Blog / pillows

Something I've enjoyed doing the past few years is working with local photographers to photograph my work. Through doing this, I've been able to meet other local creative women, have my work photographed in a number of beautiful spaces, and create a high-quality visual archive of my quilts.

My most recent photoshoot took place last February, in the Cause Creative space in Essex, MA. I drove out there with a handful of my quilts and a pair of pillows and handed them over to Ashley Brooks (the owner of Cause Creative), who styled them in her beautiful space, and Jesika Theos, who photographed them. 

The resulting images are some of my favorites. Because the space was so large, I was able to bring my larger throw quilts to be photographed---something that's harder for me to do on my own. Among the work I brought that day were an Amish Hourglass Throw Quilt (pictured above); a Chambray Log Cabin Throw Quilt (featured in the beginning and end of this post); and the Minimal Stripes Throw Quilt pictured below.

I also brought along two improvisationally pieced lumbar pillows, made from an assortment of neutral scraps, including treasured hand-printed fabrics from Cotton & Flax and Maze & Vale. 

Having my work photographed so beautifully in such a warm space meant so much to me, and I hope you enjoy the images as much as I do. If you're interested, you can shop all of the pieces that were photographed that day here. 

All photos in this post by Jesika Theos. 

One of my goals for the past few years has been to have my work included in a booth at Quilt Market (a bi-annual trade show for quilt shops). Last fall, I was able to accomplish that goal (yay!) when I was asked by Michael Miller Fabrics to create two pillows for their fall Quilt Market booth, using fabrics from their holiday Glitz collection.


Since the objective was to showcase the green, gold, red, and white prints, I wanted to stick with clean, simple designs that referenced the holidays, but weren't over the top. For the first pillow, I envisioned creating a minimal wreath design. I first thought of sewing one of the rings from Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl Quilt, but I wanted something that had a bit more space in the borders. Not long after, I found Svetlana of Sotak Handmade's quilted pillow design---featuring a patchwork ring---and thought it would be lovely in this context.


The resulting pillow cover wound up being so pretty and simple, and a subtle nod to the holidays.


For the second pillow, I created a design inspired by overlapping cranberry garlands. I made each garland by fusing small red circles to the patchwork pillow top, and then stitching a line through each "strand."


In addition to making the pillow, I also wrote up a free tutorial for it, which is now available on Michael Miller's web site, if you would like to make your own. 


Each of the pillow backs featured more of the Glitz prints and hidden zippers (I used Svetlana's tutorial---my favorite method!), for a fun, festive finish.


P.S. Looking for this month's link-up for the Modern Sampler Quilt Along? It will be posted later this week, so stay tuned!

Just before I left Spoonflower, we added a super soft cotton lawn to our line-up. I was really excited for this fabric's release, as I knew it would be perfect for quilting (think Liberty of London's Tana Lawn). Wanting to make a quilt from it myself, I selected a number of low-volume designs from the Spoonflower marketplace, and the Marketing team kindly provided me with a stack of fat quarters...

Before mailing off Christmas gifts last December, I snapped a few photos, which I'm finally getting around to posting, if you'd like to see...

For my twin nephews, I made two sets of bibs from this excellent pattern, using a crab print I picked up on a trip to Nashville last fall and prints from Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee line.



I also made some simple quilted placemats, using fabric from Cloud9 Fabrics' Monsterz collection and a kitchen print gifted from a friend.



I used my favorite tutorial and a Leah Duncan print from Grey's Fabric to make some pillowcases for my parents.

And finally, I made a pair of quilt-as-you-go potholders with rounded corners, using green scraps.


Have you started planning any handmade projects for next Christmas? Any favorite tutorials you'd recommend?

P.S. I'm posting more over on Instagram these days. Come follow along!