Whenever I finish the Teacher Pillow Project, I always feel a little sad. This is even after ripping half my hair out and spending way more time than I wanted in the process. Crazy, I know.Somehow the end result of a little pile of pillows is wonderful. And this is the last year I am doing this. The Young Man goes to high school next year and, except for special occasions or for special recognition, I am resolved to not make this many pillows again. (I know you are thinking “Famous Last Words.” Stop thinking that!)
2011 Teacher Pillow Group
This year I had 5 pillows to make, but decided, as I talked about yesterday, to also make a pillow for the Art Teacher, leaving me with a total of 6 pillows to make.
2011 Religion Teacher PillowReligion Teacher Back
I made a Greek Cross (pg.72) block for the 8th grade Religion Teacher.
2011 Science Teacher Pillow2011 Science Teacher Pillow back
The Science Teacher got a Big T (pg.37) block. Do you like the label? It is an exploding test tube. The Young Man’s goal of blowing something up in science class has not yet been achieved.
2011 Art Teacher Pillow2011 Art Teacher Pillow back
Art will receive a Martha Washington Star (pg.85). I really like the back that the Young Man did for her. Very appropriate, I think.
2011 SS & Reading Teacher Pillow2011 SS & Reading Teacher Pillow back
The Social Studies and Reading Teacher will also receive a Martha Washington Star. Look familiar? I was feeling uninspired. Now I think I should have made the block red, white and black, but I am not remaking it. I don’t know what the back means. Perhaps an inside joke?
2011 English/Literature Teacher Pillow2011 English/Literature Teacher Pillow back
English and Literature received a basket block pillow last year and she will receive the above Grape Basket (pg.71) this year. The fabrics and colors goes with the block I made last year. This basket block was a bit of pain. I have made a number of basket blocks and this one went together very strangely. When I had finished putting it together, I looked at it and thought that I would have done it differently, had I known.
2011 Math Teacher Pillow2011 Math Teacher Pillow back
The Math teacher will receive a Free Trade block (pg.67). see a theme here with the Sawtooth Star variations? Again, I was uninspired. The fabrics go with some I used last year. Hope she likes pink. The back depicts Pi out to a lot of digits.
In years past, I have also given the Resource teacher a pillow, but this year she is getting a quilt.
Nota bene: All the blocks are from a book called Around the Block. It is out of print, but has been been reprinted with v.2 and v.3 in a book called 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks. Very worthwhile purchase. I would have a hard time living without this book.
I will be glad when this project is done. I wanted to finish last week, but there was too much going on. I thought I could make some progress this past week in the evenings. No joy there either. Today, I am supposed to be resting, because of this cold that I am trying to have not turn into the flu.
And this is the last year for bulk pillow making. I still have to make the raffle pillows for the Native Sons and I may make a pillow every once in a while for a special teacher, but that is it. If I go back on my word feel free to remind me.
Anyway, the above pillow is for the art teacher. She has been a rock for the Young Man and has really encouraged his creativity and has encouraged his style. The pattern is Martha Washington Star from Around the Block.
The blue and yellow pillow is Greek Cross for the religion teacher. It actually came out really well. I used my last IKEA pillow form and kind of like those forms. I wanted more robust forms, but the ones I bought are REALLY really firm and forced me to make the pillow covers a bit bigger.
Yes, it is Teacher Pillow time of year. I had resolved to not leave it until the last minute, but being in bed with a nasty virus for over week did not assist me in my resolve.
I made one pillow last weekend after I was feeling a little better. I also made a block during the week for one of the pillow tops, but spent the better part of Friday finishing them up. School is out on Friday, so I had to get it done.
Resource Teacher Pillow
Above is the pillow for the Resource Teacher. She has been working with The Child for the past four years. She has made my life a lot better, because she gets The Child. She has provided support that I wasn’t getting from the lower school resource teacher (through no fault of his own). I will be VERY sad not work with her anymore.
Every year I pull out the same fabrics and make a different block. Now she has a set. I am thinking of making a quillow next year. I have never done that, but my SIL is an expert and I can draw on her expertise.
I was surprised to see that lozenge design show up in the middle of the block. I amy have miscolored the blocks when I sewed the pieces together. The block is called Crockett’s Cabin in Around the Block. That lozenge shape is very appealing and I am wondering if it would work for a FOTY piece?
Literature Teacher Pillow
As The Child has moved up in the grades, I spend less time in the classroom, thus I know the teachers less and less. I try to get a sense of the colors of the teachers and it is very difficult when I have only spoken to them 3-4 times. The literature teacher, who also happened to be The Child’s homeroom teacher had a hard year this year. She was out for four months at the beginning of the year, because of the death in her family. I thought The Child would have a hard transition when she came back to school, but he took to her like a duck to water. He liked her because “she doesn’t think she knows everything” and I found her to be a very intuitive teacher. I don’t know if the above colors or design are her style, but they are what immediately came to mind when I thought of her. I hope she likes it.
Literature Teacher Pillow-back
I force The Child to do a little drawing for each of his teachers. He had a hard time this year. He is getting out of creative practice and I have to get on him about that. (N.B. I blacked the names to protect the innocent!)
Making the backs fit is the most time consuming part. I couldn’t seem to get it right on any of them. This one is actually sideways on the pillow. I figured that nobody would care, if they even noticed.
Social Studies Teacher
I really hope she doesn’t sincerely dislike purple. This block, in Around the Block, is called Star of Hope. It looks to me like a basic Ohio Star. I don’t really believe that blocks should have different names just because they have been recolored. I haven’t taken the time to look this up in the Jinny Beyer’s new book, The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns.
Social Studies Teacher - back
The Child kind of got into his drawing after a bit. He has a subtle sense of humor. I thought this drawing was very funny. Do you get it?
Science Teacher
I mentioned on Tuesday that I found some fabrics I didn’t really like while I was cutting FOTY pieces. A couple of the above fabrics are those fabrics. However, the Science Teacher is male and I have not had the opportunity to make pillows for many male teachers. I found these fabrics to be great for a science man. I think they look a bit like rocks. I only had a fat quarter of each, so I had to add some others and I don’t have any to match next year, but may continue with the rock theme.
Science Teacher-back
You can see that The Child got on to a roll with his drawings as he progressed through them.
The drawings are done on an 8.5×11″ piece of paper. First I fold the paper into quarters and then I draw pencil lines to mark the seam allowances. I also make a note as to which rectangle on the paper goes to which teacher. This year I also put in the name and the year. The Child knows now to keep within the seam allowance
Math Teacher
In the past, The Child has chose the blocks for each teacher. This year he didn’t really care that much, so I mostly chose them. He was adamant about what he wanted for the math teacher. He saw the piece of pie I appliqued on the Tarts Come to Tea piece. He was adamant that he wanted that on the math teacher’s pillow. This is the first time I have done applique’ for a teacher.
Math Teacher-back
The Child kept with the Pie/Pi theme for the back. Again with the sense of humor!
So done for another! YAY! I am going to a party today, but am going to find a fun project to work on tomorrow. I am glad I soldiered through and don’t have this project hanging around for tomorrow, except for the wrapping and the card writing.
I have to admit that I am sick of this project. There is only one year left and I am finished. I am not doing them for high school. I don’t think it is really appropriate and would embarrass The Child, but there are also too many teachers.
It is funny how you think something is a good idea and then a tradition and expectations start, which turns the fun into a chore.
I do enjoy looking through Around the Block and picking out the blocks to use. I am tempted to make blocks for next year’s pillows while I have the fabric out and just tuck them away until April or May so I have less to do next year. We’ll see.
Some years ago I took a pillow making class at the Sewing Workshop. Sewing Workshop classes are fabulous: thorough, and inspiring. I am sorry to say that, although the class was fabulous (with Linda Lee, no less), the pillows are still part of my UFO pile. I recently saw Stitch magazine.
Stitch Magazine, Spring 2009
I fell in love with the pillow on the cover and may make some pillow covers using the pattern (or my version of the pattern) to brighten up some tired couch pillows to go along with the promised new paint job. If all goes well, I may discard the half made purple covers from the Sewing Workshop class and use the Stitch idea/pattern to cover those rather large forms (14″ or 16″) as well. For once I feel excited about throw pillows!
I also may make a pillow or two to raise money for Cleft Palete. MIL suggested using some poppy fabric for the centers. If I had some squares of that California poppy from a few years ago, it would be perfect, but I don’t, so I will have to make do.
Certain individuals are on a statewide board of directors for an organization that among other things, raises money for Cleft Palete. Each year, as part of the process of running for office, the nominees make gift baskets in order to draw people ino their suites/campaign headquarters. They raffle the gift baskets to raise money for Cleft Palete. Certain individuals came up second in the most money raised this year for his gift baskets.
The convention is always in May, so I, usually, cannot attend due to the demands of The Child. There is a small thing called school and another called food. Leaving him at home alone is really not an option. This has the effect of organization voters wondering if I support him in his volunteer endeavors. I think they might forget what it is like to have school age children. Anyway, I thought a couple of throw pillows would:
show my support
be something different that would draw the wives into the raffle
allow me to try something without having to commit to having it in my house
get some new readers to the blog
I might have showed this site before. I thought the pillows they show are similar to the Stitch magazine pillows and I could use their directions to supplement the Stitch magazine directions. More on Stitch magazine in another post.
The four Teacher Pillows are complete. I have one more pillow form, but the Child is being uncooperative about the last drawing, so I may just save the pillow form for next year. I could take a drawing out of his drawing book and use that…. We’ll see. I think I am done with this project except for the wrapping the pillows in pretty paper.
Tangled Star - EQ6
The above is the outline/color drawing that can be printed from EQ6. It turns out that this was useless to me when I went to make the block, or so I thought.
Resource Teacher Pillow
This is how my version came out. I keep pictures of all of the pillows so I know what the past pillows looked like. That way I can use the same or similar fabrics and the teachers end up with sets of pillows if they teach the Child more than one year. This is the 3rd or 4th pillow I have made for this teacher.
Key for Foundation Piecing
This block is foundation pieced, so I also printed the segments (see below). When I looked at the printed segments, they made no sense to me. The design page ended up as a wonderful key to the colors and placement of the fabrics. I wrote letters on each piece, which correspond to the letters I wrote on the pattern pieces.
Pattern pieces ready to cut out and sew
You can see, if you click on the picture to make it bigger and look carefully a letter, a number and a color. The color notes which fabric I need to use. The letter corresponds to the letter on the design key, which I added to make sure I didn’t assign two segments to the same section of the block. The number is the piecing/sewing order. Doing the prep took some time, but it was worth it once I started to piece. The segment pieces/patterns really don’t look like they will make the Tangled Star block, so these strategies really helped.
Piecing Order detail
Above shows the segment after I have pieced the fabric on to it. The red and gold needed to be pieced first, which they were. I then trimmed them and sewed on the green. In this photo the green still needs to be trimmed.
Resource Teacher Pillow back
Above is the back. The drawing is a sort of label. The Child has a distinctive drawing style that the teachers seem to enjoy. I usually let him draw whatever he wants.
Teacher Pillow Labels
To make the label, I divide up a sheet of copy/printer paper into 4 sections. Then I draw in the seam allowances and have the Child draw inside the lines. Once done, I copy onto fabric backed with freezer paper or something. I get it from Dharma, but The Electric Quilt Company and many other companies sell similar products. Once the drawings have been transferred, I rotary cut the labels apart on the cutting lines and add each label as part of the back of the pillow cover.
Omega Block Pillow, Social Studies Teacher, 6B
I let The Child pick out the blocks. I do have to guide and encourage him a little as this is a boring exercise for him and he, usually, just wants to get it over with as quickly as possible. This year he took more of an interest. Above is the block (Omega) he chose for his social studies teacher. They just finished studying Greece, so I think the Greek alphabet was on his mind. He also informed me that Omega is his favorite Greek letter.
I printed out the rotary cutting directions for the Omega, thinking that I could just make it that way. The pillow forms were 14″ so I had to scale up which resulted in a lot of 16th inch measurements. After cutting about the 10th 16th inch cut, I decided that foundation piecing was the way to go.
Sometimes he gets a little too enthusiastic. He wanted me to make a Mariner’s Compass for his resource teacher and I flat out refused. If I am going to make a Mariner’s Compass I have to start a lot earlier.
Omega Block, back
The Child used a lot more words on his labels his year than he has in the past.
Homeroom Teacher, 6A
This is the first block I made. I wanted simple blocks. They got harder the more The Child was involved. He did the color selection on this one (orange and purple). I was skeptical until I found the flower print with a similar color scheme.
Homeroom Teacher Pillow, back
I hope she can read the back. It is really squished.
Teacher Aide Pillow
I really like the color scheme of this pillow. The Child went with the colors EQ6 had in their example and I think it works. I took the opportunity to use the blue in one of the Infinity blocks as well. The color scheme reminds me of the color scheme for a RUSH day I organized in college. We wore yellow, red and green dresses and looked really bright and cheerful.
Teacher Aide Pillow, back
I was a little concerned about the drawing on the back as the Aide does not look very happy in his drawing. I asked the Child about the drawing and, being a boy of few words, refused to discuss it with me. I asked if she always had a lot of filing to do and he said no. That was really the end of the discussion. Oh well, I have a policy of not censoring his art if it isn’t rude or p*rnographic, so she will have to make of it what she will.
Yes, I am doing it again. If you want to read the torure from previous years, I have gathered the posts into one search just for you.
My goal is to have them done before school ends this year, which is June 12. I actually have until June 11 this year as I am, sadly, not attending the conference I usually attend that week. Still, I want these babies done and out of my hair ASAP.
Some weeks ago, on a rip to IKEA for light bulbs (now I know I can get the same ones at Lowe’s, which is closer!) I found pillows for $1.50. They are an ugly baby blue, but solid and they will make fine pillow forms. They are not as fluffy as the ones I have bought in the past, but tough times call for economies.
Yesterday, I corraled The Child and had him choose blocks. I also had him do drawings for the back.
This is the Greek Cross block and it is for the aide. The others are Tangled Star, Omega and one with a lot of triangles. I am working on the latter. Another day I will post all of the photos.
Yes, I made Teacher Pillows again. I know I am going to get flak for reprising the project that made me so insane last year. This year my timing was off (summer, which, as you know, happens NOT to be before the end of school) and they turned out to be a lot easier. Spring was just too crazy with work to be able to get to this project in time for the end of school. I think doing them while I was on vacation and not worrying about regular life was a really good thing. The first day of school is Monday, so the teachers will get a little boost from a gift then.
I decided to make them on vacation so I could get my SIL to give me some pointers. She has 3 boys, two of which are out of the house and college, and a lot of Teacher Pillows under her belt. I thought that if she couldn’t give me some pointers to make the process easier, I would really give up the tradition.
These are 12″ square pillows. That size choice made the whole process easier, because I didn’t have to change the size of the block or add a border and could just use the directions straight out of Around the Block. I have EQ, so another idea is that if I want to make 14″ pillows in the future I could resize one of their blocks and use the directions. They have great rotary cutting directions. (note to self).
SIL also suggested that I made the back two panels 10″ x 12″ each. This size is to prevent gaposis. It was hard to get the pillow forms into the pillow cover, but once they were all in, there was no gaposis.
The only thing I don’t like about this group is that the pillow forms are too puffy in the middle, so the corners aren’t filled out. I am ignoring that this time around. Once the teachers lean on them, I am hoping they will squish down. I will look for squishier pillow forms next time. Last time I got feather pillow forms on sale and those filled out the pillow cover nicely.
I was randomly surfing blogs and websites today (studiously avoiding the laundry, the Christmas cards and the Pineapple!) when I came across Make Lounge via Juju Love Polka dots blog. I saw this cushion cover and thought it was very fun. Sadly, Make Lounge is in London and I am not. Still, perhaps I will take out Pamela’s project and be inspired.
I found the cute bags at Walgreen’s, of all places. They are so adorable (thank heaven for no boy teachers this year!) that I didn’t feel bad about not making gift bags for them. I delivered the Principal and Assistant Principal pillows before I left. P will deliver the rest next week in stages.
Now I have to think about next year. St. JCN said that he fact that the project went well towards the end made no difference to her torture threat. She suggested a different project, so I will have to think on that. Suggestions, always welcome, of course!
First, some inspiration. I was inspired by Yarnstorm’s photos, so I took my camera with me yesterday and snapped a pic of these roses in my neighbor’s yard.
Now on to the Teacher Pillows.
They are done except for the hand stitching. I am thrilled that I survived. It is always touch and go at the beginning! Above is the principal’s pillow. St.JCN said the violet was inspired. I thought so and am glad someone agreed. I saw the quilt that inspired the violet yesterday as it scrolled across the screen in my screensaver. I will post it here, if I find it again.
Above is the Assistant Principal’s pillow. I actually think this one came out the best of them all. I think having enough fabric to use on the back is key. I will try to remember that for next year.
Pineapple blocks 11 & 12 are also done. They don’t fit on the design wall properly with all the others so #12 is hanging off. I think they look nice and cheerful. Not so dark as 9 & 10.
And now for a tip. I used the Jacquard fabric (see example in circle above) that you can run through your printer for quilt labels and for the drawings for the back of the pillows. It works because there is paper stuck to the back of the fabric that helps get it through the printer. You have to peel off the paper before you sew. (I suppose you could leave it on, but I don’t) This product works pretty well, except that if you try to sew through it when the wrong side is facing up, it gums up the needle and the stitches get really small. Normally I try to sew with it on the bottom. Today, I wasn’t able to sew with the printer fabric on the bottom for some reason that I don’t remember now. I sewed through it and immediately got stopped. I had a brainwave when I saw a pile of tissue paper. The arrow in the picture is pointing to the tissue paper I put over the Jacquard fabric just along the seam allowance. It worked like a charm. No sticking needle resulting in ugly stitches. I always press this printer fabric with a piece of clean, white printer/copier paper under the sticky part. I don’t let the sticky part touch the iron or my ironing board cover.
If you don’t have time to read much today, here’s the short version: not much.
If you do have time to read the entire post today, the long version follows. 😉
Not sure why, but this week seems to have been especially busy. I think I may have accomplished a lot in the realm of quiltmaking and it just may not feel like a lot. Somehow not working on my own project and working on gifts doesn’t feel much like I am making progress. Perhaps, it is just that I am not making progress on my color studies or on my UFO list?
I wanted to put a small border on the above pillow for the Principal, but I was kind of stymied for what color. I originally thought of a strip of white piping, but decided I didn’t want to deal with making one. St. JCN, in all her wisdom, suggested a white strip, but, somehow, that didn’t seem right. As I was drifting off to sleep one night, the little voice in my head whispered: Violet. GREAT! I tried it (see above) and thought it looked good.
The reason I wanted a small border was so that the green border would not “bleed” into the green block. The violet seems to clearly define the block. I am pleased with how it worked out.
I also put a few more rows on to Pineapple blocks 11 & 12. They are getting there. 3 more colored rounds to go. I have the background strips cut for the next round, but haven’t sewed them yet.
Special Whine Redux
Earlier this week, as you probably noticed, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and the state of my pictures. I went back and looked at Yarnstorm‘s post called Square Dance and the photos she included. I realized that while her photos are totally fabulous, one thing about how she structured this post is that she put up her inspiration and then showed the quilt that came out of it. I really liked that. As a brief aside, I like the quilt-to-be she shows, because it is simple, but not boring. She is working with color in a way that I have been trying to do lately (see Thoughts on Dots and some of the other square pieces I was working on last year). She has done a fabulous job with blues, something that I greatly admire.
The other thing about Yarnstorm’s pictures is she has a great eye and she crops very well.
So, I will stop whining, crop my pictures and keep working!
Despite the fact that I still can’t measure, 3 of the Teacher Pillows are close to completion. The machine stitching is complete and I only have some final hand stitching to do on them and, voila, fini!
I thought to myself this morning that I should be able to finish three. I am not sure I really wanted to buckle down and do that many, but it got stuck in my head and here I am.
I don’t normally sew during the week, but I did some stitching on Friday afternoon. I was very slow and deliberate and not out to accomplish a lot. I just wanted to make some progress, no matter how little. I think that short session got me to the point where I could put three pillow covers together today.
Teacher Pillow – Front: I am really pleased with the way this front came out. I was not that thrilled with the Economy Patch that the child chose, but piecing more of the design in a smaller format really made it look good. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the Flea Market Fancy fabric out of which I made this front.
Teacher Pillow – Back: I am not so enamoured of the back. I ran out of the flower fabric I used for the front and grabbed these fabrics. I didn’t just grab the blue randomly, but I am not sure why I chose it. My SIL came over and suggested yellow or pink (well, DUH! Why didn’t I think of that?), so I added the yellow to the outside. The back isn’t great, but done is better than perfect and, hopefully, she won’t look too much at the back.
The variety of colors, however, illustrate the way I made the back. I made two squares and then added a bit of extra fabric to the top of the front, hemmed it and folded it over. I will hand stitch down the folded over part.
Aide Pillow – Front: I sewed this one last (for the day) and it came out the best. It is small enough so the pillow form fills the entire cover.
Aide Pillow – Back
Resource Teacher Pillow – Front: the red, yellow and green color scheme has always been very appealing to me. I am pleased with the way this one came out although the pillow form doesn’t fill up the cover. C’est la vie.
Resource Teacher Pillow – Back: I had extra space on the drawing, so I added a photo. All the drawings and labels were scanned and printed on an inkjet printer.
The above photos show the different borders I tried for t he Aide pillow. It kind of gives you an idea of my process.
Not trying to make the envelope style pillow cover has been a big help. I have to say that I am still not sure what the right way to make pillows are and, as a result, I am wasting a lot of fabric. Part of hte issue is piecing the back using the drawings. For some reason that step adds enough of a wrinkle to make the project complicated. What I really need is a book like Around the Block that says how to make a pillow cover if you have a certain sized pillow form. Perhaps C&T will add such a book to their “Fast, Fun & Easy” series? That is one “Fast, Fun & Easy” tha I would buy.
Still, it makes me feel good to spread some quiltmaking and sewing out into the world.
I finished piecing all of the blocks, which is great. Above are the block for the Principal and the Assistant Principal, who are both retiring. It is the same block, but Around the Block shows it separately with different names, apparently because the colors go in different places.
My next problem is borders. I made 12″ blocks and bought 14″ pilow forms (aside from the fact that Around the Block does not cover 14″ blocks, what was I thinking???**). As a result, I need to add borders in order to increase the overall size of the blocks. Above is a possible border for the Asst. Principal’s block. It wasn’t my idea, but I like it. It really sets off the cross.
This is what I have already added to the Resource Teacher’s block. I love the dots; they are cheerful (raise your hand if you knew that was coming!).
The good is that part of the back is done. The bad, however, is that now the torment starts. For some reason, I was unable to measure once I got past making the blocks. I wanted to add 3″ borders to the Resource Teacher (RT) block. I got one side that was 3″, two sides at 4″ and one side at 2 7/8″ HUH? I don’t know what is going on with me and this project. As I detailed my sad tale of woe to St. JCN, she said that I had to make this my last year of making Teacher Pillows and if I didn’t she would torment me next year! Dear me! I don’t know what I will do next year, but I have been warned.
Part of what I am doing is trying to get it right: be able to make these in my sleep. It doesn’t seem to be happening and maybe St. JCN is correct in that I should go out in a blaze of glory with these five pillows. We’ll see.
I am taking the week off and then will work on these on Sunday.
**Actually I was thinking about how many extra borders I had to add last year so I wanted to make sure I had enough slack to cut off, if I need it.
I have been feeling sort of at loose ends since I finished my various projects and took them to the quilter. I can’t decide if I should start the Chocolate Box quilt or just putter around. It finally dawned on me that I do have a project: the Teacher Pillows!
I don’t know what I was thinking, but these Teacher Pillows have turned into a production. This year, I am making 5: 3 for the child’s teachers and one each for the principal and assistant principal, who are both retiring. The latter two are not expected and not as important IMO, though I would like to make the gesture. On the positive side, I decided to start early and make them so I could take my time. The blocks are almost all done, with a minimum of unsewing. Teacher pillow. This one is done with the Denyse Schmidt fabrics and came out very well, if I do say so. I love the colors and can’t wait to work more with these fabrics.
Teacher aide pillow
Resource teacher pillow. I had to make sure I have enough fabric, because this teacher will be working with the child until 8th grade. She will have a set of pillows by the time the child graduates! I really hope she likes the colors we have chosen.
Principal pillow. The child calls her the Wizard of Oz.
Assistant principal pillow.
I went through two books to see how I could make the rest of the pillow covers so they don’t have Gap-osis in the back. I am thinking of slip stitching them shut so I don’t have to worry about it. The recipients wouldn’t be able to wash the covers, though.
And on other fronts…. The fabric from eQuilter arrived. More dots!
I also worked a bit on the Flowering Snowball (Cross Block). Here is my first test of the new template and some fun [Denyse Schmidt] fabrics. I have since cut a lot of the corner pieces. I cut a piece whenever I have a piece of fabric out. I really need to get some more whites.
This is my wreck of a design wall. There are pieces of fabric and blocks everywhere. The little progress I made on the Cross Blocks (Flowering Snowball) is in the lower left corner. The blocks for the Teacher Pillows are stacked and pinned to the design wall (lower middle). I have no more space and am seriously thinking about what I can do to expand this space. First, I will move the Pineapple blocks up a few inches. That should help. Second, I will finish these Teacher Pillows, which should give me some breathing room. Something must be done, though, as this kind of design wall makes me crazy. I can’t think when it is so full.
