Skull & Needles Pillow

I've had this Marc Ecko "Cut & Sew" tee shirt sitting on my desk for ages.  I bumped into it at Ruggesd Warehouse, and would have bought one for each of my shop workers, if only they had more than just one men's small!  Since my new desk chair at work was clearly made for someone taller in mind, I needed a pillow to put behind my back while I'm at the desk.  Since the shirt was a small, I could only get a 14" pillow out of it, but it seems to be just the right size for me.  Plus it fits in so well with my dorky office decor.

Costume Shop Quilt

This past Thursday I spent much of a snowy afternoon quilting the blocks, sashing and borders of the Costume Shop Quilt that Grace and I have been working on together.  Since Bowling Green doesn't believe in salting roads or plowing snow, I stayed home Friday and managed to get this bound all in one day.  (Actually, I'm not even sure if Bowling Green actually owns any plows.)

 As previously mentioned, this quilt was a group project.  I designed the layout, and the pin cushion & button blocks.  Grace designed the thread & thimble and sewing machine block.  I can't remember who did the heart.  I'll have to ask when all my kids are back at work tomorrow.  The blocks were created from scrap fabric we found around the shop, and the appliques were done with Wonder-Under.

Grace pieced the front and then we laid out and pinned the quilt sandwich together.  She then quilted the focus fabric sections.  (A majority of the quilt really.)  I quilted the black sashing & borders and all the blocks, then hand sewed the bright red binding.  I'll be sure to get a picture of it in it's new home on the back of the shop sofa tomorrow.
 
Oh and by the way, Gracie-Gracie-Lou, I love you!

Sneak Peek: Costume Shop Quilt

At the end of last semester I was talking to Grace, who works for me at my Costume Shop.  We had been working on making the Shop more comfortable and inviting.  She was kind enough to donate a new futon to our office and scored us a free coffee table.  We made new pillows for the futon, but decided that what it really needed was a quilt.  A sewing themed quilt.  Fortunately dear friend Melissa (of the MAQ fame) had sent me the perfect fabric, Alexander Henry's Sew Now Sew Wow.

I loved the busy print, and thought it a shame to slice and dice it too much.  I didn't have quite enough to do a whole cloth quilt, but could come close...  Thus inspired, I sketched out the design and set about making the patterns for the blocks.  All of my student workers got in on the process, and each one helped in creating the 5 blocks.  Grace has completed a majority of the quilting.  I'm hoping to finish the quilting this week, then bind it over the weekend.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the blocks.

Pin Cushion

Heart

Thread & Thimble

Detail of fabric & free motion quilting.

The multi-talented Grace also has experience painting murals and we decided to put that talent to good use on the Shop walls.  Inspired by the stylized design of fabric, Grace sketched out the mural on our shop walls.  Over Winter Break her and I came in to paint it together.  Here are the results:

Including: flower, machine, zipper, safety pin, button, rotary cutter, needle & thread, seam ripper.

Dress form, tape measure, pin cushion, thimble, iron, tracing wheel, bobbin, thread, scissors, hip curve, hanger & TO DO List.

Whole mural, completed.