Sewing Mini Again

A couple of Christmases ago, I made what I thought was the perfect gift for my Sweden-loving friend, a Dala Horse Pillow, and as expected, she loved it. Fast forward to last week, when she admired the new mug rug I had on my desk at work, and asked if I had a collection of mug rugs. (I do.) She said she could use one and what she'd really love was one with another Dala Horse. I smiled, thinking to myself, "uh, that would be a mighty small Dala!"

But I went home and looked at the pattern by Stitched in Color, and realized I'd only have to downsize the pattern by 50% to get a 6 1/2" block. And you know? It went together flawlessly.

I found a perfect blue in my solid scrap bin, and got to try my hand at sketch stitching again, which adds some fun detailing. I thought something else was needed to finish it off, so I quilted it with a grid and added a fun blue dot backing and wide binding.

So that was a pleasant diversion. It was kind of fun to squeeze in  a little on-demand sewing.

Pillowy

Pillows aren't really my normal make, but you wouldn't know it from my sewing this last week. First was this irresistible Dala Horse using the pattern by Stitched in Color.

Even though paper-piecing like this isn't the most relaxing for me, I love how it turned out, and "got" to try sketch stitching for the very first time. It went well! So after a simple contrasting border and a big ole quilted crosshatch, I finished it off with an invisible zip.

After that, I really had no other imminent pillow plans until I saw the snowflake pillow teaginny made with During Quiet Times' pattern. I, uh, kinda had to make one myself straightaway.

The pattern has 3 sizes - 6", 9", and 12" blocks. I made the 9" snowflake, added a narrow frame, and pretty much copied teaginny's quilting. This time, I tried a new zipper tutorial - an easy, perfect lapped treatment by Pile O'Fabric. Boy it went together nice, and I'll be using that technique again. In no time at all I had a sweet seasonal 12" cushion. That was fun!

For me, there's a special pleasure in sewing that is spontaneous - making things that weren't planned at all. Now where'd I put that TO DO list? {smile}

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday.