Throwback Thursday Redbird Christmas Pillow 2013

Greetings all and happy week after Thanksgiving!!

We have much to be Thankful for in our family -- aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren included.
As our parents watch over us from heaven, we continue to nourish the relationships we have with one another on earth.
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving too!!

Today I want to highlight an old favorite tutorial - one that comes together quickly using 2.5" fabric strips and a bit of wool.

Remember the free tutorial for the
*** Redbird Christmas ***
envelope pillow?
It's the perfect accent for your holiday decor!

Redbird Christmas was based on a free design and tutorial that I shared on the Moda Bake Shop, the Family Tree Quilted Envelope pillow.
Family Tree was my first tutorial for the Bake Shop and jump started my designing career.
I'm very thankful to the the Moda Bake Shop for taking a chance on me and allowing me to share what I love through their awesome program.

You can peruse all of my free patterns and tutorials by clicking here.

The Redbird Christmas pillow design is holiday oriented but generic enough to display after Christmas.
It includes a cotton background with a tree and bird wool applique focal point and a log cabin style block to finish out the pillow front.
I added a little extra batting behind the bird and the tree to make them pop!

It was quilted free motion and top stitched on my domestic machine using Aurifil 50Wt Mako Cotton thread.
***
I LOVE Aurifil thread for quilting!!

When I created the Family Tree and Redbird Christmas pillows I had yet to try Aurifil 12Wt cotton thread so I used another brand of embroidery floss for the wool applique.
If I were to make them again today, I would be sure to dig into my Auri-Stash and use Aurifil 12Wt thread.  
The Aurifil 12Wt works perfectly for wool applique and for beautiful top stitching!

Instead of using 2.5" strips for the back of the pillow, the Redbird Christmas pillow has a two piece envelope back.   The envelope works perfect to switch pillow covers from one season to the next.

If you're interested in making Redbird Christmas you can see the original Moda Bake Shop Recipe by clicking here.   

The tutorial is available as a PDF download at the end of the Bake Shop post.

If you're interested, you can read the Family Tree excitement and announcement on my blog by clicking here.

To convert the Family Tree tutorial into the Redbird Christmas pillow, just download the Redbird Christmas tree and bird template by clicking here and follow the original tutorial for the Family Tree pillow.

You can read the original blog announcement for Redbird Christmas (Dec 2013) by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy this featured Throwback Thursday Tutorial -- Stay tuned for some fun upcoming announcements!

I leave you with a Keuka Lake Sunset from Sept, 2015

Any day is a good day at the lake.

Many thanks for stopping by and do let me know if you have any questions or if you enjoyed this Throwback Thursday Tutorial!  

Blessings,

Karen

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The Final Finish of 2013 - Hello 2014!

Better late than never right ?   I have so much Christmas fabric that I love, Love, love... and I never use it :(  This year I decided things would be different.... and they were -- just a little late for Christmas.   This afternoon I finished up the

"Redbird Christmas" pillow.  

I started with my "Family Tree Quilted Envelope Pillow" tutorial posted here on the Moda Bake Shop, designed a new applique center, and re-used my pillow insert. 

 Ta-daa!  

Redbird Christmas

The final finish of 2013.

I used hand dyed wool from a local quilt shop and some very old Holly Taylor fabric with a little Judie Rothermel and Blackbird Design fabrics mixed in.  For the pillow front, I cut my own 2.5" strips from yardage and it worked out perfectly.

I used Valdani 12Wt Pearle cotton to hand stitch the wool applique and Aurifil Mako 50Wt Cotton for the piecing, cotton applique, and machine quilting -- LOVE these threads!!

2021 update:  Ahhh -- for those of you that follow me now, you know I would choose to use Aurifil 12wt wool or 12wt cotton for my wool applique.   Being on a spool will allow you to use these high quality threads on your machine or by hand. 

 I quilted it with my Janome Horizon using a Queen Supreme Slider, Machingers gloves and lots of patience ;)

 

 As you can see - I added a little stuffing to the bird and the tree -- makes quilting it a little more of a challenge but I just LOVE the dimension that it adds.  What do you think ?

For the back I used the same Holly Taylor fabric from my stash -- it sure feels good to use up some fabric.   

(Rarely happens... ha ha ha).

If you're interested in the template for the tree and/or the bird pop on over to my Throwback Thursday blog post about Redbird Christmas and download it from there.

 I would like to take a minute and thank you all for supporting my blogging and sewing efforts this year!  It's really been an awesome adventure and without all the great bloggers and readers out there I'm not sure what would have motivated me to continue to learn and grow and share.   So.... 

Thank you all so much and have a wonderful New Year!    

2014 Can you believe it ?  

Bring it On!!

Off to celebrate my "little" brothers 50th Birthday -- he turns 50 tomorrow -- 

A New Years' Baby... 

Hugs to all,
Happy New Year!

Karen

My Family Tree Pillow Recipe on the Moda Bake Shop !!

Will someone pinch me?   Really!   I am so happy I can hardly contain myself....

I'm honored to share a tutorial for the Family Tree Quilted Pillow on the Moda Bake Shop today! 

Having trouble viewing the Family Tree Pillow recipe or downloading the PDF ?   Get the PDF download here.   

Do you remember this post?  I won a box of scraps of Family Tree by Deb Strain (for Moda) fabric.  I was very excited and immediately fell in love with the birds, paisley, and the colorways of Family Tree.

On that post I shared a design for a pillow....  and started thinking about publishing on the Moda Bake Shop.   I reached out for guidance from someone who had previously published on the Bake Shop (thank you Casey York), prepared a proposal, and it was accepted!!

Happy Dance!!

To view the recipe jump on over to the Moda Bake Shop. 

Having trouble viewing the Family Tree Pillow recipe or downloading the PDF ?   Get the PDF download here.  

But before you go, let's Celebrate my First Moda Bake Shop recipe with a Giveaway!

** Sunday, November 3rd 11:50pm -- The Original Family Tree Giveaway is now closed -- the winner was announced Monday November 4th.  Thanks to everyone that entered and left such wonderful feedback! ** 

** Thursday, November 7th -- A new giveaway is now underway -- click here to enter. **

I have plenty of Family Tree scraps and Jelly Roll strips that I would LOVE to share with one lucky reader.

To enter leave a Comment below describing what you like most about the pillow.

For extra chances to win... Become a follower, share on your Blog, Facebook, or Pinterest and leave a comment here for each one you do -- that's a total of 4 more chances to win.  

I'll use Mr. Random Number Generator to choose a winner on Sunday, November 3rd.

Good luck everyone!!

Oh, by the way, you can find a great deal on the Family Tree Jelly Roll at Sew It Is. 

Now for a few "outtake" pictures...

Stitching the bird to the background

The backside of the bird

Everyone agreed - this wing is too light - it's gotta go!

Auditioning a new wing - it's perfect!

Off with the old...

On with the new!

Stuffed Pillow

Stuffed Pillow back

Special thanks to my husband Cliff, my sisters Janet and Michele, and my friends Debbie, Bonnie and Cindy for always encouraging me to follow my heart.   It's sew much fun!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful day!

Hugs,
Karen

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Quilted Bird Pillows

Oh boy, Oh boy !  We can place two entries in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.  So for the fun of it I thought I would share the "Quilted Bird Pillows" that I made for my sister and her DH for their 10th Wedding Anniversary this summer.

11/1 Update:  Voting is open -- you can see all the Home Machine Quilted entries here:  and vote for your favorite by clicking the heart in the upper right hand corner of the image.

Before I begin, Special Thanks to Amy at Amy's Creative Side, for hosting the semi-annual event.  What a great way for the online community to share their creations and find inspiration!  If you haven't done so you must jump over and check out the linked up talent.  It's amazing.  Thanks so much Amy!!

Meet "Nest" by Valorie Wells for Free Spirit!

When my sister saw these panels she fell in love with them -- and commented at how beautiful they would look in her living room.   How is that for a "hint".   I purchased them because of the birds and I really wanted to quilt them but I had no idea where to begin (or who's house they would go in).

Once I knew she wanted them I started by choosing thread colors:  Doesn't that Aurifil thread match perfectly ?  The panels are layered with Hobbs Poly and an inexpensive muslin fabric (it won't show once you've made the envelope back).

Panels off the bolt -- choosing thread color

 The next step seemed logical - with a neutral color, stitch around the beautifully printed birds and flowers.

 Oh my, I'm loving how these look!

At this point I was stuck -- where to go from here?  I considered stopping but was fearful that the pretty yellow fabric would get snagged, dirty or torn over the years, especially in the living room.   So I took a chance and emailed one of my favorite Free Motion Quilting Mentors, Wendy Sheppard. Check out Wendy's fantastic blog here: Ivory Spring and her free motion Thread Talk here.

It's my lucky day... Wendy writes and suggests a McTavishing approach to finish the pillows!  Really?  But...I've never done that!  Now the panic sets in.   Deep breaths... OK, following my own advice I jump over to Wendy's Thread Talk, find Wendy's Nifty Little S's tutorial.  I practice on paper and on sample fabric before I give it a try.

Here is the first panel after quilting (I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 for the FMQ).

And another view:

Here is the bluebird:

Oh my gosh at this time I was turning cartwheels!! What is apparent is that McTavishing is VERY forgiving.  This was the first time I had tried it, talk about inspiration.

Here are a few more pictures of the completed pillows:

 

My sister and I were both thrilled with the pillows!  I must say that if you're just learning to Free Motion Quilt choosing panels to "cut your threads" on is a great idea.  They allow you to practice without fear of hurting a pieced quilt AND you'll have something to use when you're finished.  I hope you give it a whirl!

If you would like to read the original tutorial and make an envelope pillow like these, the tutorial is found here or by clicking on the image below:

Oh, the details:

Entry Name:  Quilted Bird Pillows

Category: Home Machine Quilted Quilts

Creator: Karen Miller

Size: 10 x 14

Fabric: Nest by Valori Wells for Free Spirit

Thread: Aurifil Mako 50/2 

Machine: Quilted on my home Janome Horizon

For more pillow fun -- check out my Family Tree Quilted Envelope Pillows featured here and on the Moda Bake Shop!

Thanks again for stopping by!

Hugs,

Karen 

Linking up to Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventure (3/2014) where she is hosting an awesome McTavishing Series

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Penny Garland Revised

Hi everyone!   I'm excited to be a first time participant in the "Blogger's Quilt Festival".

Many thanks to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for organizing this semi-annual event.  The festival is a place to share your creations with the blogging community.  There are some awesome inspirational posts out there so please jump over to Amy's site and scroll through the multiple categories of quilt related posts!!  

11/1 Update:  Voting is open -- you can see all the Applique Quilt entries here and vote for your favorite by clicking the heart in the upper right hand corner of the image. 

In the "Favorite Applique Quilt" category I want to share "Penny Garland Revised".    Penny Garland Revised is a wool / cotton hand stitched applique piece that was quilted on my domestic sewing machine.  The batting is Hobbs Tuscany Wool.

The original "Penny Garland" was designed and taught by Kim Diehl at a not so LQS.   I had the opportunity to attend this class with my friends Debbie and Bonnie -- we had so much fun!

Kim shared her wool applique techniques and the pattern for Penny Garland.

Holding true to form, I revised the layout of "Penny Garland" and I did not fuse the wool to the cotton.    I'm not one to use glue or fuse if I can avoid it.

A Clover bias tape maker was used to create the cotton fabric stem.  It was hand stitched down with an invisible applique stitch.

 

Each outside penny has two layers and is hand stitched with Valdani Pearl Cotton thread using an Overhand or Whip Stitch.  If there is any threat of the wool fraying, then a Blanket Stitch is perfect to use too.

Here is a picture of the back side of the applique - showing the Overhand / Whip Stitch.

The FUN part of taking a wool applique class with friends is that you can mix and match your wools!  Allows for a great scrappy look.

 

Most of the wools were hand dyed, and were purchased from a Local Shop, Liberty Cottage in Canandaigua, NY.  Sue has such beautiful wools -- it's heaven to visit her shop.

I love Valdani thread for wool applique.

Quilting this piece was fun too!   I've taken online quilting courses and scoured the blogs of Wendy Sheppard, Angela Walters and Leah Day amongst others.  Check out the wealth of information these ladies share.

An inside lighting view of Penny Garland Revised:

A view of the back - love to see the quilting from the backside!

Penny Garland Revised Quilt Back

Mr. Redbird enjoying a fall day by the lake on Penny Garland Revised.

If you would like to see more of my Wool Applique click here!

Oops I was suppose to include:

Title: Penny Garland Revised

Made by:  Karen Miller

Size: 29" x 29"

Division: Applique Quilt

Inspired by: Kim Diehl's Penny Garland

Thanks again for stopping by and have a wonderful day,

Hugs,

Karen