Get Stacked - a Custom Pillow Cover!

Hey all! So I was supposed to head out with some friends today to the Niagara region to visit a winery - complete with picnic lunch and tastings - but I am sick, so instead I'm going to stay in, watch some BBC dramas and Sex and the City, and work on a new cross stitch I designed for an awesome friend.

This week has been super-busy with work, looking for jobs, and completing some very fun projects that I can't tell you about right now! But one thing I can share with you is some custom work I completed and sent off - good times! A few weeks ago I was contacted by a very lovely lady named Jen who wanted to buy the Get Stacked quilt I showed you all back before I left for Quilt Market. In case you don't remember which one I'm talking about - or in case you're new to these parts - here it is:

It's made using Tula Pink's Nest and Kona Coal - geez, I just love the way these two pair together! Well anyway, Jen also requested a custom cushion cover that matched the quilt so I got to work designing it in the same style - luckily I had more Nest fabric in my stash since it's out of print!

The front follows the same design idea and uses eight prints from the collection and Kona Coal. I quilted it in the same straight line style that I used on the quilt itself. It finished at 16x16" square.

I created an envelope style back using the green woodgrain print from Joel Dewberry's Ginseng collection and Kona Coal again for the top edge binding. The back was basically created using my tutorial from Sew Mama Sew but adjusted to account for the 16x16" size. The buyer didn't want to see the custom pillow before I sent it off - she wanted to be surprised - so I really hope that she likes it and that the baby who receives both pieces will love and hug and cherish them for a long time!

I absolutely love doing custom work for buyers because I get to be creative but have a little bit of guidance and I have a time line which helps me to get my butt in gear and get things finished!

I'm working on some more new projects this week and have a few finished items to show you! What do you guys think about a table runner pattern which would be available as a PDF through my Etsy store? The sample is all finished and I'm working on the directions right now; I'm also thinking about including instructions for expanding the table runner into a full-size quilt - what do you think about that? Sound like a good idea?

Kona Challenge Quilt: Colour Block Cross

So I said I had a quilt to show you right? Well here we go! I had some logistical issues getting pictures of this quilt because my neighbours got a second car and now park it in front of the fence that I use for my shots; last week I literally had the quilt in my hands ready to go downstairs and take my photos when my neighbour pulled in - very frustrating! But I finally got some when the car was moved for a bit - woot!

This quilt was made as part of a challenge for the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild; as you all know I'm President of the guild and a few months back Robert Kaufman offered us some Kona charm packs to do a challenge. Of course I jumped at the offer and selected charm packs in the dusty palette for the guild; I set out the challenge rules so that each member person could only use up to one yard of one other fabric in their quilt top (binding and backing were extra) and selected this palette because I thought it would present a nice challenge for picking the one contrasting fabric.

This is the design that I came up with - I used 36 of the 44 charm squares (the other 8 charm squares didn't have enough contrast with my chosen solid) and paired them in sets of four like tones. I didn't want to cut the charm squares down too much because I wanted the quilt to be as big as possible without going over my one yard contrast fabric limit so I went with a very simple design.

Each of the blocks are rectangular rather than square (finishing at 12x13") which I think adds interest to the top. I decided to called this design Colour Block Cross and will be donating it to charity; I was originally going to donate it to the chapter of Project Linus in our area but they don't want it (don't even get me started) and we've had an issue with them as a guild in the past (ugh).

I really love this quilt though and the colour blocks make me super happy! I really hope that it finds a home with a child who will be comforted by its warmth and who will love and hug it fiercely!

Oh, and you should all head over to Kate's blog to see some darling pictures of little Grace in the cardigan I knit her! It finally arrived in Australia after being in the mail for three months (eeek!) - we thought it was lost but it got there and luckily Grace is still small enough to wear it, hurray!

Katy and I *Heart* Kona!

Photo courtesy of Robert Kaufman

I completely forgot to share this fun picture from Quilt Market with you guys! Can you tell that Katy and I really love Kona?! Oh yes, we really, really do! And Katy's dress is Liberty...and it has tigers on it...because, ya know, Katy is awesome like that.