Marnie, speak! Good girl.

In the short time that I've been quilting I've learned enough to know that I have a lot to learn. I'm still really bad at it but I've been obsessively scouring the internet to bolster my skills.

While I've stuck with simple quilts so far, there's one slightly more advanced quilt that always catches my eye, the Cathedral Windows pattern. The first one I ever saw was here (youtube video). Amazing, right? But jeeze o pete, that's a lot of handwork.

Then I found this tutorial on the Moda Bakeshop site and a whole bunch of the handwork was taken out without losing a lot of what makes the pattern appealing to me. I tried the technique and ended up making this and while I liked it, there were a couple of things about the pattern I didn't love (and I really needed to work on my top stitching).

So based on the techniques I saw online and a few things I wanted to change slightly, I came up with this variation. The one I'm demoing, (shown above) doesn't cut off the edges of the windows around the edge and can be adapted to any size you like. It also has batting behind it, for a little more dimensionality. This could be easily adapted to a table runner, lap quilt or wall hanging. For bags and pillows, you could leave the backing off, if you wanted to.

Supplies

Fabric

• 1 - 14" x 14" backing piece (shown in white)
• 1 - 14" x 14" piece of batting. If you plan to use this as a hot pad, use 100% cotton
• 1 - 14" x 14" piece of border fabric (shown in Moda Cotton Blossoms 55005)
• 4 - 9.5" x 9.5" for windows (shown in white)
• 1 - 5" x 5" or 4 - 2.5" x 2.5" square(s) for window panes (shown in Moda Terrain by Kate Spain in 27092-13)
• Binding fabric (Shown in...heck if I know)

Other supplies

• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Rotary cutter/ruler/mat
• Marking tools
• Pins
• Hand sewing needle
• Point turner
• Iron and ironing surface
• Hand sewing needle

Optional

• Basting glue
• Water spray bottle
• Spray starch
• Scotch Guard

All images may be clicked to view them full size.

Last weekend was my birthday; one of those unremarkable, mid-decade, you're-too-old-to-care-about-your-birthday-still kind of birthdays. We're still eking by on a single salary, and unemployment has dried up so there were no big plans. We figured, being our frugal new selves, that we'd lump my birthday, Thea's 5th birthday, and valentine's day all into one "celebration." I think we managed to pull it off on a shoestring budget. Check out the decorations at our fête!

D-dog provided streamers

There was an air show

Panda entertained us with her acrobatics

And the other birthday girl seemed utterly pleased with the whole day.

I guess it works out that the things the birthday girls want to do most, cost us very little. I believe they call us "cheap dates."

If you average out for dog years, Thea and I are about the same age, this year. As a pup, she was such a handful, unfazed by reprimand, destructive, and mischievous. She's matured into one of the most sweet, loving and playful girls you could ever imagine. I love her so much and am glad to have an excuse to share my birthday celebration with her.

Here's to many more years to come.

If you've ever watched videos of people doing free motion quilting, it always looks so easy and fun. It might be the latter but it's most certainly not the former. I am glad I kept to a not-too-ambitious project for my first go at it.

These should fit in nicely in our breakfast nook which is currently upholstered in blue and white fabric against yellow walls, though we plan to change all of that, someday.

They are stuffed with polyfil, and backed with medium weight muslin.

The fabric is Moda Hometown and a single layer cake will make 9 of these 15" pillow tops or 4, 9 square pillows around 23" wide. You can get even more out of the layer cake if you don't insist on making all the accent squares dark red as I did.

If you want to try making these blocks yourself, here's a schematic (you can click through to get to the option to embiggen it)

The center row, with the two extra seams, will be an inch narrower than the top and bottom row so you'll have to trim down the block after assembly, to make it square.

You have been looking at the pillows, right? I mean, there wasn't anything distracting you in those photos, I hope.

It's important to focus on what matters.

Last weekend was my birthday; one of those unremarkable, mid-decade, you're-too-old-to-care-about-your-birthday-still kind of birthdays. We're still eking by on a single salary, and unemployment has dried up so there were no big plans. We figured, being our frugal new selves, that we'd lump my birthday, Thea's 5th birthday, and valentine's day all into one "celebration." I think we managed to pull it off on a shoestring budget. Check out the decorations at our fête!

D-dog provided streamers

There was an air show

Panda entertained us with her acrobatics

And the other birthday girl seemed utterly pleased with the whole day.

I guess it works out that the things the birthday girls want to do most, cost us very little. I believe they call us "cheap dates."

If you average out for dog years, Thea and I are about the same age, this year. As a pup, she was such a handful, unfazed by reprimand, destructive, and mischievous. She's matured into one of the most sweet, loving and playful girls you could ever imagine. I love her so much and am glad to have an excuse to share my birthday celebration with her.

Here's to many more years to come.

In the short time that I've been quilting I've learned enough to know that I have a lot to learn. I'm still really bad at it but I've been obsessively scouring the internet to bolster my skills.

While I've stuck with simple quilts so far, there's one slightly more advanced quilt that always catches my eye, the Cathedral Windows pattern. The first one I ever saw was here (youtube video). Amazing, right? But jeeze o pete, that's a lot of handwork.

Then I found this tutorial on the Moda Bakeshop site and a whole bunch of the handwork was taken out without losing a lot of what makes the pattern appealing to me. I tried the technique and ended up making this and while I liked it, there were a couple of things about the pattern I didn't love (and I really needed to work on my top stitching).

So based on the techniques I saw online and a few things I wanted to change slightly, I came up with this variation. The one I'm demoing, (shown above) doesn't cut off the edges of the windows around the edge and can be adapted to any size you like. It also has batting behind it, for a little more dimensionality. This could be easily adapted to a table runner, lap quilt or wall hanging. For bags and pillows, you could leave the backing off, if you wanted to.

Supplies

Fabric

• 1 - 14" x 14" backing piece (shown in white)
• 1 - 14" x 14" piece of batting. If you plan to use this as a hot pad, use 100% cotton
• 1 - 14" x 14" piece of border fabric (shown in Moda Cotton Blossoms 55005)
• 4 - 9.5" x 9.5" for windows (shown in white)
• 1 - 5" x 5" or 4 - 2.5" x 2.5" square(s) for window panes (shown in Moda Terrain by Kate Spain in 27092-13)
• Binding fabric (Shown in...heck if I know)

Other supplies

• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Rotary cutter/ruler/mat
• Marking tools
• Pins
• Hand sewing needle
• Point turner
• Iron and ironing surface
• Hand sewing needle

Optional

• Basting glue
• Water spray bottle
• Spray starch
• Scotch Guard

All images may be clicked to view them full size.

If you've ever watched videos of people doing free motion quilting, it always looks so easy and fun. It might be the latter but it's most certainly not the former. I am glad I kept to a not-too-ambitious project for my first go at it.

These should fit in nicely in our breakfast nook which is currently upholstered in blue and white fabric against yellow walls, though we plan to change all of that, someday.

They are stuffed with polyfil, and backed with medium weight muslin.

The fabric is Moda Hometown and a single layer cake will make 9 of these 15" pillow tops or 4, 9 square pillows around 23" wide. You can get even more out of the layer cake if you don't insist on making all the accent squares dark red as I did.

If you want to try making these blocks yourself, here's a schematic (you can click through to get to the option to embiggen it)

The center row, with the two extra seams, will be an inch narrower than the top and bottom row so you'll have to trim down the block after assembly, to make it square.

You have been looking at the pillows, right? I mean, there wasn't anything distracting you in those photos, I hope.

It's important to focus on what matters.