Quillow Finished!

 A quilt on legs!  When you have stopped admiring my admirable quilt stand (otherwise known as DH) I'll allow you to admire the quilt instead - as I'm quite pleased with how its turned out!

Cobblestones (with halved cobblestone border) on the front.

 IKEA's 'numbers in text' for the back - extended with some lovely pink batik.

With one of my favourite ever stripy fabrics for the binding.  Chosen as it's on DD1's camp blanket, so we thought it would be nice to have it on this quilt for her teacher.

The backing is also appropriate, as this teacher (The Lovely Miss Stout, as she is ALWAYS called in our house) has championed DD1 right the way through school, and was instrumental in getting her dyslexia diagnosed, amongst other issues, as well as helping to get her additional help for school.

 This shot is where I'm trying to show you some of the quilting - I made an 'X' with feathers - partly as the idea of a great big kiss appealed to me, partly because that is what the quilt was asking for.

As planned, the rest of it was stippled.  I worked hard at trying to keep the scale of the stipple even, and I just about succeeded.

 You will have guessed from the title of this post that this quilt is hiding a secret - that it is also a cushion (or pillow, as my USA friends would have it).

The front used up lots of the scraps from the quilt - wish that I'd had a few more useful sized bits of paler pink too!

This shows it with the quilt all tucked away.

 On the back you can see the cushion cover / toe cosy when the quilt is unfolded.

 So, one quilt finished, it must be time to start another.  This is my fabric pull for one of those oh-so-fashionable (or maybe that was a while ago?) giant star quilts.  Perfect as my next project (another quilt heading for school!).

Lastly, following news that a member of my quilting group has been diagnosed with breast cancer, I made a quick 'ouch pouch' - or comfort cushion, if you prefer that term.  There are a number of different patterns on the Internet - crescents, hearts, plain rectangles - they are all trying to cushion the area between your torso and arm, particularly 'post op'.

I picked up the pattern (there is a full tutorial too) from emlibrary here - I like the idea of the bow / elastic to fasten it around your shoulder, if you so choose.

Perhaps if you don't want to quilt you might consider making a few of these instead?  Quite fast to make, and I'm sure that they would be well received at your local cancer treatment centre.