Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Cathedral Winows

For my mom's birthday this year I wanted to make her some pillow shams that would coordinate with the quilt she keeps on her bed.  This quilt is full of curves and arcs in soft pastels.  Now, I have done some curvy quilt piecing with the Double Wedding Ring pillow shams that I made last year... but while I was researching curvy patterns I found a tutorial for beautiful Cathedral Window blocks.  This particular pattern is elegant and graceful and yet it is made from folded squares!


I found a great tutorial here by Shruti from the blog 13 Woodhouse Road.  I made 24 squares per pillowcase, and with each square being 4" they were easily combined into queen-sized shams!


Folding and ironing all 48 of those squares proved to be a very time consuming task... I think I watched nearly an entire season of Downton Abbey on Netflix!  But once I had the squares sewn together, sewing the arcs around the colored patches went rather smoothly.


However, not all of the points lined up perfectly, and being a perfectionist I decided that adding buttons to each point would hide any imperfections and add some additional interest and texture.  I found a variety of white and off-white buttons in my stash and decided that the randomness would complement the handmade, patchwork design scheme.


Of course, I didn't realize how long it was going to take to add buttons... sewing on a total of 78 buttons took about 7 hours!  But the end result was definitely worth it and my mom loves her gift!


...and Noel loves them too!

3 comments:

  1. You've done a wonderful job of those pillowcases! I'm just starting cathedral window quilting, using old fabrics hopefully (well until I run out of them), I hope I don't get bored of it. I love the colours you've used together, looks so cosy & homely!
    Joey xx

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    1. Thanks Joey! They definitely take patience and precision, but the end result is really beautiful and well worth it. I'd love to see your cathedral windows when you finish them!

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  2. What a work of art. The texture and the colors are peaceful and the buttons add the perfect finishing touch.

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