Finished: Sew Sew Modern Swap Items

I started this project back in November so it feels especially nice to have this done.

For the Sew Sew Modern swap, we were to make one large and one small item for our partner, hopefully with some tie between them. I knew I wanted to do something rainbow on neutrals given what was in my partner’s pool and mosaic. I also really loved those types of projects, but had never attempted it myself, so this was just the impetus I needed. I decided on a large pillow cover for the large item, and began searching for inspiration.

I remembered that I had fallen in love with the crane star paper-pieced pattern by Patchwork Pottery and decided it was just the thing! I ordered the pattern and got to work. The first one I made was using my favorite Central Park print. However, this is how I learned that for this particular pattern, prints should not have lots of white in them, given some of the smaller pieces in this pattern. They end up getting lost in the background, and the cool shape is lost.

Since I needed to change some of my fabrics, I decided to bring in a Heather Ross print as that is one of my partner’s favorite designers. In doing so, it kind of muddled up the color wheel a bit, but I’m happy with how it ended up.

I chose the fabrics based on colors, but like how it ended up being a bit of a designer stars wheel with Denyse Schmidt, Anna Maria Horner, Heather Ross, Tula Pink, Kate Spain and some Quilted Fish to round it out.

To border it, I wanted to use black, and decided to use different text prints for each side. I made sure that no matter which way the hexagon was oriented, you could read the black print on the bottom as it would be right side up. And for the background I knew I wanted to use natural linen.

I can’t show the back until my partner receives it, but I made my first covered zipper using a mish-mash of two tutorials. I also decided to both machine and hand quilt the front. It was my first time hand quilting, so let’s just say I learned a lot!

For the smaller item, I didn’t know what I wanted to do other than I wanted to use some hexies and some linen and I wanted to fussy cut some Heather Ross scraps I had.

Because I wanted the items to coordinate, I decided to go with a rainbow theme for this as well. I finally decided to do a journal cover, using the tutorial at Stitched in Color. There was no real design idea going into this, I just sort of let it fall together. Because I wanted a journal cover, I didn’t want to applique the hexies because it would add too much bulk, so I decided to piece them in. I added a black border of hexies, then trimmed it down to 1/4″ past the center mark of the bottom and top hexies. I unfolded the bottom or top basted edge of the full hexies so they would also be 1/4″ longer, and that way I could piece them in. This was all done so I wouldn’t lose part of the hexy into the seam allowance.

The back of the journal shows the white areas, while the front shows the rainbows. I’m super happy that the two items ended up looking like they go together, but still have a bit of their own style to them.

These plus some fabric and a few other things are going in a box to get mailed out tomorrow! I really had a lot of fun working on these and I can’t wait for my partner to get them! 😀

-Anne