Pardon My French(ie): A Finish!

Happy Sunday, y'all! I hope your weekend has been fun and restful! The weather is beautiful in my little corner of KY today, but I couldn't help but stop and share this pillow I finished yesterday. My little cousin, Ella, is having a birthday next weekend and I realized, like I normally do, that time had slipped away and the party was nearly here and I was present-less!

Cue this pillow! Ella is French Bulldog crazy, especially since they got their own not long ago. So it only seemed proper to make her a little something with a Frenchie on it to celebrate her birthday. In fact, it looks like HER Frenchie! :)

I drew out my plan on a piece of paper the size of the pillow, making sure everything fit how I wanted. The overall layout was inspired by a picture of a Boston Terrier I found with a simple Google search. Then I used Heat n' Bond to applique the face onto the background fabric, straight stitching around the edges.

Like most of the fonts I've used in the past, I drew the letters out by hand. These were inspired by some scrapbooking stickers I saw, modified a bit to fit better in the space I had for her name.

I finished things up with an envelope backing and...IT ACTUALLY FIT! Y'all, this is the first time I've made a pillow cover that fits the pillow form! I was so ecstatic! I just did a quick search for tutorials on Pinterest beforehand and it paid off. :)

I still need to stick a little label somewhere if I can remember to, then it is ready to make a road trip this weekend! Thanks for reading y'all!

Finish It Up Friday: Back in the Mini Mini Game!

Howdy y'all, I hope your week has gone well! I've been getting sewing time in like crazy lately, so I actually had TWO finishes this week! I'm going to share one of them today and save the other for later next week. :)

So here is a mini mini I finished last night! It was actually done in one sitting after I got into a bit of a sewing frenzy. :) It's the logo for one of my favorite Youtube channels, Markiplier. It's a gaming channel and, despite the foul language, I usually laugh so hard that I cry when I watch his videos. Nothing like laughter to brighten any day, right?

This was a good project to get back to tiny sewing and getting back to the mini mini mindset. It was also a good little exercise in pixel-y piecing. The smallest white squares finish at one inch square! The mustache is appliqued on with Heat n' Bond and I actually did two layers - one layer was too transparent. Also, it's glittery!

You can barely make out the quilting on this one!

The quilting is...hmm...organized matchsticks? It's vertical lines that are more or less 1/4 inch apart, I wasn't too picky. Lol. Also, look how sharp that binding is! I used the Clover Wonder Clips and holy smokes! Those things are aweeeeesome!

Such a happy sewing wall. :)

This little guy gets to join the wall in front of my sewing machine. I've got mini's off all sizes now! Now off to plan more mini mini's, I've got a swap to get ready for! :)

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday!

First Finish of the New Year: Orange Peel Quilt Top!

Happy Friday Saturday, y'all! I've got my first finish of the New Year to share! The Orange Peels are now a top/flimsy and off the design wall! Yipee! I wanted it to be bigger but I'm happy with the cozy lap size that I've ended up with.

 I've learned a lot after piecing this, but the biggest thing I want to remember is to make my background squares bigger next time and trim them down once the applique is done. You can see on quite a few blocks that points were chopped off (or dangerously close to it!) and as I was piecing, I realized my error. Despite that, I'm still loving it. :)

I still need to iron this one before I do anything else. It was just too late to bother with that by the time I finished! Lol

I'm just proud of myself for hand sewing all those orange peels, I never thought I would hand sew much of anything when I first started sewing! I machine pieced the squares together though because my sanity could not take that much hand sewing. Lol. I have plans to machine quilt it, it's just a matter of getting some backing material, which may take some time. In the mean time, I'm most likely going to be working on City Blocks! I've been mulling over quilting ideas and while I baste,
I'm sure the right one will snuggle with my brain. :)

Low Volume + Scrappy makes my heart smile

Also, I know I link up to her a lot, but the ever-fabulous Jenn @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge has deemed her year, The Year of the Stash. Many have followed up with her (here for example), making their own rules and guidelines for the coming year to keep our fabric stashes from expanding further. Although I feel my stash is pretty small, I'm joining in for the practical aspect that Jenn highlights in her manifesto. New fabric can be purchased, but it needs to be purchased with purpose, not just on a whim. I don't typically buy fabric willy-nilly anymore due to the money aspect, but I want to join along to put it in writing that my fabric purchases this year must have a plan/job in mind before they come into my home.

I hope everybody had a safe New Year! Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by! :)

Throwback Thursday: Pretty in Pink

It's the time of the month again, y'all! That's right, it's Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge! This month is Christmas themed and though I don't have a Christmas quilt, I have a quilt that was a Christmas present to share!

Until I was 16 years old, I was the baby of the family. Then along came Ms. Ella, a cousin! What a learning experience it was for me to suddenly be sharing the spotlight with a little baby. Moody teenage me got jealous pretty often, though I never admitted to anybody. Growing up some changed that though and I love this little girl to bits. :)

It's hard to tell, but those pink-on-pink polka dots are glittery! :D

I shared before that for last Christmas, I got the hairbrained idea to make all the kids in the family a quilt for Christmas. Ms. Layla's was shared a little while back here, and this was the second one. When I asked Ella's mom for her favorite color, it was an overwhelming PINK! Pink makes me nauseous, but I took one for the team and came home with a stack of pink fabric and got cracking. Although Ella is still pretty young (still in single digits), I wanted this one to be a little bit grown up so that it would be fitting for years.

I love the pieced backing and the quilting. I straight lined around the patchwork sections, then did the big zigzagging through the white areas. I'm not sure why I chose that but I have to pat my past-self on the back for that one! Lol. I didn't mark or anything, so it's certainly not perfect. But I worked harder on this quilting than any of the others and it worked out. :) Also like Ms. Layla's quilt, I appliqued Ella's name on it to give it a personal touch. This was before I started labeling my quilts, so I guess my brain wanted it to be labeled somehow!

I absolutely love this pattern, there's so many possibilities! I think I saw something similar to this on Pinterest originally, but I didn't have a specific pattern to follow. I just decided on the size of square I wanted and built up from there.

Thanks for reading y'all! Have an awesome Thursday and don't forget to check out TBT at Jenn's blog, there's always lots of fun entries to check out and there's a chance to win a prize!