"Streamers" quilt top complete

Yesterday I finished a quilt top that I had been thinking about and working on for about a month. I call it "streamers" and it is a variation on a drunkards path.

I'm ready for the free motion quilting class at Stitcher's Playhouse so that I can get this thing quilted.

Revamped heating pad

So you know how heating pads come with those plain baby blue covers? Mine was getting kind of rough looking after several years of use so I decided to make a nice new cover for mine out of some flannel scraps that I had lying around. It was just like making a little pillow case and adding some plastic snaps to the top. You wouldn't want metal because they might get too hot.

I cut a rectangle slightly larger than the heating pad. Then folded the short ends under 1/2" twice for a nice finished hem. I did it 1/2" so that the snaps would fit inside of it. I then folded the rectangle in half wrong sides together and sewed up the sides using 1/4" seam. Flip the case wrong side out and sew up the sides again using 1/4" seam to make a nice finished French seam. The flannel is also softer than the case that came with the heating pad.

A pretty good day

Today's shoot was pretty laid back and there wasn't very much to do...so I was chatting with a couple of the guys who have kids and I sold two of the toddler briefcases and possibly a couple of faux chenille throw pillows. If I can keep this up then hopefully I'll be able to just sew soon. Keeping my fingers crossed and excited because these toddler briefcases make numbers three and four that I've sold. I'm making improvements with each one too. Thinking of a way to make an awesome boy one and incorporate cars into it.

Here's a close up pic of one of the faux chenille pillows. I did an "X" pattern on the square ones. And all of the lumbar pillows stacked up in a chair.

Puppy ear muffs?

I had my first production gig since the awards show today and the artist's puppies were there. They are trying to get the newest one used to the loud music to get her ready for the road. So I thought... What about puppy ear muffs to help quiet the noise. Most of the humans wear ear plugs and dogs have more sensitive hearing than us. Too tired to try to make up a prototype today...maybe I'll be able to think up something tomorrow.

Faux chenille and homemade pillow forms

I've made a few faux chenille quilts in the last few months. Four of them are going to be for sale at a boutique in Asheville, NC when the shop opens in April. The shop owner also asked me if I could make some faux chenille throw pillow covers. I'm always up for trying new things. I think they turned out really well.

Another thing I did with these was to make my own pillow inserts. I priced out inserts at Joann's and even when they are 50% off, a 20" x 20" pillow form was going to be $8. That seemed a little ridiculous to me so I. Bought some really big bags of fiber fill instead.

I made the pillow form cases out of some white muslin that I had at home. Two and 1/4 yards of 90" muslin and three bags of fiber fill were all I needed to make 8 pillow forms. Four were 20x20 and four were 12x20 (lumbar pillows). So much cheaper than spending $64 on the pillow forms and they didn't take long to make either.

Yummy lunch

Last week I saw a recipe for avocado chicken salad on Pinterest. That sounded so good and then Aldi had avocados for 33 cents so I bought some eager for them to get ripe enough for me to make it. When I started making it today I didn't have my phone handy so I just winged it and it was DELISH. Here's what I did:

2 boneless chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1/2 onion diced
1 avocado chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 slices of crispy bacon (because that's all I had)
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix it all together and enjoy. I like to toast my bread, helps keep it from sticking tithe roof of my mouth. Let me know if you try it and like it or if you add anything else to it.

New quilt idea

So today I had an idea for a variation on a drunkards path quilt. I'm going to call it "pink riviera". I got all of the fabric cut today and started sewing the circles onto the squares. I can't wait to get up in the morning and start working on it again....I really do love sewing :)