Tempest of Productivity!

As the first winter storm of 2014 whalloped the East Coast, I had my own little storm brewing indoors. A tempest of productivity! A flurry of pillows and Konas!

I've really enjoyed having quilted pillows in the living room over the holidays, but soon it'll be time to pack up the red and green. Time to start cutting for a another EPP pillow! These are earthy tones for me, but they'll work nicely on the couch! Shockingly ☺, they're all Konas - Chocolate, Ivory, Bison, Spice, Paprika, and (the oh so creatively named) Brown (clockwise from top center).

Though I'm loving the hexies, I thought I'd branch out on this project and make something a little different. Let the diamonds and squares begin! I stitched on it for so long yesterday that my fingers still hurt at bedtime! But it still needs another row on the top and sides.

Also in the pillow department, I've been working on some Christmas gifts for next year. I know, I know. Keener. But the fabric's on sale and it's wintery outside, so why not?
The pattern is yet another from Pillow Pops. I think I've made more projects from that book than from any other! I give it a hearty thumbs up!

I had so much fun making the Christmas version that I dove into my Kona scrap bin and got to cutting. There are 23 different colours of blue there!

I laid it all out on a scrap of batting... like a mini portable design wall. It was fun arranging and re-arranging to get it just right. And here it is all sewn together - lolling in the snow on our deck!

Now cutting all those 2½ inch Kona squares got me to thinking... it sure would be nice to make something from all these scraps and lovely yardage I've got here. Q-D made a pretty cool quilt for her brother for Christmas from a tutorial on Quilts + Color. It's made from strips sew end to end. I thought I'd put my own spin on it and make it just with Konas!

Before you get all excited, I'm not even going to try to name them all! But I can tell you that the pops of yellow-green are Wasabi, Sprout, and Peapod. The strips can get a little messy!
But in the long run, it turned out really well. With all the strips I had cut, I thought it would end up as something bigger than a large baby quilt (30 by 36 inches). Guess I should have actually read the tutorial instead of pinning the pic on Pinterest and watching Q-D's technique!

 Love, love, love these blues!

I even quilted it this afternoon! I kept it simple - quilting horizontally every 1½ inches in white thread. Next up is the binding - to be hand stitching this evening whilst watching TV with Himself. Then I'm going to follow the trend I've been reading about and wash it once it's bound. I think it will crinkle up nicely!

I enjoyed making this one so much that I can hardly wait to start sewing these!

Guess we know where I'll be tomorrow!

J