Fun with scraps and orphans

Yay! I think I finally got some of my mojo back!

I have been really uninspired and unmotivated lately, but today I was just in the mood to sew!

First up, this little yo-yo cushion. I made a few yo-yos in front of the television last night and decided to put them together into a cute little cushion. I really love the pretty, girly colours.

Then I had some fun with some orphan blocks. I put borders around them to make them the same size, and was going to make it into a table runner.

Then I realised the top was almost the same size as some duck feather filled body pillows I bought in a crazy moment on the internet, for no other reason than that they were on sale for 60% off. (Does anyone else do things like that?) So I changed my mind and decided to make it into a big pillow cover.

I've put some ribbon ties on one side as I may tie it to the headboard of my timber bed for extra cushiony-ness when sitting up reading or sewing in bed. Not sure how comfortable this will be, but I'll give it a go. 

Don't look too closely at the quilting. I haven't tried to free-motion quilt in a long time, and I was never much good at it to start with. The quilting on this though was a shamozzle even for me! I should have practised on some scraps to get my rhythm first. Although, I don't think I ever got my rhythm when quilting this, so it probably wouldn't have helped. Back to straight line and grid quilting for me!

Or even better, tying! Last weekend was rainy, and the only plans I'd made were outdoorsy so they were cancelled. So after houseworking (as little as I could get away with), I spent some time on an old quilt top tying. The quilt top was one I made almost 10 years ago. It isn't great - I was making it up as I went along in rounds, and some of my calculations were less than inspired, so some of the borders terminate in the middle of a pattern or block. My calculations were also so off that I planned to make it 240cm square, and it ended up closer to 280cm! I'd basted it, and started trying to quilt it but soon came to the realisation that it was too big for me to quilt on my little sewing machine. And I didn't feel it was good enough to bother sending out to be professionally quilted. I've got it out of the cupboard and played with it, given up, and put it back, many times over the years. To the point that half the basting was coming undone and it was in a very shabby state.

Last weekend I had the brilliant idea of trying to tie it instead of quilting it. And so far, it is working! I spent a fruitful few hours in front of the TV with the quilt over my ironing board, lowered to a good working height. The weight of the quilt over the edges helped hold it taut where the basting was coming undone, and the ironing board gave me a nice flat surface to work with. It's about half finished now and can't wait til its done. No photos at the moment, but will take some soon!