Little Green Cow

aka Jade.  aka LGC. She is now residing happily in her new home, so I can tell you all about this little project I made 10 days ago. No, it's not a Christmas cow; it's a green one, with a pop of red.

My friend Helen, of Word Weaver Art, retired from teaching a few months ago. She found my blog through a photo of two cows of mine that someone had pinned on Pinterest. Note that these cows are not my own design; you can find the free pattern at Piecemeal Quilts. Helen has done some marvellous (moovelous!) paintings of cows. So that was the first connection of many many more. She said the other day "no longer surprised" at the connections, similarities, coincidences between us when I wrote something about my grandma, whose name was Millie, and she'd written with a day or maybe it was on the very same day, about a painting of her niece with the same name! You can read more about our story here on her blog, and here on my Cows quilt post, and how I apparently influenced her in her decision to retire this year. There isn't a week goes by that I don't stop to marvel at how much this little blog venture has enriched my life.

I knew for a couple months ahead of her actual retirement that I would make her a cow. Wallhanging? Cushion cover? Hmmm. What colour??? She is a painter, she works with them all, and I didn't recall her saying anything about a preference. I tried to find out, surreptitiously, discovering, she, like me, likes the cooler colours best. That still didn't help.

So I stalled. Did a myriad of other projects, with this one, and a certain quilt for a certain grandson that is still in the stalled stage, percolating in the back of my brain. The oomph I needed to push me to bring it to fruition happened when she told me she was sending me a little surprise in the mail. Well! Get off your butt, Sandra, and get this cow in the stanchion to be milked...ha. And so I dug out the pieces for the cow and got to work.

So I literally Dropped Everything And Made It over the course of a few days. Yup, it became my DrEAMi! this month. My linky party opens tomorrow, in case you chased a squirrel this past month.

It was on my mum's quilt post where I wrote about my mum detesting 'buh-LOO' that I discovered green is her favourite. I remember her saying something about a rich red that makes a sumptuous combination. I had bought this paisley fabric, not a Christmas print, when I was fabric shopping with Julie of Pink Doxies this past winter in Florida. I loved it, having had a thing for paisleys for some time...oh I had the best most favourite royal blue paisleys skirt I made and wore many many years of my teaching career. I spied it in my greens pile of fabric, and that was my starting point. It took longer to choose the fabrics than it did to paper-piece little Jade, and this is no beginner-friendly pp pattern! I liked the bling of gold polkadots in the background fabric, the blaze fabric is one I've hoarded for at least a decade for a Christmas kaleidoscope quilt, so it hadn't been cut into, LGC's eyes are my favourite shade of blue, royal blue, and her lips are a maple leaf fabric scrap. Her muzzle has grass tufts on the fabric, one that's called 'Watercolor' by P&B Textiles, fitting for a painter, no?

She was layered and quilted up:

I love doing the beads design between rows of quilting, and the clover meander is another favourite. Yup there is one 4-leaf clover! There is also a handwritten H hidden amongst the clover, on the right side of the photo above, and my initial, S, and hers, H, in side by side beads on the left in that photo.  See below as well:
the H:

and the S and H together:

Here is the front freshly out from under the Bernina's needle:

and it wasn't long before it became a cushion cover:

It just screamed for a flanged binding with that pop of red again. Sadly I don't have enough of the maple leaf fabric, but I found another very very similar that worked beautifully.

Here is the back, envelope style.

What is that white fabric peeking out? It's the fabric label I sewed on so that when the cover lies flat, it's invisible, but once a pillow is inside, you see a bit of it and then you can investigate, and find the details.

One last shot before the quilt details:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Cows by Piecemeal Quilts
Size: 18.5" square
Fabric:  À la Carte by American Jane Patterns by Sandy Klop for Moda Fabrics is the main fabric, with stash and scraps
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 cotton/polyester
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann cotton on Billie, my 1947 Featherweight; quilted with Isacord (aka Mettler) polyester white 0015 and green5324 40 wt

Now I'll leave you to go shop if you aren't already out there, or maybe you are home and done? Or maybe you're like me and waiting until the crowds subside...I'm only heading to one place, my LQS, A Stitch in Time, in Leamington, where she is having 30% off all fabric (she has an awesome selection of Minky) and yarns.

There are some great deals online too. My own pattern is on sale for almost 50% off, only $4. I haven't looked yet, but I think Fat Quarter Shop is having some amazing deals, (no affiliation, but I love their shop), and Sew Mama Sew sent a great list of 30 deals offered in an email, so if you're on their list, you got it. Another great deal is through a new company, Pattern Drop, great idea, a pattern a month, that you can find at Quilting JETgirl. Basically pay for 8 patterns but get 12, so 4 are free. Sweet!

Affiliate links below, if you purchase something through my links, I get a small commission.
You know I am an affiliate for Craftsy, and they are having the lowest price I've ever seen on all their classes, $17.87US (I have Christina Cameli's latest in my cart) along with some pretty sweet deals on fabric, this one, in two colour ways, I particularly like, Modern Hand Drawn by Lily and Loom:

Connecting Threads as well has terrific deals, (did you take advantage of the other flash sale, 50% off batting, earlier this week?!): They are offering 25% off their entire, yep, entire site. They already have some of the lowest prices out there, so wow.

and
Sewing Machines Plus (new affiliate for them). I bought my Little Foot 1/4" foot which I love, and you can read about here from them. I bought it, was not given it, just so you know! They also stock a lot of thread...

Okay, have fun!
Linking up
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Crazy Mom Quilts
Busy Hands Quilt She is also hosting TGIFF this week.
mmm!quilts for DrEAMi! (when the link is live tomorrow)