My Families Love Of Pillows and My Pinterest Quilting Tutorials Board

My mother, sister and I have been sewing for many, many years.  My sister and I learned from our mother at a very young age.  We started small and over the years both my sister and I, as well as our mother, honed our sewing skills and, as a result, ended up making many, many things including our own clothes, large quilts, small quilts, mini quilts, quilted pillows. place-mats and runners.

My sister continued her love of quilts by creating Inspired Creations By D quilted wall art.

After making a bunch of quilts that she gave away as gifts my mother gave up large quilts in favor of smaller pillows.  She loved making log cabin pillows like those shown in the picture at the beginning of this post.  She was happy to make the standard log cabin quilts and other quilted pillows until she learned how to make folded log cabin quilted pillows.  From that point on it was all folded log cabin pillows, table runners and place-mats.

She even took her love of log cabin quilts to the point where she was making miniature 8" by 8" pillows for my baby "Bud."  She made two of them just for him - one for downstairs in the family room when he was laying on the sofa and one for the chair we used as his bed upstairs.

He loved them and it was so adorable seeing him laying down with his head on his pillow.

My mother also liked making folded mini pillows, place-mats and table runners like the table runner shown in the picture above.

The first time I made a quilt I thought, "This is fun!" However, like making clothes I very quickly learned that I didn't want to spend a lot of time on large quilts and outfits to wear. I much preferred mini quilts and doll clothes, both of which were smaller and took a lot less time. I know, I know - I get bored easily and large quilts are very time consuming.  So, I focused more on making dolls and smaller quilts like pillows, place-mats, table runners, etc.

I took making pillows one step further when I started creating custom fabric designs for my Linda Walsh Originals Spoonflower shop. I made lots of pillows with my custom fabric designs like those shown in the picture collage above.

I had so much fun making my Sneaks Family custom fabric pillows for my grandsons for Christmas gifts one year I decided to create a free e-pattern for all of you so you could make some Sneaks Family pillows of your own.  If you'd like to make some of your own my free e-pattern is here.  Please note the design of the individual fabrics shown in the e-pattern have changed since that e-pattern was created.

I also like looking at some of the beautiful free pillow creations there are out there as there are a lot of exceptional quilters and seamstresses on the web offering all sorts of "freebies" to inspire everyone else. There's a lot of quilting inspiration as well as pillow inspiration.

As a result I've collected a lot of pins on my Pinterest boards.  I have some on my Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's - Everyday Quilted Pillows Projects Pinterest board and a lot on all the different Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's Pinterest board sections I have.

There are 30 sections on my Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's Pinterest board.  The 30 sections are for everyday quilts to seasonal quilts to holiday quilts to specific types of quilts boards.

At last count I had over 2,000 quilted tutorial pins.  Definitely a lot of wonderful quilted eye candy to see and so much to learn.

Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's

I love learning new quilting techniques, watching quilting video how-to's, and reading quilting tutorials. I hope you do, too and hope you like my selection of quilt making how-to's, video's and tutorials.

If you love my Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

My Recipe For A Snowman Cross Stitch Kit From Pine Mountain Designs

Every so often I see a kit that I think might be cute and easy to make.  Something I could quickly make for a Christmas present or "just because" type present. Something that would make a great seasonal git.  Such was the case with the "Recipe for a Snowman Pillow - Cross Stitch Kit" from Pine Mountain designs.

What drew my attention to the pillow kit was the pillow sham was pre-sewn. A definite time saver when you're as busy as I am. So, I bought it and decided to give it a try.

The "Recipe for a Snowman Pillow - Cross Stitch Kit" came in a resealable heavier plastic bag and contained the pre-sewn pillow sham, DMC floss, button decorations, tapestry needle, and instructions. The pre-sewn pillow was a combination of rectangular cotton strips surrounding a rectangular burlap piece that would be embroidered upon.

The cross-stitch chart and symbols were in black and white and easy to follow.  The instructions, cross-stitch chart, and symbol key were all contained on the front side of a single piece of paper.  Definitely an indication that this would be a fairly easy pillow to do.

The instructions called for a 10" x 16" pillow form to be inserted through the opening in the back. I went to a local JoAnn's store to buy my pillow but was unable to find a 10" x 16" pillow form. All they had were 12" x 16" pillow forms. So, I bought the 12" x 16" pillow form and crossed my fingers that it would work.

I had to insert my embroidery hoop back through the back opening of the pillow sham in order to attach my embroidery hoop so I could embroider the burlap section of the front of the pillow.  Using the pre-sewn pillow sham saved a lot of time in putting the pillow together, but added a little time to the embroidery process as you had to make sure you didn't catch the thread in the pillow back fabric.

The "Christmas Delights" kit was easy to do and I completed in in 10 1/2 hours. Like my "Christmas Delights" pillow concern I do think the burlap fabric chosen for this kit could have been of a tighter weave. It was very loose and I still have concerns as to how well this will hold up over time.

As was the case with the "Christmas Delights" pillow when it came to inserting my 12" by 16" pillow form into the back having my fingers crossed didn't help. It was too big and the back opening didn't close as the pillow sham kit had intended. It was bulging at the back opening. As I had already bought the pillow form for this project and the project was already completed I really didn't want to have to hunt for a 10" by 16" pillow form. So, I added a Velcro strip that I sewed on to the sides of the back opening and closed my pillow sham.  It worked and I have a full plump pillow which over time will deflate a little.

My pillow came out fine despite a few pillow form adjustments as you can see from the picture above and picture below.  It will make a darling Christmas gift or seasonal gift for someone.  I'm not sure who that will be at this point?  Hmmm....

My Christmas Delights Pillow Cross Stitch Kit From Pine Mountain Designs

Every so often I see a kit that I think might be cute and easy to make.  Something I could quickly make for a Christmas present or "just because" type present. Such was the case with the "Christmas Delights" pillow kit from Pine Mountain designs.

What drew my attention to the pillow kit was the pillow sham was pre-sewn. A definite time saver when you're as busy as I am. So, I bought it and decided to give it a try.

The kit came in a resealable heavier plastic bag and contained the pre-sewn pillow sham, DMC floss, button decorations, tapestry needle, and instructions. The pre-sewn pillow was a combination of rectangular cotton strips surrounding a rectangular burlap piece that would be embroidered upon.

The cross-stitch chart and symbols were in black and white and easy to follow.  The instructions, cross-stitch chart, and symbol key were all contained on the front side of a single piece of paper.  Definitely an indication that this would be a fairly easy pillow to do.

The instructions called for a 10" x 16" pillow form to be inserted through the opening in the back. I went to a local JoAnn's store to buy my pillow but was unable to find a 10" x 16" pillow form. All they had were 12" x 16" pillow forms. So, I bought the 12" x 16" pillow form and crossed my fingers that it would work.

I had to insert my embroidery hoop back through the back opening of the pillow sham in order to attach my embroidery hoop so I could embroider the burlap section of the front of the pillow.  Using the pre-sewn pillow sham saved a lot of time in putting the pillow together, but added a little time to the embroidery process as you had to make sure you didn't catch the thread in the pillow back fabric.

The "Christmas Delights" kit was easy to do and I completed in in 9 1/2 hours. I do think the burlap fabric chosen for this kit could have been of a tighter weave. It was very loose and I still have concerns as to how well this will hold up over time.

When it came to inserting my 12" by 16" pillow form into the back having my fingers crossed didn't help. It was too big and the back opening didn't close as the pillow sham kit had intended. It was bulging at the back opening. As I had already bought the pillow form for this project and the project was already completed I really didn't want to have to hunt for a 10" by 16" pillow form. So, I added a velcro strip that I sewed on to the sides of the back opening and closed my pillow sham.  It worked and I have a full plump pillow which over time will deflate a little.

My pillow came out fine despite a few pillow form adjustments as you can see from the picture above and picture below.  It will make a darling gift.  Hmm.... who should I give it to?

Just One More, Mom! One More!

If you've been following my Linda's Blog for awhile and my The Book Review Corner Blog then you know that among a million other things I LOVE crafting with wool felt and wool felt kits.

Whether it's making wool felt penny rugs, or needle felted penny rug pictures, or ornaments I just LOVE wool felt.

And, it doesn't have to be limited to penny rugs  or ornaments. Over the years I have made hundreds of cloth dolls using wool felt, brushed felt, shaggy felt, etc. I have found that it is especially useful for making animals, but the uses are practically limitless.

I was introduced to penny rugs during a shopping trip with my Mom to Sturbridge many, many years ago. There were several wonderful primitives shops out there that we liked to visit that carried primitive doll kits, wool felt kits, punchneedle kits, and penny rug kits.

One store in particular specialized in wool fabric. And, boy, did they have wool fabric. Some of the most beautiful wool fabric you'd ever want to see. And, boy, was it EXPENSIVE.

This store, in particular, would put together wool fabric bundles, maybe 10-15 wool pieces per bundle. I just loved looking at the color combination's and would imagine what I could make out of them. Then, my Mother would snap me back to reality by turning the price tag over. YIKES! Beautiful wool is expensive. Alas, all I could do was dream and save my pennies.

During the last couple of years there was a store out there that we liked to visit that put together penny rug kits. It, too, is no longer there. However, during our last visit I bought several penny rug wool kits and have been trying to find the time to make them during the last few years.

As usual I had many, many kits that I wanted to buy.  So many, in fact, I asked my Mother if she would carry a few to the counter.  Well, when she saw how many I had she said, "LINDA, one or two would do!  Look at how many you have!" I, of course, just laughed at the numbers I was carrying and decided to put a few (just a few) back.

That year I had decided that I wanted to try needle felting and wool felting as it seemed like everyone was having so much fun with it this year. I don't mean wet needle felting where you are actually creating a needle felted object from the wet felt. I'm just not that adventuresome!

I started with three wool felt kits where one was a penny rug type decoration that needed to have some sheep and tree decorations needle felted. The other two kits were more like wool felt embroidery kits to create primitive wool decorations which could be hung on a wall or placed on a table top.

Well, last Spring I finally had an opportunity and a small window of time that I could use to create some more of the penny rug kits I had bought. I had already created 3 of the kits back in 2009. During this window of opportunity I was able to finish two more of the penny rug kits I had bought. One of those was a pumpkin patch penny rug picture that I wrote about in a Linda's Blog post entitled "I Just Love This "Pumpkin Patch" Penny Rug.

The other was a penny rug kit to create a holiday candle penny rug. The kit was put together based upon a Lakeview Primitives "Holiday Light" pattern #423. The finished size of the penny rug was 16 1/2" x 13 1/2".

The pattern was very easy to follow and I had no problems with it. It contained the pattern pieces, supplies list, and directions for creating the Holiday Candle penny rug decoration. As penny rug decorations are usually put together using a blanket stitch the pattern also included an illustration for how you stitch a blanket stitch. The pattern also calls for pre-felted wool - which, in my case, was already provided in the kit. However, if you don't have a kit and buy wool the pattern contains directions for felting your wool. And, it also contains instructions for creating French knots which were used in the pattern.

Like all the other wool kits it was nicely put together by the store and contained plenty of the wool and DMC floss needed for the pattern. In fact, once again, there was plenty of wool scraps and DMC floss left over that I could and would utilize for another design if I wanted to.

With all the other penny rug wool kits I created I had placed a piece of cardboard in between the front and back sections of the penny rug to give them some rigidity and stability.  However, the "Holiday Light" pattern had three layers of wool felt and, as a result, I didn't need to add cardboard to the middle to give it some stability.  It seemed to be rigid enough as it was.  I had decided to hang this off a hook so I created a small hanger on the back of the "Holiday Light" out of DMC embroidery floss that I could use to hang it.

The result is shown in the picture at the beginning of this post.

I still have a couple of penny rug wool kits left from that shopping trip with my Mother.  Maybe in 2011 I'll have another small window of opportunity that I can use to finish the rest of the kits.

And, if I do that, well - I'll just have to go on another shopping trip.  However, as the shop is no longer in Sturbridge this time I'll let my fingers do the walking all over my keyboard and all over the internet. You never know what I'll find but, I'm sure I'll find something I like.

And, I'm sure if I go overboard in the amount I'm buying a little bird will be whispering in my ear, "LINDA, don't you think you have enough of those!"

And, I'll answer, "Just one more Mom. One more!"