Pillows for Rex Ray Studio

The whole story is quite long. It started with THIS block for Pastiche bee. As I always do before using somebody else's designs to sew a block or quilt, I wrote an email to Rex Ray's office asking for permission to show the bee block on my blog. Rex Ray agreed, and he liked my interpretation of his work so much, that he asked me if I would work with him on a collection of pillows based on his designs. Now the pillows are available in Rex Ray Studio.

There are 5 of them. I modified the designs slightly (the original Rex Ray design precedes the photo of a pillow, that was made based on it), as it was impossible to piece every element which can be seen on original art pieces and prepared my own templates. The fronts are carefully pieced using various fabrics from my stash (there is nowhere applique used in those pillows), trying to express Rex Ray's designs as well as I could:

Cala historia jest dosc dluga... zaczela sie od TEGO bloku, uszytego podczas Pastiche bee. Napisalam maila do biura Rex'a Ray'a, pytajac, czy moge pokazac blok inspirowany jego grafika na moim blogu. Nie dosc, ze Rex Ray sie zgodzil, to do tego tak spodobal mu sie moj blok, ze zaprosil mnie do wspolpracy nad kolekcja poduszek inspirowanych jego tworczoscia :) Poduszek jest 5 i sa juz dostepne w sklepie Rex Ray Studio. 
Praca nad poduszkami nie byla latwa. Kazdy blok projektowalam w EQ7, zmieniajac nieco oryginalne prace tak, by bylo mozliwe zszycie poszczegolnych elementow (nie ma tu nigdzie aplikacji, wszystkie elementy poduszek sa pozszywane ze soba), pozniej staralam sie dobrac materialy tak, by mozliwie najwierniej oddaly teksture i kolory uzyte w oryginalnych grafikach. Poduszki zostaly bardzo dobrze przyjete, co mnie niezmiernie cieszy :) Ciesze sie, ze moglam sprostac temu wyzwaniu!

In this pillow, I used some Oakshott Fabrics from Ruby Red set:

Nightshade pillows

Since I first saw Nightshade fabrics by Tula Pink, I knew I have to sew something with them. I ordered some in the Vapor Palette. Two fabrics I like in particular - Coven and Spider Blossom. I decided to sew some gothic/Halloween pillows (there will be more projects made with those fabrics soon). 

The only tricky thing is, that the portraits of Von Black sisters on Coven have oval frames and there is not much background fabric between them. It's difficult to cut out one portrait without destroying the frame of another (if you want to use just the portrait, not the yardage of fabric). But the portraits and the frames themselves are so cool, that I had to find the way to do it ;)

I prepared a block template in EQ7 with an oval center, matching the size of the portraits and sewn the ovals in (they are not appliqued), just like I'm sewing the circles (anybody interested in such templates?):

Kiedy po raz pierwszy zobaczylam nowa linie materialow od Tula Pink - Nightshade, od razu wiedzialam, ze bede musiala cos z nich uszyc. Zwlaszcza dwa materialy z tej serii mi sie podobaja - Coven (portrety dziewczyn w ramkach) i Spider Blossom (ten material w kwiaty z tylu poduszki). Materialy sa w trzech wersjach kolorystycznych. Ja wybralam linie Vapor (ciemny turkus). 

Jedyny minus materialu z portretami jest taki, ze sa one bardzo blisko siebie i trudno jest wyciac pojedynczy portret z ramka tak, zeby nie naciac nastepnego. Ale... dla chcacego nic trudnego ;) Jedynym sposobem bylo wyciecie owalu dookola ramki (elementy bloku zaprojektowalam w Electric Quilt, bo to duzo latwiejsze niz rysowanie recznie :) i wszycie go w panel poduszki (widac uzaleznilam sie od szycia po luku, haha):

The pillows are now listed in my DaWanda shop.

I covered the seam with a thin black lace (just to add a bit of a character to the front):

Na linie wszycia owalu naszylam cienka czarna elastyczna koronke:

Back is buttoned. I bought great buttons (found them by accident on DaWanda) especially for those pillows. They fit perfectly with the style and the colour:

Tyl jest zapinanay na guziki, kupione specjalnie z mysla o tych poduszkach. Pasuja idealnie stylem i kolorem do calosci:

 

And to add a bit more to the Halloween mood...

A zeby bylo bardziej Halloween'owo - moja dynia w tym roku i Wesley przebrany (tylko na chwileczke) za Szczerbatka :D

* my pumpkin this year:

 * and Wesley aka Toothless ;) 

(I just had to make tiny felt wings for him :D He didn't mind wearing them for 5 min when I took the photos; I used handy for it, thus the quality)

EPP Pillow - Travellin' Pic Stitch BlogHop

Today's my stop on the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop organised by Laura at Quokka Quilts.

What can I say about me and travelling? Lets see... 

I have to confess, that I like to travel and see new places, but not for long. I'm a type of weekend-traveler. Go, see and come back home. I'm also not a fan of big, loud and crowded cities. I do find architecture interesting, I like to visit museums but it's nature which draws me more.

Once in a year, during holidays, I go to my old grandparents house (in Poland) to stay there with my parents for some weeks. I really feel, that that's MY place. I admit, that I miss my home country from time to time (I travel to Poland about 3x a year), but I do not miss my home town, nor the place where I was studying for 5 years. I miss that house of my grandparents, the river, boat trips with my father, forest around and the view from the window. 

So how do I pick places to travel to? If that's a city, it has to have a ZOO and if it's a place for longer holidays it has to be in the middle of nowhere ;) 
Her are my few favourite potos: 

Wczesniej juz wspominalam, ze zapisalam sie na blog-hop, w ktorym to trzeba bylo uszyc cos metoda english paper piecing, bazujac na kolorystyce wybranego zdjecia, zrobionego podczas jednej z naszych podrozy. 
No coz, wielkim podroznikiem to ja nie jestem ;) Lubie wyjezdzac i zwiedzac rozne miejsca, ale nie na dlugo. Taki weekendowy zwiedzacz jestem, haha. Wyskoczyc z domu, pochodzic po obcym miescie, spedzic noc w hotelu a potem powrot. No i nie lubie duzych miast. Sa zbyt glosne i za duzo w nich ludzi. Lubie sobie czasem popatrzec na jakies ciekawe budynki czy pochodzic po muzeach, ale najbardziej ciagnie mnie natura. 
Raz do roku staram sie wyjechac na dluzej nad Zalew Zegrzynski do domu moich dziadkow. Tam jest MOJE miejsce. Nie miasto, w ktorym sie urodzilam, nie to, w ktorym studiowalam przez 5 lat, ale wlasnie tamten dom, gdzie jezdzilam w kazde wakacje i w ktorym spedzalam dlugie tygodnie otoczona naura. Jesli tesknie za Polska, to wlasnie za tym miejscem :) Za lasem nieopodal, zapachem wody w porcie, gdzie moj tata trzyma lodke, widokiem z okna podczas jedzenia sniadanie, lowieniem ryb, zbieraniem grzybow... moglabym tak w nieskonczonosc wymieniac.
A jak wybieram inne miejsca do zwiedzania czy na urlop? Jesli to jest miasto, to musi tam byc ZOO, muzeum historii naturalnej lub ogrod botaniczny, a jesli mam zostac na troche dluzej, to miejsce musi byc oddalone od cywilizacji. To kilka z mich ulubionych zdjec:

Sardinia

MY place

forest near my house

 from Walsrode Vogelpark

from ZOO in Nürnberg

I chose the snow leopard photo to create a color palette for my EPP project as I feel those are my colours. I chose some of my favourite fabrics - Etchings, Curio, and many more which names I don't remember ;) and designed the EPP pattern. Creating the front of the pillow took me about 2 weeks, but the effect is worth it, I think :)

Do stworzenia palety kolorow do mojego projektu wybralam zdjecia pantery snieznej. Raz, ze uwazam je za najwspanialsze i najpiekniejsze dzikie kotowate, dwa, ze bardzo lubie takie kolory. Zaprojektowalam wzor na przod poduszki i 'zawijalam w te papierki' przez okolo 2 tygodnie. Projekt niezwykle czasochlonny, ale bardzo mi sie podoba:

I have a giveaway going on in THIS post (till 31st of October), so if you want to sign in, just hop there and leave a comment :) 

No i nadal zapraszam na rozdawajke :) Zapisy w TYM poscie.

Spring pillow for PTS7

Pillow for PTS7. I think this was the most challenging swap for me. My partner's likes were so different from my own style, that I simply didn't have an idea what to make. I think I should be more creative, but I hope my partner will like it at least a bit.

Skonczylam trzecia i ostatnia na razie (teraz robie przerwe) rzecz na wymianke Flickr'owa - poduszke. To byla jedna z trudniejszych wymianek dla mnie. Kolory i wzory jakie moja wymianka lubi byly zupelnie inne od moich i nie mialam pomyslu jak je ze soba polaczyc ani jaki wzor wybrac. Poduszka nie wyszla najgorzej, ale mogloby byc lepiej. Jakos tak bardziej tworczo...

Modern circles pillow cover

I finished a pillow cover for this round of FTLOS swap. Hope my partner will like it. if not, I will happily keep it at home :) I wanted to use more blues, unfortunately, I have to less blue solids in my stash and currently no cash to invest in fabric... but I think that the pillow doesn't look so bad in this colourway.

The pillow measures 20x20". I used different Kona cottons and linen. Back is zippered.

Wlasnie przed chwila skonczylam poduszke na FTLOS swap. Mam nadzieje, ze spodoba sie mojej wymiance. Jesli nie, z checia zostawie ja na swojej kanapie. Chcialam uzyc wiecej niebieskiego, ale ze fanka niebieskiego zbytnio nie jestem, to i materialow za bardzo nie mam. Poszewka jest na poduszke 50x50cm. Szyta z Kony cotton i lnu.

Winter swap with Julianna

Long before Christmas we (me and Julianna at Sewing under Rainbow) decided to swap. Julianna wanted a pillow, I wanted something with a fox. She got the pillow already, so I can show it to you now (the photos are horrible; I didn't have a filling to put inside of such a pillow and it looks flat and wrinkled; also the photos are to dark). 

I made the pillow in two rounds. First I did the Christmas tree (it's made of tiny hexies) and pieced the snow on the botton. Then I left it for some weeks, not knowing what to do next. When I finally got the idea how to continue, I realised that the Christmas tree would look better if it would be pieced, but didn't have the heart to redo the whole background. I left everything as it was and appliqued the girl and the deer (all the datails on the girl and the deer is free hand thread painting; no painting on fabric this time ;) ). At the end I've sewn some cristal beads (they were suppose to look like Christmas lights) ans the star. All is quilted with invisible thread. The pillow measures 40x60cm (~16x24 inches). There is a wonky star pieced at the back, but I don't have a photo of it. I count on Julianna to make better photos ;)

Dlugo przed swietami postanowilysmy z Julianna (z Sewing under Raibow), ze czas na wymianke. Ona chciala poduszke, ja - cos z lisem. Poduszka dotarla do PL, wiec moge sie teraz pochwalic ;) Robilam ja w dwoch turach. Najpierw uszylam tlo ze sniegiem i naszylam choinke (zrobiona z malutkich hexagonow). Zostawilam tak niedokonczona poduszke na kilka tygodni. Brakowalo mi pomyslu, co mam dalej uszyc. Jak pomysl przyszedl po jakims czasie, okazalo sie, ze choinka bedzie tak srednio pasowala do calosci, ale szkoda mi bylo juz wlozonej pracy i zostawilam tlo tak jak bylo. Dziewczyna i jelen to aplikacje (dodatkowo przeszyte i wyhaftowane). Na koncu doszylam krysztalki (mialy wygladac jak sznur lampek choinkowych) i gwiazde. Poduszka jest przepikowana niewidzialna nicia (dlatego nie widac ;).

'Snow Cristal' aqua/tangerine pillow

I promissed you yesterday that I will show you my project using my 'Snow Cristal' PP block (click HERE for the free pattern and tute). As you can see I trimmed away most of the white border from the block which I finished for Celebrate Christmas Blog Hop and added some tangerine frame around the hexagonal snowflake. I love the end effect. I also found a matching fabric for the back of the pillow. The pillow is now available in my SHOP.

Obiecalam wam pokazac co uszylam uzywajac mojego nowego zimowego bloku PP (kliknij TUTAJ zeby przejsc do postu z darmowym wzorem i tutkiem). Oto i moja poduszka. Obcielam biala ramke z bloku (nie szyje quilltu, a sam taki blok na bialym tle byl troche zbyt smutny na poduszke) i dodalam pomaranczowa obwodke dla hexagonowego platka sniegu. Udalo mi sie tez znalezc tkanine pasujaca kolorystycznie na tyl poduszki.

I submitted my 'Snow Crystal' pillow to a Winter Challange organised by designers from Patchworkowa Gwiazda and to Christmas Quilt Show organised by SewCalGal. There are lots of inspirations for winter and Christmas projects there as well as wonderful prizes to win!

'Brick wall' quilt and 'Brick wall' pillows finished!

Last few days I was sewing and sewing... and sewing... trying to finish my 'Brick wall' quilt. I made two matching pillows from some Kona charm squares and fabric which I have left from backing (for the top I used a whole jelly roll so I had no strips left). I chose muted coloured charm squares which would fit the colour palette of the quilt.

How do you like those Fall colours?

[P.S. I know the photos could be better; the weather is terrible. It's cloudy and it's raining almost all the time]

Udalo mi sie skonczyc moj quilt z jelly roll'ki. Dorobilam do niego dwie pasujace poduszki z resztek materialu z quiltowych pleckow i kilku(nastu) kwadratow charm pack'a Kona cotton. Taki jesienny zestaw wyszedl:

 

The back:

I'm submitting the 'Brick wall' set into Celebrate Colour link party organised by Stitched in Colour. Wee Woodland fabric has perfect Fall colours for me... lots of reds, oranges, yellows and olive green.

Cat PP pattern and pillow

I was thinking about Halloween for some time now. Wondering, what I would sew. I wanted a pillow, but didn't have an idea which would fit, so I decided to make a new PP pattern. 

When you think about Halloween what do you think about? Bats? Black cats? Ghosts?

I'm a cat lover so that's almost obvious that I think about cats, LOL. 

And here's one:

'Wesley the cat' 

I listed it in my SHOP 

And a Halloween pillow with the black kitten:

And that's my real Wesley:

And what are you planning to sew on Halloween?

*hugs*