Herringbone Quilt for Emerson

It's only been over a year since I worked on this project... sheesh! Last year towards the end of tax season I got the major nesting bug. Like whoa. I hadn't done anything for the nursery yet besides gather my overall inspiration. I really wanted to make a quilt for Emerson and I loved the quilt from my inspiration nursery (see it here). I also wanted to do something really easy - those are my favorite kind of quilts. I like having something creative to do that isn't overly complicated. That I can still work on while I watch my "stories." 

Quick and Easy Cross Baby Quilt

I recently got bitten by the bug. The quilting bug. I actually made a quilt back in April for Emerson (I'll post that one later) that was so easy and fun to make that I wanted to make another one for a friend for her baby shower (more on that one later too). But today I'll share another baby quilt that I just made for Em. 

DIY: Ruffled Crib Skirt

Well, this is the second time I am writing this post... stupid computer! Another DIY nursery project for you today. When my mom was over a couple weeks ago, she helped me with this ruffled crib skirt. We used this tutorial and it was pretty helpful.  At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a straight crib skirt or a ruffled one (I'm not a ruffles person), but decided to go for the ruffles to make the room a little more feminine and add some texture. 

This project only cost $10 too - it was the IKEA Vivan curtains to the rescue again! It's such a cheap way to get some plain white fabric. The fabric is thin, but worked for the crib skirts since we were doing the ruffles anyways.

DIY: Chevron Pouf Ottoman

I'm back with another nursery DIY project! I feel like I haven't jumped too far onto the chevron bandwagon yet, until I realized the two main areas I've used it in the nursery - the rug and this chevron pouf! It's so bright and playful for a nursery, how could I not? 

DIY: Home is Wherever I'm With You Pillow

Sad news. My best friend, Kim, is moving across the country. :( For three years at least. It makes me sad. To be fair, I did move halfway across country to Arizona two years ago, so I guess we're even? 

No, seriously, I am so happy for Kim and her hubby, Jake, to embark on their next adventure. I can speak from experience when saying moving to a far away place can be scary, but also an amazing growing experience with fun new adventures to be had!

So... I Made Another Pillow

Apparently I have a thing for pillows and frames. So I made another pillow. Maybe I need to make pillows like Snooki needs to go tanning. I don't know. I found an extra pillow form in our junk room office and thought I should make a quilted pillow. When my mom came over to help me with this project a couple weeks ago I asked her to bring her Accuquilt fabric cutter so I could, yes, cut some fabric. It's the coolest machine. Very simple but gets the job done.

I didn't actually use fabric. Instead, I used two flat sheets from Wal-Mart for $5 each (actually, I had to buy the navy twin sheet set for $9.99 because they were all out of the plain flat sheets). A lot more yardage for your money, although the fabric was not great quality. Since this was my first real "quilting" project in a while, I didn't mind using fabric that wasn't great. I considered it almost a practice run for other future projects. :)

Pillow Talk

My mom finally gave me her old sewing machine so I got right to work. I've had about 3-4 pillow forms laying around for years just waiting to be covered in some fun bright fabric. Plus, I decided to change out a few existing pillow cases. 

Check out this old beauty.

I love the old case it came in. However, me and my new machine (I call her Regina) were not instant friends. We should have been, but things didn't really work out that way. I spent a good hour trying to figure out why the tension wasn't working. The top stitch was too tight, the bottom too loose. I tried adjusting everything and it just wasn't working out. Finally, I called in the husband and we he ended up basically taking the thing apart to clean out the 20+ years of dust in there. After that, she worked like a charm.

I'm glad I started with some old ugly scrap fabric my mama gave me (thank, mom!) because it definitely took me a while to figure out. But once I did, we were moving. 

Cut the fabric (I made sure to line up the stripes).

Sew the fabric (sewing was just like riding a bike... it was a little hard to "ride" in a straight line at first though).

Leave an opening to stuff in the pillow.

Iron the edges and trim if needed so they will lay flat. Cut the corners off so they don't get bulky.

And then you have yourself some purty pillows...

...that you now must hand stitch shut. I'm digging the bold green stripes and the navy floral pattern (I even have another project coming up with the same navy pattern too!). 

I love that pillows are so easy to change (especially if you make true slip covers instead of actually sewn in covers like I did) and can really brighten up and bring color to a room. 

Have you sewn any pillow covers lately? How about any other sewing projects that are an easy fix to add a little character to a room?