. First it was a quilt, then I downsized a bit to pillows (this one, and this one).

I made four Fancy Fox II blocks into a quilt top in a VMQG workshop a few weeks ago, and they were so fast to make, I thought of the pattern right away for this year's Beaver Bash pillow.

This is a 100% stash project. Foxy's face fabric is by Kate and Birdie (Canadian!) for Moda. The line is called Autumn Woods, from a couple years ago. The grey paisley is also Moda - the selvage says Moda Classics. Fancy Fox II is a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

It's quilted very sparsely - just an echo around the face and some stippling in the background. Since I used fusible fleece, I wasn't too worried about quilting density.

The pillow cover is about 20" square, and I stuffed it with a 22" pillow form to make it nice and plump.

New Placemats

Finally! The placemats I made back in 2011 were so old and worn out, I decided it was time to make some new ones.

I used two charm packs of Mochi by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cotton + Steel. Such fun, bright, funky fabrics! The pattern is just a quick Disappearing 9-Patch.

I backed them with some fun Moda grunge, which I also used for the bindings. And the quilting is different on each placemat. 

What have you sewn lately?

Modern Stripes

I was the lucky winner of this gorgeous bundle of Cloud 9 Organice Solids at a VMQG meeting last year:

I had this FQ bundle for a long time before the right design came to mind. As much as possible, I kept the different values of the various colours together and pieced them into strip sets of varying sizes:

Friends, I love this quilt. LOVE. IT. The fabrics are so lovely. So soft with a really nice hand. Highly recommended.

It's about 60x72 so I quilted it on the longarm with a clamshell design that goes side to side. I switched it up with a slightly different clamshell when I remembered.

The back is two different Kona Greys (Charcoal and Medium Grey) plus a bit of a leftover strip set that I cross-cut and pieced in a little checkerboard just because. This shows the nice magenta binding to its best advantage. 

It's a Finish Along finish too. This one's staying with me!

Lone Star

I've long admired Lone Star quilts, but it wasn't until I saw the beautiful one that Lynne (Lily's Quilts) designed for Make It, Take It that I felt I was up to the challenge.

The pattern uses strip piecing to make this pattern really accessible. I scaled it down slightly, choosing to cut my initial strips at 2½". The finished quilt is about 35" square - a great wallhanging or baby quilt size.

I don't know what inspired the colour story here - I started with that Anna Maria Horner echinacea print and added complementary colours. The background is Essex Linen in Black, one of my all-time favourites.

Simple wavy lines for the quilting were done in an organic design for a quick finish. This was a 2015 Finish Along project that I didn't properly blog because the photo I took in my sewing room really wasn't up to snuff. Not that this one is much better. We moved and I lost my lovely arbour hanging spot that I could use without help. Now I need quilt holders and that is a whole new challenge, never mind finding a suitable backdrop. Consider it a work in progress, I suppose. *grin*