Friday finish - log cabin pillow

Look at what we've been doing in the Shush household.  

You might be thinking that's a pretty cute pillow we've been making. The sort you'd whip up for a fourth birthday present for the little best friend of your Princess. Quick and easy, but pretty and useful.  And having the upside of wowing the little friend's non-sewing mummy. All good.

What you don't realise is that this pretty aqua blue pinky red log cabin ensemble is in fact the devil in disguise. Yes siree. A wicked pillow designed to tax the most patient and gracious of sewers.* You'd never believe it to look at it, right? A 3.5" centre block with 2.5" strips finishing 23" square. How hard could it be?

One new pillow.

Well, not so hard at first, I guess.  There was lots of fun choosing some fabrics.  Not so much fun cutting them up - but entirely bearable. And the sewing of the top went well enough. Princess announced it wasn't big enough, so I added some more strips. Not so bad either.

Then the quilting commenced. A small snag arose. This is mainly because I know in my heart of hearts that I can quilt as well as Angela Walters. There is just the small matter of getting some practice under my belt. Sometimes I forget that I haven't had that much practice. Or in the case of this quilting - any practice at all.  I thought I would do some cute little swirls with flowers interspersed, just like Kristyne's example at Pretty by Hand. 

Because you are all my quilty friends - I'll give you a hint. It's a really good idea to try new quilting patterns on some scrap fabric AT LEAST ONCE before you launch on to your completed quilt top.  And then, if it turns out you're not a massive fan (minor understatement) of your crappy quilting,  it is not a good idea to do even more swirly whirly quilting over the top of it in a wildly prominent colour. 

Nope.

You know why?  Because instead of finishing your pillow, you spend three hours inside on a sunny Saturday afternoon unpicking your really bad bright blue thread quilting so that only the original not so noticeable but crappy quilting remains. 

Enough said. 

Obviously I was going for a more subtle rustic look than Kristyne's tutorial imagined

Having learned a little from that exercise, hubby was then nominated to pick the binding fabric so the whole damn nightmare could get finished before the Sunday morning party.  And, just to top it off, you'll be pleased to know that one of the seams on the binding ended up on a corner.  Yeah - I should know better. But after some very slow stitching and finger crossing, I managed to get through it without breaking a needle. Yippee. 

So here it is all finished.  It has an envelope back. It needed a couple of press studs to help keep the back closed, but given I was speeding back from Spotlight with the pillow inner 15 minutes before the party started, there was no way that was going to happen.**  It didn't even get wrapped. But Princess was very proud carrying her ginormous pillow into the party, announcing "this is my present". So all's well that ends well.

Artsy glamour shot of evil nemesis log cabin pillow

There had been a prior brief moment of crisis when Princess had informed me that she didn't think it should be given to her friend as a gift. However this passed when she clarified that was because she wanted to keep the pillow for herself. What better endorsement could there be?

Next time I'll be straight line quilting. 

Happy weekend!  Linking up to the end of week linky parties. Howdy visitors. 

* to be clear I am neither patient nor gracious.

** this is not a dramatisation for comic effect. I've also missed out the significant yelling match with Princess to get in the car so we could get to the party before it was finished and all this sewing agony was in vain. Because, naturally, this was all about me.