Bear Paw Quilt Update, finally

Last updated here.  Well, it took more than a month to finish the remaining 19 blocks I needed for this quilt, but today I finally finished! For some reason it has been really slow going, until this week when I cranked out about 12!  I only had a couple of minutes after finishing the last block, but really wanted to get a photo:

This is not the final layout!  I just wanted to see them all.

I plan to use a dark brown for the sashing and border.  But first I'm going to squeeze in a lap quilt for my Grandma's birthday present, more on that in another post.  :-)

First Place!

Last Saturday I entered the Half Square Triangle quilt in the New Mexico State fair.  Today we went to go see it  (and some of the other fair stuff) and found out it was not only hanging (rather than folded in a glass cabinet), but it was hanging on the second row of quilts and had a First Place blue ribbon on it!

What an honor!

Now, I'm not one to get overwhelmed with emotion, but I'm pregnant and was shocked it got first, and ended up crying I was so excited and happy!  :-)  My toddler wasn't thrilled with being stuck in a stroller looking at blankets, so we walked through the rest of the quilts quickly.  Then I started talking with some of the older woman that work in the quilt area (while Matt wondered with Arden).  They said my quilt was one of only two grey quilts entered this year, and this was the first year any grey quilts were entered.  Then they introduced me to a woman with the quilting group that was also today, and I talked with her for a while.  It was so nice chatting with other quilters and being praised for my quilt!

Side Project: Maternity Pillow

I am now 3 months pregnant with my second and have decided it is time to add more pillows to get comfortable when I sleep.  For my last pregnancy I used a body pillow and some other pillows for support, but this time I wanted to try a maternity pillow, but didn't want to buy one (they cost $40-$100!).  After some searching on the internet for a pattern or tutorial, I found this blog post saying she had made her own.  No tutorial or pattern, but a photo that gave me enough inspiration to just try making my own.  And since it was hard to find information, I figured I would document how I made mine if others are interested in the process.

First I made a pattern using some large white pieces of paper.

I had to use two pieces of paper, and taped the overlap every 5-6 inches.  

Then I laid down in the position I most often sleep in while pregnant and had my husband draw my outline (sorry it's hard to see).  Then I drew the outline of a pillow (then I drew it again with an extra 1/2 inch for seam allowance) that I thought would best suit me in red and cut it out, adding extra tape to the overlap.  I bought 4 yards of $2.99/yard muslin at Joann's with a coupon, and got it for about $7, though I didn't use all of it.  I folded the muslin in half the long way and pinned my paper pattern to it, then cut it out.  As I unpinned the paper, I pinned the two layers of muslin together every 4-6 inches (with extra pins around the curves).  Then I started at the top of the pillow and sewed a 1/2 seam around the whole thing, leaving a 6-7 inch opening at the top.  I then turned it inside out and went pillow shopping.  I got two pillows for $7 at a thrift store, and used their stuffing for my maternity pillow.

Finished pillow!

All that's left is sewing up the hole in the top!  Total cost is less than $14!  So excited to try it out tonight.