Windows

So here are the results of my adventure in the world of cathedral windows. The pillow on the left was my first attempt which you saw in yesterday's stop on the Something New Sampler blog hop, and all of the windows were sewn by hand. The pillow on the right was today's little experiment -- I wanted to see what it was like to sew these by machine. Boy was there a difference. Doing these by machine takes about a quarter of the time, and the windows look so much more stable to me. If you're on the fence about doing cathedral windows because of the time investment, definitely take the machine route.

I've been planning on making a pillow that my husband can use to support his back when he's relaxing in the evenings. Though he insisted that he hated the idea of having my hard work sandwiched between him and the chair where no one could see it, I thought that the colors in this block were manly enough for a guy's pillow. I really love the way these quiet Timber & Leaf prints are set off by the chocolate brown linen. They almost remind me of watercolor paintings.  I have a good amount of this collection left over, and I'm looking forward to making something else with this fabric in the next few months.

I was able to purchase a wonderful scrap pack of Katie Jump Rope a few weeks back, which I absolutely love. They seemed to be the perfect prints for another small set of cathedral windows, and I'm so happy with the way they turned out. With all the cheerful colors and that border of natural Essex linen, this pillow just looks like a little glimpse of summer to me.

And the back -- I'm just crazy about this print, which I was also able to pick up online.  God bless the fine people at Etsy. What on earth did we do before they came along?

My final verdict on cathedral windows? Try it at least once, preferably by machine...unless you have way more time on your hands than I do.

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday.