Cherished Moments Fabric Tour:Precious Pillows

Happy Friday...and welcome to the Poppie Cotton Cherished Moments Fabric Tour! I am super excited to be able to share a plethora of pillows I created with the new Cherished Moments fabric collection. It was extremely refreshing to be able to put on my quilt designing hat and work on a project with my own vision. I knew months ago when I first saw this collection and the exquisite tiny details that I would be making an assortment of pillows. Most of my readers know that I love to combine piecing and appliqué, so you will see that technique in several of my pillow designs - I also utilized some paper-piecing and some fun embellishments. Designing and creating each of these pillows brought me so much joy! 

If you missed my post last Friday, it was all about this blog tour - please visit it to read about these special fabrics and see a list of the other designers involved. Now, let me share my precious pillows with you...

Floral Canoe 
This pillow design was created using the traditional Crossed Canoes quilt block and just a touch of appliqué in the center.This fabric collection has lovely floral fabrics with beautiful details - so I thought a floral appliqué would be the perfect touch in the center. This pillow is 18' x 18"...

Floral Cottage
For this pillow design, I used a pieced block with a house on a hill for the base. I appliquéd flowers and stems on the hillside and added strips of Kindly Said Black to the sides. The Kindly Said fabrics in this collection are covered in happy words and sentiments (see a snippet below)! I used teeny tiny buttons for the flower centers and door knob...and quilted a pair of window panes, as a couple finishing touches. This pillow is 16" x 12"...

Floral Kaleidoscope 
This shining star pillow was created using the paper piecing technique. I used the Kaleidoscope Collection in EQ8 for the layout of the design...should you want to create one of your own, here are the details: Strawflower 2, Kaleidoscope Collection (Copyright © Andrea Bishop, 2008) - I made it 12" x 12" square. I also added a 2" finished border using Kindly Said White. EQ8 Software makes it extremely easy to size quilt blocks to your needs and print foundation papers...plus, paper piecing this particular block will give you perfect points! This pillow measures 16" x 16"...

Floral Love

Lots of love went into this final pillow! For this appliqué design - I cut a base from Seeing Dots White and added 2" finished strips of Kindly Said Pink to the top and bottom. I then used various cuts from this collection for the word LOVE and an assortment of flowers, stems and leaves. I thought using a heart for the center of the letter O would make a cute touch! This pillow measures 20" x 12"...

Floral Pin Pillows
Finally, as a little bonus, I whipped up a couple adorable pincushions with a few leftover scraps. The square pin pillow is the Log Cabin Rose quilt block found in the foundation piecing blocks in EQ8. I paper-pieced this block in a 6" size, then hand stitched hand-dyed Ballerina Jumbo Chenille by (my dear friend) Lady Dot Creates around the perimeter. For the second pincushion, I did the "quilt as you go" method using strips and selvages (yes, Poppie Cotton fabrics have the cutest selvages...see below!). I added several flowers cut from wool and used pins as the centers and to hold them in place...and I flag cut a cute piece of selvage that says "joy and sunshine" and pinned it in place, as well. I thought these turned out super cute!

There you have it - my pillow designs using the Cherished Moments Collection by Poppie Cotton. This fabric line is in shops now, so be sure to check your favorite local shop or online shop to find these gorgeous prints. I used a fat quarter stack to create all my pillow tops.

I hope you have enjoyed this stop on the fabric tour - thank you for visiting. Could you feel the happiness and joy I put into each piece?! I am already working on a quilt for the next Poppie Cotton fabric tour in November...it is for the upcoming Woodland Songbirds collection...and it is a BEAUTY. If you make a project from the Cherished Moments collection featured in this post, I would love to hear from you...happy sewing and quilting!

Fresh Finishes

My Handmade Needle Minders
Special Gifts for Friends... 

It's been a finishing frenzy in the Blue Ribbon Designs studio the last few weeks. I am doing my best to get all the holiday finishing orders complete and shipped in a timely manner...I am "one of those" who has an extremely hard time relaxing - especially when I have work waiting for me...so, I have been super focused and working round the clock to finish up the projects on my to-do tables. I am down to one large needlework finishing order (that I started yesterday) and then I am back to custom sewing and quilting for a while. I have been working on a variety of creative endeavors lately, along with some handmade gifts for birthdays and the upcoming holidays...and I have been working on some pieces for Just CrossStitch magazine, including my ornament for the 2020 Ornament Issue and a very special Halloween piece for the Halloween Issue. Here is a picture trail of some of the projects I have completed in the last couple weeks (some I can't share with you quite yet)...and again, these are not my designs or my stitching - just my finishing work...designers and titles listed with each photo...

Swirly Birds and Flowers - Sam Sarah Design Studio
(Silver Needle: A Little Help From Our Friends Stitching Circle)

Another view of Swirly Birds and Flowers - Sam Sarah Design Studio
(Silver Needle: A Little Help From Our Friends Stitching Circle)

The Swim Instructor - The Cricket Collection

An 18th Century Stitcher's Pinwheels - The Goode Huswife

No Place Like Home - Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Welcome Friends - Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe
Scatter Smiles - Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Merry Christmas - My Big Toe Designs

Checker Bird - Heart in Hand

Hats Off to Uncle Sam - Blackbird Designs

Pursue Thanks - Tree of Life Samplings

....and just wait until you see what is currently on my finishing table...some more fabulous finishes will be shared again soon...

Finally - for those who have been asking - here are a few photos of the kids. They have been adjusting well to life in Kansas and are doing a great job of keeping momma on her toes!! The builder has just completed some major work in our backyard and replaced quite a bit of sod...fingers crossed they have a great area to run around in the spring. They are still talking to the cows (our new neighbors) - but the cows just ignore them...😊 

Garin - 2-years-old (our little boy)

Schatzi - 6-years-old (our beauty girl)

This last photo needs a bit of explaining...we are still trying to make the furniture from our previous home work in our new house and have rearranged our living room at least ten times. A few days ago, I moved their doggy bunk bed (yes, they have a bunk bed) to a different area - afterwards when I commanded them to go to their "place", they both got on the bottom bunk...not sure the bottom bunk is supposed to support 175 pounds, but it was definitely photo worthy...

Thanks for visiting today - I hope you are leaving happy and inspired! Stop back soon for more creative goodness...