NECKTIE PILLOW

A friend gave me some neckties that belonged to her husband, and asked if I would make her something to preserve the memories.  Her husband is a pastor, so there are many memories in his ties over the last 50+ years.

 I've had no experience with neckties, but I thought "why not?" and gave it a try keeping it small with a 14" pillow.

After deconstructing the ties,  I paper-pieced the four individual blocks.  The ties were mostly slippery silk, but in several different textures.

After joining the four blocks, I backed them with fusible fleece and machine embroidered along the seams using a variegated machine embroidery thread.

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday
Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

I SPY BOOK

One of my friends is expecting a new granddaughter in January.  This grandmother is working on a cute quilt for the long-awaited child; so I wanted to do something a little different.

I've been wanting to do an "I Spy" project for a long time, and have stock-piled a few suitable fabrics for several years.  Instead of a quilt, I decided to try my hand at a soft "I Spy" book.

Those that know me know that I never use a pattern; I just dive in, and hope for the best.  
First, I cut my "I Spy" images from the fabric.  Some of them were less than an inch in size.  For each page, I then added strips of fabric joining the collages until I had a page that measured 7 1/2" square.

I made a total of 12 pages including the front and back cover.  The mother-to-be loves bright colors, so I assume the baby will, too.  I chose my brightest scraps and arranged the pages in rainbow colors.

FRONT COVER

PAGES 1 AND 2

PAGES 3 AND 4

PAGES 5 AND 6

PAGES 7 AND 8

PAGES 9 AND 10

AND, FOR THE NEW DADDY -- THE BACK COVER

I machine quilted with a variegated embroidery thread.  My regular machine was at the repair shop; and being impatient, I quilted it on my old Singer Featherweight without benefit of a walking foot.  It would probably look better if I had used some straight lines to follow!!!

Even though this was kind of labor/time-intensive; it turned out just like I imagined, and it was so much fun choosing fabrics.

It's far from perfect -- if I was to do it over, I would have made the spine 1" instead of 1/2" as I didn't allow enough area for the thickness of all the fabric pages.
My grandmother-in-law always said when making clothes for kids --- you'll never see your mistakes on a galloping horse!  So be it with soft books -- it's made to be chewed on, slept on, toted around, etc. and hopefully enjoyed!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday
Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or not Friday
Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday