WIP Wednesday - 2/27/13

I've turned these leftover strips:



Into this quilted pillow cover (in progress, obviously):



I quilted vertical lines on the pieced strips and then some angles in the negative space on the sides. Now I have to decide if this is enough, or if I want to continue those angles to fill all the negative space. What do you think- leave it or add more?



And, in keeping with tradition, I plan to make a birthday dress for K. I had been browsing around for a dress pattern when I stumbled upon this Paper Fan Dress. It's a (free!) pattern from Anna Maria Horner and I just love the pleating details.



I started cutting the pieces yesterday and am anxious to start sewing! It was pretty gray and dreary when I took this photo, so the color isn't very accurate, but I swear these fabrics look good together!

Palindrome Scarf

I certainly don't need any more scarfs cluttering my closet, but I went ahead and made myself another one anyway.



It's the Palindrome Scarf, which I've made once before. I was in the mood for cables, and this pattern is easy enough that I don't have to be too careful about keeping track of which row I'm on.



The yarn is a bamboo and silk blend from Vickie Howell Collection: Love. Did anyone else watch Vickie Howell's show called Knitty Gritty a few years back? I wouldn't have been able to figure out how to knit a sock or make a thumb gusset on a mitten without that show! I'm bummed that the DIY Network cut all their crafting shows and went all home improvement.



This yarn feels fantastically soft and has a wonderful drape. I found it in the clearance section of my local yarn shop, so it was a total steal. I bought the only three skeins left in that color, so the scarf is a bit shorter than I would have liked but I still love it!

WIP Wednesday - 2/13/13

I'll start with a finish:



If you click over to my post from yesterday, you can download the foundation pattern for the arrow block!

And now for the in-progress:

I'm still chugging along on my Modern Meadow HST quilt, but trimming all those squares can get tedious. So, as a little distraction, I pulled out some of the scraps and started piecing. The strips are 6" long, but none were more than 1.5" wide. I'm thinking of cutting this into strips and making some sort of pillow with the same neutral fabric used in the quilt.



Am I a hoarder for keeping such small scraps in the first place? How small is too small too keep? Seriously, I'm like a twitch away from being on a TLC show.

I've also pieced my little spools together. And I've got a project in mind for them too- Noodlehead's Open Wide Zippered Pouch.

Archery (and a free pattern!)

I settled on a design for my arrow blocks...



It screams "Valentine's Day!" a bit more than my original vision for these arrows, but we can enjoy it for a few more days!



I did some simple outline quilting around the arrows and heart. I thought about adding more straight line quilting to the background, but after trying out a few lines I decided it was too busy. If you look closely you can still see the little holes from the quilting I ripped out. I tried steaming them with the iron and it helped, but the holes are still visible. Any suggestions on how to get rid of them??



The arrows and the heart are all foundation pieced. I drew the arrow in EQ7, and I'm sharing the pattern with you! You can download the pattern here. The finished size of the block is 8" wide x 5" high. Make sure when you print the PDF that you have Page Scaling set to None. If you use the pattern, I'd love to see it!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!