Pillow Shamming!

Do you ever have a project that you drag your feet on or one that just seems to be full of problems from the start?  That's the kind of project I've been working off and on for the past few weeks.  Last summer I finished this Capriccio quilt for my daughter, and this summer she finally started using it. 

She is living with friends where she has a queen size bed , and amazingly the "twin" quilt fits it pretty well. (The "twin" size fits because I made it to cover the sides of her bed while up on double risers--luckily!)  But since there is no headboard there, she's asked me to make her some matching pillow shams.

Which should have been easy enough. But I hate having to work on the same colors again once I've finished something, and matching things from a distance is challenging, and I'd already used up the leftover strips, and well, I wanted to work on something else.

I also purchased the wrong zippers, accidentally cut a hole in the middle of one sham, sewed black borders to BOTH shams only to decide they looked awful,  and then--when it was all pieced--found a strip that was stained/flawed and had to be replaced,  and, well you get the idea.  But progress has been made.  Here's the front of one in process:

Front

And this is the back of one after quilting, which was done in the same design as the quilt.  The invisible zipper is on the left hand side between the red and black strips, and is pretty well invisible.

Both zippers are in now, and the sides sewn together.  They're just waiting for me to sew the binding on (fingers crossed that these will actually fit her pillows).

If you make shams that you plan to quilt, be sure to allow extra for what the quilting shrinks up--I was surprised by how much (and no, I didn't think to measure it, but before quilting they were way too big, and after, I only trimmed 1/2 inch off the width).  Also realize that 2 shams front and back is equivalent to one small quilt--and it has to be the right size when finished or the pillow won't fit--such stress! :) 

Also this month I was lucky enough to win a copy of  Patchwork Sassaman Style by Jane Sassaman in the book's blog hop.  Whoopee!  Full of absolutely stunning quilts made with just a few fabrics and very clever cutting.  Definitely something I need to study further.  Thanks so much to Jane and Lyric of http://lyrickinard.com/blog/  for hosting a blog hop day!  The book has so many gorgeous ideas!  Of course this means I will have to buy more fabric....much more fabric, right?!

Happy Stitching!