Travel Pillow Tutorial

I ended up with 4 extra 6 1/2 inch blocks after making a X block quilt for Sarah. So to eliminate Stash and Scraps I made her a matching pillow case for a travel pillow. My sewing instructions are an adaptaion of my friends Liz's Pillow Case Directions.

Supplies:

Extra Quilt blocks
2- 2 1/2 x 32 inch strips for framing block, you will need wider stripes if using 9 or 10 inch block
1- 2 x 32 inch accent strip
1- 9 x 32 inch cuff
2- 16 1/2 inch squares, 1 to line your block and 1 is the back of your case.
1 Travel Pillow, can be purchased at Walmart or Joann's
1. Sew blocks together to make 12 1/2 inch block, or start with a 12 1/2 inch block. If you have a smaller block 10 or 9 inch make a bigger frame in step 2.

2. Cut 2 2 1/2 inch wide stripes to frame out you block. If using a 10 inch cut them 3 1/2 inch wide and for a 9 inch cute them 4 1/2 wide. Frame out your block. Any method you choose. Finished size should be 16 1/2 inch, raw edge.
3. Cut 1 16 1/2 inch piece fabric to back your block. This is to cover up all of your seams. I lightly quilted my block. I ditched the frame and quilted a flower in the center pinwheel to match the quilt. This is the back of the lining.
4. Cut another 16 1/2 inch piece of fabric to be the back of your pillow. Now you are going to french seam the front to the back. With Wrong Sides Together you are going to sew 1/4 inch seam down one side. Press seam open. Fold Pillow Case Right Sides Together and sew the same seam at 3/8 inch. This enclosed your seam and you have no hanging threads.
5. Measure the top edge of your pillow case, it should be 31 3/4 inch. Now cut your accent piece 31 3/4 x 2 inches and cut your cuff 31 3/4 x 9. Press both pieces in half. Now open your cuff ONLY and place right side up. Matching raw edges pin accent piece to cuff.
6. With Right sides together pin top edge of pillow case to the raw edge of the accent and cuff. Roll the pillow case up onto the cuff.
Fold over remaining edge of cuff and pin. Your pillow case in now on the inside of the cuff tube. This is okay. Sew a 1/4 inch seam down the edge of your cuff. It is a good idea to back stitch at each end of the tube.
7. Flip the case out of the cuff tube. I use kitchen tongs for this. I place the tongs in the center of the tube and gather down the tube. I then clamp about 2 inches in the tongs and gently pull them out. It makes the flipping easy. Or use a kid with skinny arms to reach though and pull it out. Once flipped I pressed my pillow case.

One more french seam and we are done!

8. With Wrong Sides Together sew a 1/4 inch seam across the bottom and up the open side. I then trip all my long threads. Also you need to clip the two bottom corners.
Flip your pillow case Wrong Side Out and stitch your seam at 3/8 of an inch.
You are now finished!!! Go travel and test it out!

Memorial Day Project

I have decided I needed to try to make a few quilts just using what I have. That means no buying stuff for them, NOTHING not even thread. So this is my frist quilt to do that with. The pattern is called Mod Quad and can be picked up at Ladybug's Quilts in Manteca. There is over 100 different fabrics in it and no repeats. I did have to get 1 dark piece from my mom.

It did take me longer to cut out this quilt than it did to sew it up. It was a lot of fun. Finished size is 48 x 60, a nice throw. It is down at the quilt shop for display. I am going to quilt it when I get it home. I think it would be cute to do in Pink and black too. Hmmm. I am seeing another quilt coming.

I didn't forget!

Hi all!

I have been busy sewing stuff for others and not really working on my scrap elimination, I have done some stuff though.

I have finished a four patch baby quilt made with my scraps, picture to be posted this weekend. The red and orange were from my stash but ALL the white and other colors were from my scraps. The outer border, black and white stripe, was a half yard left over from another project. The green flannel backing and binding was also left over form another project. This quilt is being mailed to a friend on the Paper Crafts Magazine message board. She found out the day I started the quilt that she was going to be a first time grandma.

I have also working on my Paper Scrap storage. I have decided to separate my scraps by color. Then I used 9x12 manila envelopes to keep the scraps in, I wished I used the next size up though. I also labeled each envelope with the color of paper inside. This has made it super easy to use up some of those scraps.

I have started a Cream of Wheat quilt with some of my fabric scraps. I have made 2 blocks I think I am going to need 300 to make a big enough quilt. I have also started my funeral quilt. I decided that I am going to make a Postage Stamp quilt for my casket. Let me say that I do not have anything wrong with me and have NOT been given 6 months to live. I have figured that to make a Postage Stamp quilt big enough I am going to need over 1000, inch and a half squares and I should start now. My idea with the Postage Stamp is I want it to represent my life's worth of work. I would like people to see it and say remember the quilt she make when I graduated, got married, had my babies, went into chemo, or won all that money with.

On the fifteenth, I promise, come back and I will have some cute cards out of scraps and an idea on what to do with you extra quilt blocks!

First Real Post

Thank you for coming to visit. I have started this blog to record my progress of Scrap & Stash Elimination. Now if you quilt you have some sort of "Scrap Basket" for all of those little pieces of fabric you cut off and just can't throw away. And if you paper craft you have a pile of paper scraps that are left over from a project you can't part with either.


So this blog dedicated to projects that are made from 75% or more of my scraps and 25% stuff from my stash. This is just excess stuff I have on hand. I have too much and need to start using it up! Now any of my projects I post here will be made with "stuff" I have on hand. I will not purchase any new product to make something here. I will not include my UFO's here, these are all new projects.


I will be updating this blog two times a month, the first and fifteenth of each month. It will have completed projects, ideas to help you eliminate your stuff, and much more. It will be Sewing and Paper Crafting stuff. I will keep track of gift of scraps, thread spools finished, four patches and other stuff that comes up as I go.


The first project idea I will share with you is my four patch project. I have been making four patches with my scraps to help use up leftover fabric, ends of bobbins, and almost finished spools of thread. I have been trying to use up my solid white scraps, it also helps keep some uniformity to your project. I choose 3" squares because that was the width of most of my white stripes. You can make your squares and size you choose. Just remember to make them all the same size.


First cut 2 squares 3x3 of each white and colored fabric.

Sew one white square to colored square. Repeat with second set. Press seam toward colored fabric.

Rotate one set of squares, match center seam and sew together. Press seam to one side.

Now make more!

Also if you would like to be a guest Blogger let me know. I would love to here others ideas on S.S.E.P.

Welcome!

News of SSEP will be posted soon!