Embroidered Pillow

This was a fun, quick project to show off some of the linen fabrics and a book I carry in my shop along with one of my favorite techniques - embroidery.

The pattern is from the book Modern Folk Embroidery by Nancy Nicholson.

To make my version I copied the design onto Transfer-Ez and stuck it to the front of my linen. I did the embroidery right through the Transfer-Ez and linen, then soaked the square in water to dissolve the Transfer-Ez. I must say that I absolutely love Transfer-Ez! I've used it a couple times now and it works great. No more tracing for me!

For the first circle I did, I followed Nancy's pattern exactly. For the rest, I used her pattern as a base but changed up some of the stitches. I used 6 Eleganza size 8 threads for my version.

There are several more projects in the book I'd like to do. This one went quickly. I started it on Saturday and finished the following Wednesday. Using the Transfer-Ez allowed me to go from cutting my squares to starting the embroidery in just a few minutes.

Curvy Log Cabin

I've been playing with my new Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool ruler and came up with this fun quilt.

I'll be teaching this as a class at my shop. It measures 48" by 64" without borders. I haven't decided if I'm going to border it or not yet.

To make one you need one jelly roll, 2 1/2 yards of background fabric and the 8" Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool from Creative Grids. I opted for a single background fabric but you can also just use scraps. 

This is a really fun block with so many setting options. There are quite a few patterns available. I just played with my blocks to come up with this one.

P.S. I've gotten some questions about why I don't post much any more. The truth is that since I opened my shop I don't have as much time to sew and even less time to document it here. I still read blogs when I can, and try to leave brief comments when I do. I don't see this changing for as long as I have a quilt shop to run!