pillow swap four seasons - a wonderful experience

Hi everyone! The closing round of Pillow Swap Four Seasons is coming to a close. All pillows have been shipped and more than half have been received. I have to admit too, I have gotten very sad over the last few weeks, because our group is breaking up. Sandra (hohenbrunnquilterin) and I decided not to extend the swap another year. We had two very successful years of designing and quilting pillows for one another four times a year for two years in a row. Instead of going out with a whimper, we wanted to go out with a bang!

These last two years have been really incredible, too. I never imagined to have met such warm and loving women who share exactly the same interests as I do. I am ever grateful for this exchange of knowledge, skills, friendship, camaraderie, as well as warm hearts and pure love from each and every participant in our group.

It is not easy running a swap. Some of you out there know what it takes to be a swap mama, because you are one. It takes a lot of time, energy, and organization as well as people-person skills and flat out patience. The organization was never really a problem for me, but my soft skills could be better. I am not a fluffy person and sometimes get down to the nitty gritty pretty fast. I know this is a major failure/negative point about me. I know it and try to change this behaviour when I think about it. Sandra, the real leader of this swap, on the other hand has magnificent soft skills. She is what held this group together, especially when my fluttered brain didn't see things clearly, she knew exactly what was going on. An incredible thank you goes out to you, Sandra! Thank you for helping me through these two years by keeping me straight especially when I was wrong.

A big thank you to all of my the people whom I wrongly accused of not shipping on time too or mixing up names of people who sent me a pillow. Man, am I a total idiot when I insult a quilter by thanking someone else; I did that!! Of course I apologized, but it didn't make it any better, from my side that is. I think she took it much better than I would have.

Sometimes I got a little disappointed when I received a brief thank you in the headlines of a posted photograph of my received package. All a lot of thought went into every pillow I designed especially  for each partner I've had. Although I like to incorporate a bit of me into my designs, most of the pillows were truly drawn from the inspiration mosaics from my partners.

Here are all of the pillows made over the last two years for my partners:

Spring 2015 for Dorrie

Summer 2015 for Rita

Fall 2015 for Bettina

Winter 2015 for Rosemarie

I learned how to sew a covered zipper, make covered button, make a double cathedral window, learned about color value, understood the power of scraps.

Then there was 2016....

Spring 2016 for Julia

Summer 2016 for Sabrina

Fall 2016 for Ines

Winter 2016 for Andrea (Stay tuned for more photos.)

I learned my style and how to use contrast to make a design pop. I learned how to make two different kinds of piping - cross grain and bias as well as keeping my stash stocked up...you always have to be ready for the unexpected.

Then I helped making some angel pillows...

2015 for Astrid

2016 for Wendi

I learned the rainbow colors and starting using their color order to influence design.

And then there were those two special pillows I made for Sandra (hohenbrunnerquilterin)...

2015 - Winterverwirrung

2016 - Playful Plus

I learned that I could stitch in the ditch without it looking terrible. And I learned how to make foundation paper piecing to my advantage.

So over the last two years, I have extremely improved my pillow making skills! I even learned how to make buttonholes (but still needs a lot of practice. I learned that I love piping and dislike binding on my pillows.) I also love a covered zipper to keep everything nice and tidy inside. I learned to make a pillow just a little smaller than the size of the insert to make the design stand out better.

Once again...I am going to miss everyone from this group! Thank you for your kindness and your support. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

autumn pillow and mini tutorial

Good morning everyone. Well, another few weeks have gone by and still no new posts from me. I am such a bad, bad girl. ;-) I've been busy like all of us; just using the extra time I have to sew instead of blogging. Since we are in the middle of fall, I thought I would share my beautiful, autumn pillow that I made for my sweet Pillow Swap Four Seasons partner, Betti from Bettis Stitches on Instagram.

What do I want to say about this pillow?.... It was really fun to make!

If you know me, you know I like a good challenge! And this time, I wanted to sew something really small. I took the traditional maple leaf pattern from EQ7 and designed my own pillow using the fabric line Tucker Prairie from Moda. This was my original design from EQ7 with a triple border. You can see from the final pillow, I removed the second patchwork border; I thought it was a bit too much in the end and was a little too loud or "unruhig."

My fabric pull came together rather quickly. I wanted blues, oranges, yellow-greens and purples. This may not be your "traditional" fall color palette, but I wanted the colors to jump out and be vibrant. I wanted to ground the entire idea by using low volumes for the background. I didn't purchase any new fabrics for the front of the pillow and most came from designers such as Tula Pink, Brigitte Heitland for Zen Chic, Carolyn Friedlander, and Sarah Watts if you want to recreate this. The outer border fabric was still undecided at this point.

I first made the four bigger leaves in the center which finished up at 4 1/2". Each of my corner blocks were cut to 2" and finish up to 1 1/2". (You could construct the entire block from a nine-patch using 1 1/2" blocks for each of the nine segments if you want to make this pillow.)

After I made my "big blocks" out of the way, I started with sewing my teeny tiny leaves. I actually found out that the leaves go together very easily when you know two principles - traditional foundation (paper) piecing and sewing on paper "sew-all-at-once" method.

Each leaf took about 15 minutes to make. I made about 30+ one-inch leaves for this project.

MINI TUTORIAL

First of all, cut out your template along the dotted lines, making sure to keep both adjacent sides of A and B together. Using a good light source, fold exactly between sections A and B; you will be sewing on line A6/A7 to B1/B2 later. (Templates are discontinued. You can also make your own.)

Sew Section A exactly as your normally would on paper using a smaller stitch than usual. I use 1,5 stitches instead of 2,5 when sewing on paper. Make sure none of the fabric extends over the folded line. If it does, cut it away by folding the paper in half and cutting off what extends over the fold. You may reference a previous tutorial here.

After you have made your leaf, iron it well and trim the block along the seam allowance line. The block should measure 1 1/2 inches. Use the blocks however you wish.

I made a couple extra blocks and used one of them in a pin cushion for my swap partner. I added a one inch border on each side ending with 1/2 border all the way around. The pin cushion measures 2" in total. ;-)

END OF MINI TUTORIAL

After I made all of my mini leaves, I arranged them together for a matching border. Yes, it is matching. AND there is one leaf that is a little wonky!  Can you find it?

 

I didn't notice my wonky leaf until after I sewed the border on! I showed it to several people and no one noticed! I did take the time to change it, because I would have have been a eye sore for me in the end.

I finished the pillow top by sewing on a 3" finished border of black around the center and first border to make the entire center pop out. I chose a matching butterfly and black print from Westminster Fabrics. It has the same yellow as the leaf on the front. I know I took a picture of the pillow from the backside, but I must have deleted the photos. You can jump here to Betti's photo of the backside.

This was as selection of possible fabrics I did buy to finish up the pillow. I used the yellow butterfly for the back and the black checkered for the outer border. I didn't like the bottom fabric with this pillow. It had a strange hue to it.

After everything was made, we went on location for a little photo shoot. ;-) I took the pillow along with us to Tuscany where we spent our summer vacation this year. When we weren't having fun by the pool, I stole a few minutes to tote the pillow around and take some nice location photos. ;-)

Thank you for joining me for explanation of my autumn pillow for Betti! I really and truly had a lot of fun making this pillow. I learned that I love to sew small! I hope you discover you like to sew small too. It really is achievable as long as you know and use a few special techniques.

You can download an entire sheet of one-inch maples leaves to try yourself just how easy they are! If you don't want to pay for the sheet of templates, you can always make your own. ;-)

Hugs,
Karen

pillow swap four seasons - autumn edition

Sign ups are now open for the Autumn Edition of Pillow Swap Four Seasons found on flickr. Come join us!

What is it all about? We are a group of talented, international quilters and patchworkers who love to sew for each other four times a year using seasonal fabrics, motifs, designs, etc. according to the wishes and desires for one lucky recipient. The best part about our group, is that your partner remains one big secret until she/he receives her/his pillow case. You will also receive a pillow cover from a different person in return according to YOUR WISHES. No one knows who is sewing for whom until the final reveal date announcing all swap partners. It is sort of like "secret Santa" but four times of the year! You  will also be posting little sneak peeks of your creative process throughout the season and let the final pillow be a surprise for your partner. Anyone is allowed to join up as long as you have an active Flickr account.

Made for me by Karriofberries - Spring Pillow Swap

How does my "secret partner" know what I like? Before you submit a Google Form, we ask you to design a mosaic of items of interest or wishes for aN autumn pillow. The amount of ideas is up to you. You design your own mosaic. You can have six ideas or 40! This will be the starting point for the person sewing for you. Your partner will also be forwarded your personal information such as shipping address, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, blog, etc. so she can "stalk" you to find out your exact interests and your style.

Made for me by Karin - Summer Round

What do you need to do to sign up? (1) You must have an active Flickr account. (2) read and agree to the Rules and General Information of the group. (3) create a Flickr mosaic with your interests/style/wishes. (4) post your mosaic of your style/interests/wishes for pillow case in the Pillow Swap Four Seasons Flickr group and (5) sign up with the form below. We require a mosaic before you sign up to ensure your Flickr account is active, and the others can get started learning about you and your interest. Only your mosaic will be public for all to see.

My Mosaic for Autumn 2015

1. Pumpkin Mini Quilt - detail, 2. Vineyard at Dalla Terra, 3. Witchy toes, 4. buttons and pin cushion, 5. Free Quilt Pattern, 6. Appalachian Autumn, 7. Patchwork pumpkin, 8. Halloween Fabrics, 9. Perfect Apple Pie Recipe, 10. Pumpkin Patch, 11. Aspens in Wonderland, 12. pleated pillow tutorial, 13. Too Cute to Spook Pillow, 14. appliqued apple, 15. Peanut Carmel Apple, 16. Who has more sincerity than Linus? #Charlie_Brown #It's_The_Great_Pumpkin,_Charlie_Brown #Linus #Sally #Pumpkin_Patch, 17. Indie Pillow inspired by West Elm Kantha Chevron Pillows, 18. Handmade Autumn Swap-Pillow close-up, 19. Lone Tree detail, 20. Moonlit Scaredy Cat, 21. For Natalie, 22. Halloween Block, 23. Ruska Quilt - WIP, 24. autumn leaves, 25. Pillow Cover.

After we receive all forms, the group will be divided into three sub-groups according to skill level. We like to assign a new partner every round, too. The groups are also divided in such a way that even the swap mamas don't know who is sewing for them! That way, we have fun too!

After sign-ups close, you will receive a secret letter from one of the swap mamas (Sandra or myself) with the name and personal information of your partner. This information should remain secret. To ensure you are not "found out" by whom you are sewing for, it is best to stay in contact with all members of group and comment on all the photos others post! Stalk everyone! Not literally, of course! ;-)

Registration for the Autumn Round closes on June 12, 2015 so don't be shy. And please be 100% committed before you sign up. If your schedule is too busy at the moment, you can always join up for the Winter Edition. Check back at the beginning of September.

Autumn 2015
Registration: June 1 - June 12
Partners Assigned: Monday, June 15
Shipping Dates: Aug. 8 24 - Sep. 1
Announcement of Recipients: Monday, Sept. 15 

Registration Form
(Please click below to go directly to the Google form)

Registration is now closed.

Thanks for joining up and can't wait to see a whole new array of beautiful fall pillows!!