Full of Soup

In early December, Nova posted her pattern for Pillow Pockets.

The pattern was so incredibly cute, I just knew I wanted to make one for my niece, but I wasn’t sure I could pull it together in time for her birthday. I kept seeing the pattern pop up all over the internet and read about how fun and simple this pattern is to complete, so I thought I would give it a try.

After an evening pulling out all of my fabrics and choosing colors for the Dresden Plate, I spent some time trying out different backgrounds for the pillow. I really like the high contrast between the background fabric and the Dresden Plate in Nova’s samples.

I also liked the idea of something more harmonious.

In the end, I decided on the strawberries because pink is the girl’s favorite color and I’m not sure what other project lends itself so well to hot pink strawberries.

The Dresden plate was straightforward to piece together, but I had never made a pillowcase before, so I anticipated pulling out a lot of stitches stitches and trying to figure it all out. Indy settled in for a long evening, but the pattern was actually a snap.

I found every step of the way so rewarding. Each night I worked on this, I went to sleep pretty pleased. I have had a couple dud patterns recently, so I am grateful for the clear instructions I know I saved myself a lot of headache.

Finished with hours to spare before her party!

I kept the quilting super simple.

I used a complimentary stripe for the fabric in the back. I just added this to my stash after visiting (read: paying extremely high prices for little bits of gorgeous fabrics) Britex in San Francisco.

Okay, EXTREMELY simple quilting. Don’t mind the cat hair.

I received a stack of Robert Kaufman Poseidon solids for Christmas and the one I tried out as a background fabric ended up making a perfect for the binding.

I repeated the stripe inside the pocket.

I am really happy with the final product.

The birthday girl was pretty happy too!

I tried to take all the advice from the Kaffe Fassett workshop very literally and so when Liza said not to count the blocks as we make them, but just to keep on sewing and sewing, I did just that. For months.

Before the retreat, I was feeling smug that I had made most of my snowballs and I would be well on my way to a completed top after the weekend, but after making all my piles and pinning and counting and writing numbers on sticky notes I realized I was only about halfway there and I would have to cut more fabric to finish the top.

I think most normal people would be able to just move on and cut more fabric, but for me this was tragic. I work very methodically and finish each step completely before I move onto the next. Having to take a step backwards threw me to a screeching halt.

Okay, so this next part is really airing my dirty laundry. I am admittedly air-headed, but when I went to the quilting retreat, I looked at the pattern again and realized that I was just shy of making double the amount of blocks that I needed. DOUBLE. As in, I should’ve been done with this quilt in half the time. Also, since I like to work so methodically, I completed each color one at a time, and there were entire colors I didn’t even get to add to my quilt. I had been saving my favorite colors for the end so I had something to look forward to and now I had way too many blocks and none of my favorite colors.

THE DRAMA. I just kept sewing. I figured I’d make two quilts. Or whatever. My life is ruined I might as well just sew snowballs forever.

When I got home, I realized not only was my original count correct and I needed all these snowballs, I had to CUT MORE FABRIC and make more.

Liza was right. I shouldn’t have counted. As of two weeks ago, I have made exactly the number of snowballs I need. Not a one extra.

On the bright side, the top is spinning together pretty quick.

And Indy has found a use for the ugly Dresden Plate I started a couple weeks ago.

Notice how jealous Aesop is of the collar look.

My sister made this for Anthony for his birthday.

Last night my friend Katie came over and I pulled out all my quilting stuff and showed her what I had completed over the summer and some older projects that I’m not sure what to do with next. I have a small trunk in my bedroom where I keep the older projects and just as I lifted out the first quilt, my cat jumped into the trunk. I ran over to pull him out, but it was too late. He peed all over my quilts.

The quilts represented years of work, and I was so afraid the smell and stains would be irreparable. I took them to the laundromat first thing the next day and washed them on gentle with detergent, OxiClean, and a ton of white vinegar, and they came out smelling fresh with no stains.

The cat will live to see another day.