Yeah! It’s a finish! After all the adapting, procrastinating and deliberating I have a completed quilt with a twist, it’s a cushion too!
(Aside: I like the name ‘quillow’ but it’s one of those words that doesn’t translate well from American English to British English, as here, on the European side of the Atlantic, we use cushions on chairs and sofas, pillows are what we rest our heads on at night! But hopefully we all know what we mean, anyway ‘qushion’ really doesn’t work!)
As with most of my quilt projects it’s been a typical two steps forward, one step back process! Way back in November 2016 I downloaded the ‘Take Heart’ quilt pattern from the Mack & Mabel Etsy shop. I also ordered a Moda Cherry on Top jelly roll and fabrics from KalQuilts. Unfortunately they couldn’t find the last jelly roll so I agreed to buy the layer cake instead… Then the adapting began as the heart blocks are made from 2½” x 12½” strips. Layer cake squares are 10″ wide… Anyway the long and the short of it (ha!ha!) is that my finished heart blocks measure 9″ square rather than 12″ square.
The project stalled before I’d finished all of the heart blocks: I was in my usual indecisive state – how many blocks to make?, should I add borders? And then, of course, there were the doubts: the colours look really bright! too bright?, the row by row layout wasn’t really working for these adapted blocks, was it all just a mess? Procrastination set in plus a whole lot of other projects too 😀
Next devising a plan for quilting – more opportunities for self-doubt and indecision! In the end I looked to my 2017 word of the year and VENTURED once more into the realms of free motion quilting.
Although I get a bit exasperated with my doubt-filled, indecisive, procrastination-mired creative process I have come to recognise a benefit – I do give myself plenty of time to develop a project while it’s in progress! So, the idea for the uneven setting of the blocks came whilst browsing through quilty blogs and discovering just the solution my quilt needed; and the quillow idea grew as I looked at the spare fabrics and recalled that this is something I’ve wanted to have a go at for a while. I’ve taken the warning behind the saying ‘more haste, less speed’ to a whole new level 😀
(If you are thinking of making your first quillow I’d recommend these: tutorial 1 and tutorial 2 and the quillow chapter in ‘Growing Up Modern’ by Allison Harris. If you’d like to read a bit more about the making of my Candy Hearts quilt top then click to this blog post).
Linking with Myra for Finished Or Not Friday (Myra is giving away a box full of scraps) and Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday (Amanda Jean has a scrappy pincushion challenge underway).
Allison
I love anything with hearts and your quillow is so “happy and bright’.
One of my unfinished projects is a quillow.
I have the top finished, but I got stuck on the pillow part.
After seeing yours, I might be taking another whirl this unfinished project.
Oh! Yes! Don’t leave your quillow project as a UFO. I was surprised how straightforward it is to make and add the pocket. Go for it!
I, too, love hearts as much as scrap projects. This is adorable! I made so many quillows when my kids were still small, and now that I have more grandkids than I can count, the urge to quillow grows! You’ve definitely inspired me! I don’t like all the wrong words spellcheck keeps trying to change quillow into, though… 🙂
Ha! Ha! You’d think there are enough quilters around the world to be able to bring some influence to bear on the curators of spell checkers!
I love this project! It is bright and cheery and takes me down memory lane, when my children were young, and their grandma made them quillows. 🙂
Thank you Laura. I’ve not been a great one for hearts but this project has won me over ☺
Oh my gosh – that is awesome!!! and a great way to store the quilt part on the couch!! LOVE it!
Thank you Alycia.
It’s adorable! Your quilt is featured tomorrow on Finished or not Friday!
Thank you Myra ☺