Pretty Batik Pillows

I have recently been making more pillows and pillow covers to put on my Etsy Shop.  Since I mainly make accent pillows, I really like to use fabric that will stand out and add color to a room.  I really love the wonderful colors and designs of batik fabrics.  I also like that these fabrics are hand-dyed and a lot of time goes into making them unique.

The following fabrics caught my eye:

Both of these 2-piece pillow cover sets are for 16"x16" throw pillows and are for sale on my Etsy Shop.

Sampler Quilt

Over the past few months, I have been getting more familiar with the sewing process.  One of the first things I wanted to learn how to make was a quilt.  Since I didn't really have any sewing experience, I decided I would take a quilting class to learn the basics.  On the first meeting, I realized that this was a class for way more than just the basics.  I was overwhelmed.  But, I stuck with it, and was soon on my way to creating my first quilt.

The quilt layout we used consisted of many different block patterns.  The instructor referred to it as a "sampler quilt".  She said that any of the individual blocks could be used to make an entire quilt, so we could get some good ideas to use in the future.  Each block became increasingly more difficult.  By the end, I was spending several hours on one block.  One of the things I learned most about sewing/quilting from the class is that the preparation process (measuring, cutting, pinning, etc.) takes up the majority of the time you spend on the project.  I easily spend over 3/4 of the time preparing quilt blocks for sewing.

Throughout the quilting process there was a lot of trial and error, but I feel pretty satisfied with my first quilt.