hoopla bunting pillow!

PLEASE BID ON THE AUCTION POST, WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE


a little while ago i ordered some charm packs from one of my favourite etsy shops. they're all Moda, and most of them were lines that are just now coming out in yardage. i ordered Modern Workshop, Central Park, Hideaway and Hoopla, and i love them! (especially Hideaway, since i'm obsessed with cuckoo clocks!)

i really wanted to make something fun with them, but they're just 5"x5" squares... i searched around looking at patterns, but most of them required a charm pack PLUS a jelly roll or something, or were for things that are pretty, but so not usable (how do people keep their tables clear enough for runners anyway?!). i thought about a pillow, but i couldn't decide on a design. all of my favourite types of squares, like log cabins, need longer strips...

i hemmed and hawed a bit, reluctant to cut into the squares without the perfect project, and then i ran across the Queensland Flood Appeal that Toni at Make It Perfect is organizing, and i knew it was the perfect reason to use some of my fancy new fabric.

at the same times, i ran across another blog that inspired me to think about buntings (i'll post about that blog later), and i realized that bunting flags were the perfect use for charm squares. i decided to use Hoopla, since it has a lot of small prints that are cute regardless of direction. i found linen in the most amazing shade of teal, and knew it was perfect for the background.

and then, because i've been slightly obsessed with paper piecing patterns lately, i somehow decided that i should paper piece the pillow, and that this would be the perfect time to draft my very first paper piecing design. you know - when i'm on a deadline, and using precious fabric that i can't get more of immediately. i'm clever like that, you know.

and so, the epic paper pieced pillow that took longer than some quilts emerged!



i'm so in love with it. i was giddy every time i looked at it for the first few days (and then the giddiness turned to panic when i realized i was running out of time!).



i learned a few good lessons about paperpiecing while working on this project, a few that i was able to fix as i went along, and one that i wasn't, but it's okay. (i wish i hadn't made the patterns all the same size - if i'd split the top half less evenly, the centre flag wouldn't have a seam through it)



i thought about using plain white kona for the bunting string, but that seemed rather blah. the hoopla line contains a tiny white on white dot,and luckily the charm pack had two of them. i cut them into 1" strips and pieced them together, and managed to do all of the string out of them. barely! i think i had a 1"x1" square left over!



the back is solid teal, except for the short row of bunting in the bottom right corner. i used those flags for my quilt label, and machine embroidered on them. one has my name and country, and the other states “Queensland Flood Relief Jan 2011”.





there's a lapped zipper across the back of the pillow, i used one of my cherished dead-stock vintage zippers. it’s a lighter shade of blue, and says “lightning” on the cute rounded tab. (i totally <3 lighting brand zippers!)



i used a layer of cotton quilt batting backed with thin white cotton for the front, and a layer of flannelette for the back. i wanted to be able to enclose the zipper edges in the batting, and regular batting would have been too bulky to fold over. but i did still want the wrinkled look after quilting, so i didn't preshrink the flannelette.



i'm going to do a second post for the auction itself, to keep bids and comments separate. (cause i'm hoping you'll comment!)

soooo..... what do ya think?