Valley Lake Sunset Pillow

Pattern/Technique: Kalaloch Pillow from Simple Geometric Quilting by Laura Preston

Added zipper using Covered zipper pillow tutorial by Lisa Bongean

Materials:

• Fat quarters: Peppered Cottons Garnet 26, Saffron 25, Paprika 32, Flame 16, Magenta 42, Parrish Blue 67

• 1/2 yd Peppered Cottons Ink 45

• 3/4 yd Peppered Cottons Marine Blue 11

• Aurifil 50 wt color no. 4182

• Quilters Dream select cotton batting

• 1/2 yd Kona cotton natural (for backing of quilted panel)

Fabric purchased from Cottoneer, Shot & Pepper

New skills: strip quilting

Lessons: I'd read in one of my quilting books that it isn't necessary to block / straighten fat quarters before cutting into them, so I didn't do that. But I definitely noticed I had a lot of loose threads fraying from the strips. This wasn't necessarily a problem, but I did have to manage them.

The pattern called for short blue strips that were slightly shorter (10.5") than the colored strips (11"). I would cut 11" strips of these to have a little extra in case of inaccuracies while piecing.

I'd cut slightly longer long blue strips (maybe an inch longer) because there were some inaccuracies in my pieced strips, so I offset them to make sure that the center panel (yellow/dark red) was aligned. I ended up having to trim down the length of the pillow by ~0.5" so that the edge of the fabric would be within the seam allowances.

Ironing on a wool felt pad produces incredible results when piecing.

It's critical to check the following settings on the sewing machine before every use: presser foot pressure, stitch length, tension, and needle size/type. I started out piecing using a chrome denim needle (bleargh) which I switched out partway through the project. I then forgot to cancel the needle offset after switching out my zipper foot and ended up driving the needle (breaking it) down into my 1/4" plastic quilting foot (cracking the foot, ugh).

I had quite a bit of trouble with skipped stitches while piecing. (Confession: I didn't resew the seams because I would be quilting them in the ditch and assumed that the quilting process would reinforce any janky seam.) I did a lot of research both online (this thread was a huge help), in my machine manual, and the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing. Here's what I learned:

• The most common cause of skipped stitches is using the wrong size / type of needle for the weight of thread being used

• Aurifil 50 wt thread is 2-ply so it's thinner than a 50 wt 3-ply thread

• I tried a variety of sizes and types of needles (80/12 universal - skipped, 70/11 universal - skipped, 80/12 microtex - far less skipping, 70/11 microtex - no skipping) and eventually had great results with a 70/11 microtex needle

I'm not sure what I should do when I go back to garment sewing - whether I should pick up some 40 wt thread, or use the same size/type needle I've been using for quilting.

While quilting, I had to drop the presser foot pressure a lot more than my initial setting (intially 4.5, and dropped down to 2) because the quilt top was getting distorted / pulled while I was making the horizonal lines. I'm wondering if this might have also been exacerbated because I was quilting across the grain of the fabric, and I've read that the cross-grain tends to have a little more give.

While sewing in the zipper, the fabric stretched a ton. Again, I'm wondering if this is because I was sewing across the grain and maybe the fabric was stretching out while I was attaching the zipper. I managed to get things to work, but the zipper was definitely doing some wonky stuff while I was trying to topstitch it and I had to do some Grade A fudging to get it to work. Definitely need to do more research here.

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I used a chaco liner and a hera marker to mark quilting lines - both worked effectively, though the hera marker might have been slightly better because it didn't get chalk on the thread, causing it to look a little dull. Most of the chalk has rubbed away as the pillow has been used, and it's now unnoticeable.

The pillow insert I had on hand (recycled from an old throw pillow) was 13x24 inches and I considered reducing the pillow width by an inch. I'm happy I didn't end up doing this because 14x24 and 16x26 are far more standard pillow insert sizes when I eventually replace the existing insert.

What I'd do differently: Piece and quilt a test swatch to make sure I have the right needle for the fabric I'm using.

While my strips had some alignment inaccuracies, I think that improving is mainly a matter of continuing to practice piecing.

Care: Hand wash, lay flat to dry

Pathway Pillow

I don’t have a witty summary of this spring. I managed to cobble a few brain cells together and started to learn quilting, an endeavor that’s been surprisingly satisfying at a time when even simple tasks can seem like a lot. The bulk of the cutting and piecing was done over the Memorial Day weekend and I experimented with a short stop motion video of the final construction steps.

Pattern: Pathway Pillow from Making Magazine No. 4: Lines. Made with Purl Soho Daily Linen in natural flax (backing fabric), with scraps of black linen/viscose blend (left over from Zadie jumpsuit), black yarn dyed Kaufman Brussels Washer linen, and a black & white printed cotton remnant from Discount Fabrics in SF.

New skills: Quilt piecing, using a walking foot, stop motion video

Lessons: When pressing seams to one side, press from above rather than below to have more control and achieve straighter lines.

Even when in stop motion mode, my camera adjusts settings after every photo - I should probably try shooting in full manual mode so that I don’t get the weird flashing effect from different light levels.

Cramming a 28 x 28 inch pillow form into a 24 x 24 inch pillow case is a bad idea.

Each (finished) strip is 4 inches wide, so it’s easy to increase / decrease the block size in 4-inch increments by increasing/decreasing the number of strips used, and lengthening them the same number of increments.

Aesthetically pleasing chaos is difficult to intentionally achieve.

What I’d do differently: I like the look of the fabrics I used but in the future, I’ll probably stick to a single thickness/weight for better consistency.

I’d like to experiment with spray starch to see if it makes the piecing process easier.

I followed the pattern instructions for the backing piece (formed by overlapping two pieces of linen) but it makes the pillow a little bit rectangular because there’s no fastener to prevent the back fabric from gaping slightly. I’m probably going to rip out the seam and sew in a zipper instead using the method in School of Sewing.

Care: Hand wash, lay flat to dry