Valentine's pillow finished

 From the base work of the one fabric I was able to fill in the other colors as well.  At first I wasn't sure about the lightness of the pillow, usually it is not a enough contrast for my taste, but I went with it to see how it would end up.

 After starting to sew together the squares I realized that I was missing a row.  I planned it to be 8 rows by 8 rows and I only had 7.  Oh no!  Just a little bit more time with my rotary blade and a couple fabrics and I was back on track.

And the finished product, at least the front.  I looked much better after it was all put together.  

After another trip to the fabric store for some fabric for the back and borders and the pillow was complete!

I loved the pillow once it was done.  Again sorry about the lousy pictures, crafting at night will do that to ya.

And this time I remembered my craft tag!  Score one for Bryn.

Crafting has been a good distraction of late.  Although time usually passes by quickly when I am working on my computer or crafts but lately it seems to trickle by.  Hopefully this is a temporary thing.  I know things will get better soon.

- Bryn

Valentines day pillow

The day after breaking off the relationship I couldn't just sit around.  I had to do something.  And something that comes naturally to me is working on crafts. 

Valentine's day is around the corner so it would be the easiest crafts to make.  After breaking up hearts are not quite the items you want to be working with but I did it anyways.

I found a piece in my parents house that inspired me to make a patchwork pillow for Valentine's day.

 Blogger decided to change all my pictures sideways, oh well.  I went to my fabric stash after buying some fabric from one of my favorite fabric shop in Lawrence, KS, Sarah's and starting cutting the ever popular 2 1/2 in squares. 

 I started to draw out some different patterns.  I originally planned to use diamonds as a pattern for the pillow but the different angles of the heart precluded that idea.  I decided to go pretty simple and go from there.

I took a good amount of time laying out the initial shape of the heart with one fabric of the four that I had chosen.  

To continue tomorrow.  Crafting make the heart grow stronger!

- Bryn

10 pillows done!

Wow, I already have 10 Christmas presents done and it is only early November!  Woot!

A couple days ago I finished 4 pillows and today I finished 6 more!

To make these pillows it take a lot of steps and lot and lots of small pieces of fabric.  It is all worth it when they are finished.

I finally remembered to make some tags.  ByBryn is offically my craft name and now it's on the my items, but only if I remember!

  I'm going to post 2 of them on Etsy.  Hopefully I will sell something on there.  It's gotta happen eventually right?

-Bryn

Christmas pillows

I finished the tops of some Christmas Pillows recently and really needed to finish them off.  Work has kept me busy and out of my crafting mode.  I had an evening shift tonight which gave me a lot of time to finish them off.

 All Done.  I made one without the red trim around the edges and tore it apart to add the red.  It adds a wonderful finishing detail.  I will have to work on all of them again.  I keep meaning to make a ByBryn tag but I keep forgetting.  Only I would remember to add something after it is completely done.  Oh well, for another day.

 This is my everyone Christmas present this year.  I have about 6 more to make after finishing 4 already.  I just couldn't throw away all these cut pieces.  Another day off tomorrow, another day of crafting ahead.  

Or wedding planning...

- Bryn

Christmas presents with scraps

 My Christmas stockings left me with a ton of left over fabric that was already sewn together.  I've had a Chrismtas pillow on my project list for a while.  It dawned on me that my scraps would be perfect for those pillows.  There is no time like the present to make presents!

For each 16" pillow I cut a 8 inch square white piece of fabric.  I needed more white fabric on the outside to create a diamond shape.  Two - 8 1/2 squares for the sides of the pillows and cut them once diagonally to create two large triangles.

I cut 2 inch wide pieces from my last project and framed in 8 inch piece.

 I pressed out the seems and added my other pieces of white fabric on each side.  I had 4 square pieces of fabric with a colorful border along each edge.

I sewed on the large triangles on each side of the square to reorient the fabric square in the center to create a diamond instead.

All that hard work left me with a beautiful diamond pillow top.

That is all I can get done today.  It's time to head to work.  Tomorrow I plan on using even more scraps for more pillows and other projects.  

- Bryn

An almost year in crafts

Kaleidoscopic Quilt

Citrus Coasters

I want to rework the blog again.  At the moment most people who look at my blog are family and friends.  I feel it might not be necessary to do the tutorial style posts, yet.  I'm working on getting notice in the craft community by using Pinterest and visiting other blogs.  As always, simplicity is key.

Easter Basket

Here is a look at some of my past projects.

Diamond Pillow

Button Bouquet

Princess Clock

Just one princess

Chevron Pillow

I've done quite a few different projects over time.  Working on a variety of things keeps it interesting.

Americana Quilt top

Irish Plaid quilt - my first real quilt

Halloween Cross Stitch

All 3 Thumbtack Pumpkin

Look for another redesign of my blog.  I can't quite decide what works the best for me and this blog.

My Modern Log Cabin Quilt

Lattice Hawaiian quilt top

4th of July Purse

Hawaiian Wristlet

 My next project will use the majority of the scraps from my Christmas stockings.  As always, thanks for looking and inspiring me to keep making more.  Please leave me a comment on your favorite project.

- Bryn

Starting new projects when I should be finishing others

Why I do this to myself all the time, I will never know.  I have so many projects I could finish but I choose to start others.  At least I know it is still me working on these projects.  I'm doing something besides wasting my time on the internet all day.

The harlequin pillow is going well.  Hey look, a kind-of square corner!

 The front of the pillow is all done.  I really like the pink and purple, perfect for a little girl.  And even with my careful guestimation it is still a little short.

Add a border and it is the perfect size.  TaDa!  I need to hit up JoAnns for more fabric for the back.  I might even make another pillow and put it on Etsy.  Now if someone would buy something from me on Etsy it would be awesome!

Now to my pillow.  I'm going to try 4 colors and see how it goes.  I added the light green for some brightness.

All the pieces cut, now to lay the out.  I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it so I made a couple options for myself.

Option 1 - Solids in one row and flowers in another

 Option 2 - I used purple as a base color

 Option 3- Solids on the diagonal and flowers on the diagonal

 After spreading them out and looking at them again I liked option 1 the best.  Here it is before it was sewn together.

 Half way there!

And all sewn together.  I think I'm going to try sewing a back pocket so I don't have to use a zipper this time. There is a first time for trying anything in the quilting world.

And here is the finished product.

Looks good, a little busy but after completely assembling it I like it even more.

And the back even has a little detail.  The pocket makes the form fit it even easier than the zipper.

Now what to work on... projects I should finish or those who suit me at the moment.  Only tomorrow will tell.