Cathedral Window Pincushion

I saw this cathedral window pincushion tutorial by Moda Bake Shop and I happened to have a charm pack I received for free when purchasing some other items so decided to try it out.

I followed every step except one.  Instead of using nine 5" charm squares, I only used five.  If you sew  together the four triangular pieces you trim from the top, you will  have a more than big enough square of fabric for the back and who doesn't want to save fabric!

I stuffed it with quilt batting trimmings that were less than 1" wide so too narrow to piece back together into usable batting chunks.

I used an old button for the centre. 

If I were to make another one, I would pay more attention to which corner of the fabric I used on top though.  If you look at the back of the pincushion, you can see I used two fabrics with burgundy backgrounds and two fabrics with mustard backgrounds.  On the top, however, all you can see of one of the burgundy fabrics is a bright pink flower and all you can see of the other mustard fabric is a pale pink flower.  It's fine, but wasn't the coordinating look I intended.  

The corners are a bit lumpy, but all in all I'm pleased with the result and would make another one.

It's hard to believe, but I think this just might be the first pincushion I have ever made!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

Dear Jane Quilt, I5, I6, I7, I8 & E9 - 21 of 225

Here are five more completed Dear Jane blocks.

Block I5 I decided looked like a Cathedral Window block, so that is how I made it.  I made the centre cathedral window and then before I pulled back the outer edges, I added four semi-circular pieces of fabric.  Their outer curved edges were folded under and sewn down and their inner edges were left raw and covered by rolling back the cathedral window.  Here is a picture with just the centre cathedral window made.

And here is I5 completed.

Block I6 was drafted to make two of the pointy sections at once.  I decided to make it like a Dresden Plate and made it with two colours so you could see that more clearly.  I pieced my background on the diagonal so that I could pull back the edges of the black fabric from the back to reveal the petals.

And here is I6 completed.

Block I7 was pretty straight forward, four half square triangles separated by a plus sign.  The little triangles in the border were a bit tricky but I just sewed a yellow and black strip of fabric together and cut four triangles from it and then added black to each side.

And here is I7 close up.

I8 is a square in a square in a square in a square and then the corners are triangles edged with black fabric.  If I were to make this again, I would start with my centre square 1/4" smaller so that my last square's corners would not get sewn into the seam allowance, but I am happy enough with it to leave it.

Here is I8 close up.

E9 was easy.  I made the centre with strip piecing and then just framed it.

Here is E9 completed.

And here are twenty sewn together and the start of another column.

Three of these blocks were made early last week, one and a half were made on Thursday with my Dear Jane sewing group and I just finished up the other half this morning.  Still having tons of fun!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!

Cathedral Windows Cushion Cover

A Cathedral Windows Quilt is on my bucket list, but not one made by hand, I want to make it by machine.  I have seen a few tutorials which have been adapted to make by machine, however they all still use the method of folding the material up in layers and layers like the paper games we made as kids where you choose your favourite colour etc, to reveal the answer.  I stumbled across a tutorial on the Missouri Quilt Company website where Jenny shows how to make it by machine using squares folded into triangles.

Here is the link:  http://blog.missouriquiltco.com/cathedral-window-tutorial/

All you need to decide is what size squares you want to use and cut everything that size.  I decided to make a cushion cover as a test and picked 3" squares.  I made the backing and chose my focus fabrics.

Then I pinned the focus fabrics in place.

Then I added almost ever pin I owned in order to pin down all the curves.

It was like sewing a porcupine I had so many pins in it, but I got it done.  Then I added piping and a lapped cushion back.  It was really easy.  I had more trouble with the piping than sewing down the curves.

I can easily see myself making a full size quilt with this method, likely using 6" squares.  I am going to a quilt retreat in September and may have just found my retreat project!