DSQ Quilted Pillow

(picture from Amazon.com)

Dad gave me this "Quilt-it Kit" for Christmas, from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. It came with the fabric to make the pillow on the front, and instructions to make lots of other things. I've heard of her, she's a modern quilt designer.

I was disappointed to discover that I was supposed to enlarge a pattern and then cut out my pieces from that to make the front. I don't need to cut special crooked pieces, I do that naturally. So I didn't follow directions, and then I didn't have quite enough fabric, but I had some gray in my stash (only had to look in two boxes to find it!) and I made corners from that.

Here's mine! It was my first attempt at hand-quilting, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I do not have the hang of using a thimble though, it always feels to me like it's going to fall off. Generally I try the thimble, get frustrated, and then just put a couple of layers of band-aid on my finger to achieve the same result. I don't think that would work long-term, but for my small projects it does.

The first finished project of 2010. Yay!