Melia Mae Quilting: January 2016

Well it has been quite the year, 2015 that is. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to sew and quilt as much as I had hoped. However, we are about to begin a new year and it is always a good opportunity for me to "re-evaluate" my life and change focus if needed. I hope to do just that and put more focus on my sewing and quilting than I have done over the previous couple of years. One of the things that I would like to do is "stretch" my capabilities and try new things. One of the things that I tried over the month of December was some "hand quilting".

I had been promising my nephew a pocket pillow to hold his books but was unable to get it done for his birthday in September so I thought that I would redeem myself for Christmas. I really like how it turned out. The fabric I used was "On Our Way" by Riley Blake. I essentially made up my own pattern. I used a 14 inch pillow form. For the pocket I used one 4 1/2 inch strip and two 2 1/2 inch strips. I embroidered my nephew's name on the middle strip. The font I used was the Cutie Patootie Alphabet by Bunnycup Embroidery. I just love their embroidery designs. They always embroider up very very well.

For the pocket I hand quilted using the DMC 8 perle cotton in black. I just loved the result. For the pillow front, I hand quilted using that same black perle cotton every inch. Hand quilting was very therapeutic after I bought myself a thimble because you have to use a larger needle when quilting with the perle cotton, which was hurting my index finger pushing it through the quilt sandwich.

Once I was finished, I sewed it together with an envelope enclosure back, which I forgot to get a picture of. But here is the finished product after the books are added. Plus I added a little lego set as well, what boy does not love legos!