Giraffe Pillow

Well, I'm a day too late to get credit on my October One Monthly Goal, but my giraffe pillow is now done!  I'm quite pleased with him and he looks great with the other animal pillows on our new couches!

The pattern is part of the Zoo Animals set by Kristy of Quiet Play.  I bought it several years ago but it looks like the pattern is still in her shop, both as a stand alone and as a set of 9.  This is the third I've made from that set and the lion is next.  They are paper pieced, which to be honest is not my favorite technique.  I can do it but I don't enjoy the process. I do, however, enjoy the results.

As with all the animals in my Pillow Menagerie, I used Kona solids.  This uses Earth, Caramel, and Butterscotch in the giraffe and Candy Blue for the background.  Plus Black and Snow for the eye.

This was on my list of projects for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Gail of Quilting Gail.  My PhD has been slow-going this year but I just might make it.  This marks either my 8th or 9th completed project, depending if I count a project that became 2 quilts as one or as 2.  With a little hard work, I may finish enough that I don't need to decide.  Two months left in the year, we'll see what else I can finish.

 

Butterfly Pillow

Back in July, I turned a butterfly baby quilt that had been damaged into smaller, usable items.  One of those items was a small pillow.  My son saw me stitching the opening closed and asked for a butterfly pillow.  I have a butterfly die for my accuquilt and I know he loves to crank the handle, so I offered that as an option.  He gave an enthusiastic yes. 

When it came time to actually make the pillow, I gave him a stack of Island Batik scraps to choose from.  I used stash builder strips, which are 5" by width of fabric, though most of mine are no longer the full width of fabric.  These bigger pieces are great for the accuquilt dies.  He picked out four fabric for the wings (2 per butterfly) and two for the butterfly body.  I used Island Batik solid white for the background.  I fused heatnbond to the fabrics and he enthusiastically cranked the machine.  I wish I had gotten a picture!

I let him choose the thread and he was picky, he rejected my matching thread suggestion for a contrasting Aurifil thread. He also had fun picking out stitches from the decorative options on my machine.  He switched stitches more often than I would have, but I wanted it to be his project.  And ultimately, it gives it a fun crazy quilt look.

Once the butterflies were stitched, I gave him the option of quilting the sides or making a it into a pillow as-is.  Not one to delay gratification, he chose to skip the quilting so we could get the pillow made faster.  He was delighted to find out that I poke the corners with a chopstick!

It was his idea to do a posed shot with friends!

He is delighted with his pillow and I love that he enjoys small sewing projects. 

The fabrics in this project were given to me by Island Batik through their ambassador program, though this was not an ambassador challenge. 

Fish Pillow

Two of my really close friends from college had a baby girl last fall.  That baby has an older sister, Samantha, age 6.  I wanted to have a big sister gift for Samantha when I gifted the baby quilt.  I asked her parents what she was particularly into.  I got a few suggestions and the one that jumped out at me was "aquarium fish."  So I made this fish pillow!

The fish are Kona Lipstick, Valentine, Grellow, Cerise, and Carrot.  The background is Kona Candy Blue.  I used my wavy line stitch for the quilting so it would look like the fish were swimming in the ocean.

I love the envelope pillow method from Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts and that's how I make all my pillows.  She does not use a backing on the quilted part but I do.  I typically use muslin since it's inexpensive and won't show in the finished project.  I had *just* enough Candy Blue to make the back of the pillow.  It looks all nice and neat before I stuffed a 20" IKEA pillow form in there!

ready for a pillow form

For labeling, I used a trick I learned from Paige of Quilted Blooms.  She saw a pillow I made my son for his birthday and suggested that I write a birthday message on the inside of the pillow.  I do that with all my pillows now!  Here is my dedication, lousy handwriting and all.

This fish pillow joins Rainbow Elephant Parade on their way to baby and big sister.  I know, I finished Rainbow Elephant almost 6 months ago and hadn't sent it yet! 

I think these two compliment each other well. I even did wavy quilting for both, and that was not on purpose!  Happy accident, I guess.

This pillow is on my list of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail and was #2 on my list of Q1 finish along goals.

Koala

My koala pillow is done!  Koala joins Panda and Monkey in my pillow menagerie on the couch.  There are Hedgehogs on a nearby chair, and a Penguin and a Piggie in my son's room.

The pattern is part of the Zoo Animals bundle by Kristy @ Quiet Play. The original pattern is for a 10" block; I enlarged to a 16" block then added borders for a 20" pillow. The fabrics are all Kona: Ash, Coal, and Medium Gray for the body, Black & Snow in the eyes, Chestnut for the tree, and Willow for the background.

The Koala pillow was my May monthly goal for OMG hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts. (Goal setter #84.) It was also #6 on my list of Q2 goals for the globally hosted Finish Along.

Hazel, Hazelnut, & Nutella

When I made the Hazel & the Hedgehogs wall hanging, I made 4 Hazels but I only used 3 of them.  That left Blue Hazel.

I was going to add her into our pillow menagerie, but I decided that she would be happier with some friends first.  So I made a Yellow Hazel and Red Hazel to keep her company.  I picked the colors based on the marbled fabrics I had left and what coordinating solids I had on hand.

I used a pillow form that measures 26" x 16" that came from IKEA. Husband has named these Hazel, Hazelnut, and Nutella.  Hazel is the yellow with glasses, Hazelnut is blue, and Nutella is Red. 

The background is Kona Butter and the eyes and noses are Kona Black.  The hedgehog colors are Kona Lake, Malibu, Sunny, Lemon, Carnation, and Red.

This was goal #9 on my Q1 list of goals for the globally hosted Finish Along.

Piggie Pillow

My son has recently become interested in pigs.  He told us that Santa was going to bring him a Blueberry Piggie.  (Yeah, we had no idea what that means, either.)  I talked to Santa and knew he was bringing a stuffed animal pig with a blue bow around its neck, but I decided at the last minute to add a piggie to our pillow menagerie in addition.  So this guy was waiting on the couch Christmas morning.

Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts released a farm animal pattern recently, and just before Christmas she started putting single blocks from her patterns into her etsy shop.  Since I only wanted the pig, that was perfect for me.  I had the day to myself the Friday before Christmas and on a whim at lunch time I bought and downloaded the pattern and got fabrics from my stash.

And here's where the shenanigans began.  Because I decided to double the block size.  Except I just did a straight double and didn't think about how the seam allowance would now be out of wack until I was a fair way in.  But I was able to compensate and I don't think the proportions are too far off, though anything that looks off is the fault of me and not the pattern.  It's also now a really large pig face.  If I had it to do over, I would use the standard block, but oh well.

The fabrics in the pig are Kona Ballerina, Plum, Pepper, and Coal.  I had a pig print that worked nicely for the back; it is Barnyard Boogie by Blank Quilting.  I am now a pro at the envelope pillow method from Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts and I didn't even need to pull up the directions.

So here is our current pillow family.  A kangaroo was supposed to be next, but the paper pieced pattern is much bigger than I realized, so I'm putting that on the back burner because I don't really want a pillow that big--that's why I got rid of the couch cushions and moved to the fun ones in the first place!

Hey Hey, I'm a Monkey!

As I finished this pillow, I couldn't stop singing the theme song from The Monkees.  And so a pillow is named!

The pattern is part of the Zoo Animals bundle from Kristy @ Quiet Play.  The Zoo Animals bundle includes 9 different animal blocks.  I have plans to make the giraffe and the koala in the near future; some of the others may come at a later date.

Her paper pieced pattern is for a 10" block; I enlarged it to a 16" block.  I added more of the background fabric to make it fit a 20" pillow. I think some of those pieces around the eyes would be awfully tiny in a 10" block!  My one disappointment with the pattern is that there was no instruction about adding the face.  The picture showed what I am guessing was embroidery, but there was no guideline or written direction.  I used embroidery, and I wished I used more strands to make the face show up better.

The fabrics are Kona cottons in Chocolate, Scone, & Seafoam, with Black & White used in the eyes.  I used a 20" pillow form from IKEA and the envelope pillow method from Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts.

Kangaroo is next, but I have a few projects I want to finish before I can hop to making that one.  Here is the Monkey with its friend Panda.

The monkey pillow was goal #6 on my list of Q4 goals in the globally hosted Finish Along.

Panda-monium!

It's finished!  After making the penguin pillow for Munchkin's birthday, I decided to get rid of our horribly bulky couch cushions and make a menagerie of animal pillows.  Panda was first up.

The pattern is a free one from the Fat Quarter Shop.  Pattern PDF is here, and there is also a YouTube video tutorial.

I used Kona solids in black, white, plum, asparagus, and celery.  My background is darker than the sample from Fat Quarter Shop because I didn't feel like that one had enough contrast.  I really like the contrast with the plum.

This is a 20" pillow and I used a pillow insert from Ikea.  I use the envelope pillow method by Crazy Mom Quilts.  I am careful to always label my quilts, but I didn't think about labeling pillows until I had a comment from Paige of Quilted Blooms.  Since I use a back on the quilted part of my pillow, she mentioned marking directly on the back with micron pen.  And so I did!

Since I've had a few people ask what other animals will be apart of my menagerie, here is a sneak peak of the next one:

Panda was goal #5 on my list of 4th quarter goals for the globally hosted Finish Along.  This was also my November One Monthly Goal for the OMG goal-setting party currently hosted by Elm Street Quilts (goal setter #23).