A Christmas House

It's always a bit of a dilema when it's time to make something for a swap. So I followed the guidelines of 'make something you'd like to receive' as well as "make something that you'll enjoy making." And I hit it on both counts. Plus I got to use a pattern I've been wanting to try - Carolyn Friedlander's "Austin House," which I nabbed at QuiltCon. Happily, the block went together so smoothly, and even though I love how it looks in Carolyn's own fabric, I couldn't resist trying a scrappy Christmas look.

Having made just one block, my project was destined to remain relatively small. Surrounded by more background fabric (a gray chambray), I was aiming for a 12" x 24" pillow insert. For quilting, I tried another something I've been wanting to try - a diamond crosshatch, with lines about 3/8" apart. What fine texture it creates.

This time around, after the quilting I trimmed both front and back to the same dimensions as the insert, after having used this lapped zipper tutorial by Pile O'Fabric, which worked perfectly. Then I sewed the front and back together with a 1/2" seam, turned it all right-side out, and voila! It filled the pillow out quite nicely, so remind me to do that next time, would you?

[Random note: after finishing the pillow, I happened upon made by ChrissieD's Quilted Pillow Cushion with Hidden Zipper, which has a zipper installation that's very very similar, except with 1/4" double-stick fusible tape....a clever idea I'd like to try.]

So the pillow got taken to the #SeattleMQG holiday party today, was swapped twice, and then happily claimed by my bee-mate Aline/augustdreamsquilts. Good times.