A Pinterest Finish! {Farm Play Mat Tutorial}

My good friend from 1000 years ago (high school days) saw this on Pinterest and I was immediately inspired.  I was thrilled to take on this little project.  I love quilting but change can be very refreshing!

I used a bunch of pieces of batting from previous quilts.  Butted up together, large zigzag, and viola!  Frankenbatting!

I thought the best way to go about this was a Quilt as You Go style.  In a nutshell, sewing directly onto the batting.

I used all scraps - go me!  (And BTW, I'm happy to report I have not spent one penny on fabric for 29 days.)  Trying to make it as interesting with various textures, colors, etc but still farmy.  My three-year-old was so tickled to help with this.  She loved picking out things and asking me to use them.  That creative spontaneity is so wonderful, especially when shared with a little one.

Suede, burlap, work shirts, ribbons, corduroy, upholstery, and lots of fun machine stitches made it so exciting to see what could be coming next from those little eager hands.  I tried to imagine landscape images (ponds, fields, tractor paths, grasslands, tree lines) but still wanted it to be open for the kiddos to use their imaginations.

I also created some hills by stuffing teeny tiny fabric scraps under the fabric before sewing it down. 

Some edges were left raw for extra texture, grassy effects, you know...

By the way, if your work room doesn't look like this, you're not doing it right! 

So once I had two large-ish pieces "quilted" I joined them together.  Just one seam down the middle.

My blue minky backing ready for basting.  Taped to the floor upside down.

Farm mat laid on top.  Remember this was Quilt as You Go so the batting is already there.

A few pins around the perimeter since I only intend on minimal quilting here.  It's pretty small.

If this were my farm I'd plant zucchini, snap peas, romaine, and have 35 chickens.

 I sewed thru the layers (backing, front/batting) where I sewed that seam to join the two sides.  So yep, only one seam down the middle.  From my stash I had that (previously regarded as hideous) grass binding.  It looked perfect here, but like Vietnam on the previous quilt I tried it on.

The kids liked it and were looking for their plots, mermaids in the pond, different crops, and a stray peacock.  If "the boys" have half as much fun, I'll call it success!

Pillow Covers {Tutorial} + Giveaway!

Whew! What a fantastic Christmas! For us, it was simple and sweet and just downright great. I usually dread this time of year for a variety of reasons but this was so nice that I might not cry come next December.

So what about you? Excited for New Years? Did you get any sweet home bar furniture to spruce up the place for your next party? I'm totally digging this pink one:

Any good sewing things? Tell ya what, just incase there was something you wanted but didn't get, I'm giving away a gift certificate to CSN stores so that you can get whatever it is your little heart desires! Just comment at the end of this post and tell me what was the best "thing" you GAVE this year. (Totally doesn't have to be a "thing" - you know what I mean!)

Contest open to US addresses only. Sorry Charlie, CSN rules. I'll announce the winner next year.... January 1st!

And now onto the (crazy easy and mega fast) pillow cover tutorial!

Supplies:

Batting

Fabric - can be same, contrasting front and back, whateves

All the normal sewing machine stuff

Pillow form - measure that ahead of time so you know what size to make the cover.

Skill level:

Totally beginner. Way fun and good for instant gratification.

A friend recently asked me to make three linen pillow covers as a Christmas gift to her sister. Oh linen! I love how it looks but it is a tad bit high-maintenance with its wrinkles and wiggly edges. I chose a 100% linen of medium weight.

Since I like a nice soft cushy pillow, I back my pillow covers with batting. I first cut my batting to the exact size of the pillow form (18" x 18" in this case). This is probably the most important step if you are using linen because the batting (I use Warm and White) holds its shape better than the crazy wiggly linen. Perfectly square batting will ensure you will end up with an evenly-shaped pillow cover.

Exhibit A: Batting.

Next - cut the front of the pillow cover the exact same size. (18" x 18")

For the back (envelope closure), cut two panels 18" x 12". (Or if using a different size pillow form, make sure that the panels will overlap by at least 4")

(If you are in a real hurry, use the selvedge edges as the "hemmed" edges and sew around the raw edges when making your cover. So for example, cut the selvedge at 18" in length and put that in the middle - NOT on the outside - when we start stacking all the layers.)

Now we stack.

First - batting.

Next - front - right side up

Finally - panel one raw edges lined up on the left and panel two lined up on the right - right sides down.

Hemmed/Selvedge edges in the middle.

(psst- I have a more in-depth tutorial here with better pictures should you need a little more visual guidance.)

Stacked? Edges all lined up nice and neat? Let's sew, daddio!

You will probably want to pin just to make sure everybody stays in place. I also use a walking foot for this since there are a lot of layers and room for a lot of shifting about.

So you sew about 1/4" all the way around. For linen I did almost 1/2" since it tends to fray. It really doesn't matter - just rock it out. Make sure you catch all the layers all the time. You'll know if you didn't once you turn it right side out. :) --And don't worry, you can totally go back and fix it. No biggie.

Ok, so you have sewn all the way around. No need to leave an opening for turning since that's what the envelope closure will do.

Turn that puppy right side out and you can be done at this point. Totally less than an hour, right?!

Should you choose to dress it up a bit (and also help the pillow to stand up straigher), you can sew a little "faux piping" around the edge.

Just sew all the way around it again, this time on the right side. By using your walking foot and making it as narrow as possible (1/4" is fine), you can have instant piping! (Should you want to do the real deal with piping, check out my previous tutorial.)

Ok, so like an hour and 2 minutes? Easy peezy!

Don't forget to comment for the CSN Giveaway! Happy New Year if I don't check back in this week. You never know...