Years ago, I saw a Christmas pillow that was similar to this one on Pinterest. I made the Christmas version and gave it as a gift. I’ve always wanted to make one for myself. It inspired me to make a homey. winter version. This shoe bench is the spot in my house that I’ve been putting my Kimberbell bench pillows.

Here are a few of the pillows I put on our shoe bench.

This bench pillow is a kit that I purchased from Kimberbell. It’s called Sweet as Pie. The kit comes with the embroidery files for machine embroidery, directions, and all of the fabrics. There were a few pink and purple fabrics in the kit, but I swapped those out for red. The files for the machine embroidery background quilting are a separate purchase, but they are too cute to pass up.

This bench pillow is also a kit from Kimberbell. This one is called Two Scoops. Again, I bought the DVD, instructions, fabric, and the embellishment kit all together. Again, the background machine embroidery files were a separate purchase. This bench pillow is so adorable. The ice cream truck has a little music box and when you push it, it plays music like an ice cream truck would.

This bench pillow was also from Kimberbell, and it was probably the easiest I’ve done.

The next bench pillow was the reason I got into machine embroidery. The block on the far left is a hot cocoa stand. I took a class at Quilting Mayhem to make that block into a kitchen towel. I absolutely fell in love with machine embroidery and had to upgrade my machine to be able to make these beautiful pieces of art. The bench pillow, from Kimberbell, is called Candy Cane Lane. And, yes, those are little battery operated lights.

I can’t remember where I bought this bench pillow kit from. It was the first pillow I made with machine embroidery.

This was the Christmas pillow I made that inspired me to make my current bench pillow. I saw something similar on Pinterest and decided to whip one up!

That brings us back to the bench pillow I finished up this weekend! I made this with 4 mini charm packs. I fell in love with this fabric WAY back when I first discovered fabric stores that carry designer lines of fabric. Precuts were new to me and I bought four of them for later use. Well, “later use” was finally this weekend! The fabric line is called Double Chocolat, from Moda, by 3 Sisters.

I sewed the squares together and then did my embroidery on tan strips.

I needed an easy, sort of mindless, quilting project over the break. This one checked all of the boxes.

Happy quilting.

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I’ve been sewing since I was pretty young. I remember sewing with my mom and grandma, starting around the age of 7. I also remember mending my own clothes with my mom’s sewing machine in middle school. When we had to make duffle bags in Home Ec class, in middle school, the teacher was impressed that I already knew how to do it. Sewing was just part of everyday life. When I went to college I took my aunt’s old sewing machine with me. It was a turquoise Singer that my cousin’s wife has now. I did a few projects here and there and made a few quilts.

Once I got married, I upgraded. We went to Sears and I bought a great little Kenmore machine. We lived in an apartment and I would sew in a cabinet that also housed our computer. I made several quilts during that time. My queen size leaf quilt was one that I was really proud of, at the time. That Kenmore machine lasted quite a few years and then I was ready for something that did a little more.

Next, I upgraded to a Brother with a built in embroidery module. I knew absolutely nothing about embroidery. I didn’t even know that I was supposed to use stabilizer. It was an awesome machine, at the time. I made my kids Disney sweatshirts and I loved putting redwork designs on flour sack towels. This embroidery machine was one that you’d buy a cartridge of embroidery designs and insert that into the machine. It had a few built-in Disney stitches, but it couldn’t do much more than that.

My kids showed an interest in sewing, probably because I was always making something. They both wanted to learn to sew and so did my niece. Part of me wanted to teach them on my machine, but the other part of me wanted to teach them on a machine that was super simple and basic. I ended up buying a second Brother machine that had a few basic stitches and had a slider that would make the machine go from turtle speed to rabbit speed, and everything in between. My kids learned to sew on both of my Brother machines because, of course, they didn’t want to be patient and wait for the other one to finish what they were working on. In the long run, I sold my Brother with machine embroidery because the embroidery portion was outdated, but I kept the the other Brother machine. Just a few months ago, my daughter found some clothes at the thrift store and wanted to make alterations. I walked her through everything, but she did all of the sewing and hemming herself.

About 2 years ago my sewing, quilting, and embroidery life took a big twist. I’d always loved my Brother machines, but my Local Quilt Shop (Quilting Mayhem, in Snohomish) sold Bernina machines. I started doing some research about Bernina and really loved what I was reading about them. A larger machine, with more throat space, and more capabilities was sounding like my next step. I was also thinking that by buying from my Local Quilt Shop (LQS), I would be able to take classes to learn the machine and I wouldn’t be floundering as much as I was with my previous embroidery machine. I decided to do it. I bought the 770qe with embroidery module. It was not the MOST expensive one in the store. At the time, they actually had one with crystals on it. It was a mid-price range machine, but it was still pretty pricey in my opinion. I will say that I’ve used it just about every day since I bought it, with the exception of times when I’m crazy-busy, on vacation, or sick. It brings me so much happiness to sit and sew. It can be relaxing, when I need to just make half square triangles or it can be challenging when I’m ready to take on a new quilt or a new machine embroidery technique. I’ve taken two classes at my LQS and a few classes from Bernina educators. I’m amazed at what this machine can do.

Next up, came an amazing gift from a friend. A friend texted and said that she knew I already had a machine, but her dad had been gifted a Brother Quilt Club machine and she wanted to know if I could use it. Ummmm… I didn’t need to think longer than 5 seconds on that! I knew the Quilt Club machines were true work horses. If you are familiar with the single stitch Juki machines, these are similar. Right now, I have my Bernina living downstairs with all of my fabric and machine embroidery things. and my Brother living upstairs in my son’s old room/my new hobby room. This is the perfect spot to hide away and sew when my husband is working from home, downstairs.

Here are the two Brother machines, side by side, so you can see the size difference between a typical starter machine and something like the Brother Quilt Club machine.

Next on the wish list is a mid-arm or long arm machine, but I know it’s going to be a while before that happens. We have a wedding, college, and (at some point) a car or two to buy. Until then, I’ll just be sewing very patiently on one of my current machines.

Happy sewing!

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When I discovered that Willow Cottage Quilt Co does an Acufactum fabric of the month club, I couldn’t wait to sign up. These were some of the December fabrics. There were little houses, wreaths, and little birds. I loved the tiny pieces of holly. I’m not sure if the art for the fabric was made with watercolor, but I feel like it must have been. The birds, leaves, and flowers are some of my favorite things to paint.

The first thing I decided to make was the cathedral window quilt. This is something I’ve never done before. When you sign up for the Acufactum club, there are videos with project ideas that you have access to. The cathedral window project was one of those ideas. I loved the step by step instructions.

I have several different sewing machines, but this project was done on my Bernina, 770qe.

Here’s the finished top.

One of the 2024 projects was a Dresden Plate quilt. Again, this was a new project for me. I’ve never done a Dresden Plate. I haven’t put the circle in the middle yet because I can’t decide which fabric I want to use.

I also bought one of the Acufactum books and there are so many cute little star pillows, so I had to make one of those.

For the backing, I used my grandma’s old bedspread that had a few holes in it. I absolutely LOVE the way all of my Acufactum projects are turning out. If these fabrics grab your attention, check out Willow Cottage Quilt Co and join the club. I’d love to see what you make! I need more ideas since the fabrics are coming every month!

These are the fabrics for January. I made my Dresden Plate. I’m making one each month, so I’ll have a whole quilt by the end of the year.

Love, love, love these fabrics. I just got my monthly shipment and it’s sitting on my counter, waiting for me to open it! I can’t wait to see what’s inside!

Happy sewing!

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I’ve been working on a new quilt, using LOTS of half square triangles, for the past few weekends. If you aren’t familiar with half square triangles, they are used in a ton of different quilt patterns but aren’t always as easy as they seem. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with half square triangles. I absolutely love the way they look in quilts. I love the contrast between lights and darks. There are no curves involved in half square triangles. (I will avoid curves at all cost.) The only problem is that they can sometimes turn out wonky. You need to be sure you use a perfect 1/4″ seem, make your cuts carefully, and then be sure to press carefully. If you iron, it can pull the fabric in different directions. I’ve actually been using a tailor’s clapper, lately, after pressing. That’s a tool that really seems to help. More on that in another post.

I’m not going to lie, there is a lot of trimming when it comes to half square triangles. Every single square needs to be trimmed to be sure it’s squared up. There are little dog ears that also need to be cut off. So, anything that makes this job easier, is awesome.

I bought the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers. So far, I’m loving that each little triangle is perfect.

This is the work in progress on my half square triangle quilt. It also shows my portable design wall. I don’t really know what my portable design wall is, but I bought it at Lowe’s and it’s basically a piece of styrofoam with a shiny silver topping. I pinned a piece of batting to it and then I can stick my half square triangles on it to see if I like the layout. Truth be told… on rainy days, my husband plays ball with the dog, up and down this hallway. If I want the half square triangles to stick, I have to pin them or just pick up the whole board and move it onto the dining room table. That’s the beauty of having a styrofoam design wall… it’s very light weight.

By the way, this super cute fabric is called Meander. It’s from Moda Fabrics. Look at those perfect half square triangles! The points even match up! Guys, this might be a first for me.

Happy quilting!

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About a year ago I started really getting into machine embroidery. I took a class at my local quilt shop (Quilting Mayhem) and I was hooked. Machine embroidery makes everything look so much more professional than traditional embroidery. I realize that there is a lot more talent involved in traditional embroidery, but WOW… I really love the way these projects have turned out. A lot of the Kimberbell machine embroidery projects have places for fairy lights, which make the finished product absolutely adorable. The project, shown above, is the Kimberbell Candy Cane Lane machine embroidery bench pillow. I bought the fabric kit and the embellishment kit for this project. I’m not a huge fan of pink, and I don’t have any aqua in my house, but I just loved the finished look, so I couldn’t pass it up.

I worked on the Kimberbell 2 Scoops machine embroidery bench pillow over this past summer. Again, I don’t love pink and I don’t own anything else in blue, pale green, or aqua, but how can you say no to the color combinations in this pillow. Doesn’t it just scream SUMMMER? This was the fabric kit and embellishment kit for 2 Scoops. The best part about this project is the ice cream truck. There is a little pocket sewn into the back side of the ice cream truck that holds a music box. If you push on the speaker that is on the top of the ice cream truck it will play music that sounds like it’s coming from an ice cream truck.

I finished making the Kimberbell Sweet As Pie machine embroidery bench pillow well after Thanksgiving. (Back to school season is a little crazy when you are a kindergarten teacher.) The fabric kit for this project included a lot of purple and did not have red. I shopped my fabric stash and pulled a few different red fabrics. I love the color combination and was sad to put this pillow away so quickly after it was made, but it was time to move onto Christmas decorating.

The Kimberbell Spring Showers machine embroidery wall quilt was one of the first projects I completed when I really started in with machine embroidery. It was a loooong project. This was supposed to be a seasonal wall hanging, but it’s been up all year, since the only time you see it is when you walk down the stairs.

You might have noticed a theme when it comes to my love of the Kimberbell machine embroidery projects. I truly think they are the best “project kits” out there. I have ventured out on my own machine embroidery projects. I saw a really cute pillow on Pinterest, so I decided to make the Christmas pillow in the picture below. I just used the font that was already on my machine and did a little patchwork piecing with some Christmas fabrics that I had on hand.

I have spent a lot of time, over the past year, making kitchen towels. They are the easiest things to make. The coffee embroidery project, below, took a lot more time than most of my towels because I needed to change the color of thread so often.

My husband was little worried when I made the Bunny Snacks embroidery kitchen towel. He thought that because we have a bunny, I was going to embroider bunnies on everything. This was only an Easter embroidery project and now it’s back in my kitchen drawer until next Easter.

I’ll have to post about my embroidery machine and the process that it takes to complete embroidery projects soon. Until then, happy stitching!

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