Fish Baby's Sweet Dreams

As I mentioned on Monday my Fish Baby Log Cabin quilt is featured today at Sew, Mama, Sew and along with a free PDF of the pattern the folks at Sew, Mama, Sew are offering 20% off my other downloadable patterns. Interested? Check it out here.

As to why I called the pattern the Fish Baby Log Cabin, I made the quilt as a gift for my swim coach Andrea Fischer, aka Fish. She and her husband are expecting a baby and I love to make and give handmade gifts. Perfect combination.
I also mentioned on Monday that I had a new Saral Paper project to show off as well as a giveaway of some Saral Paper sample packs.

I really debated about what I wanted to make this time with my roll of Saral transfer paper. I knew I still wanted to work with text but I also wanted to be able to stitch that text without the stopping and starting that the previous project called for. In addition I wanted the finished item to be useable in my home or on my body.
To that end I came up with this:

Like the potholder project I began by writing my text on the wrong side of the transfer paper as it was positioned on top of my fabric. Because the right side is coated with a transfer powder, my handwritten text was easily readable on the fabric. I then machine stitched the words using the transferred letters as my guide. This time however I didn't break off thread in between words but stitched ellipse-like shapes to move from word to word.

I'm calling this project the Sweet Dreams pillow sham because, with a nod to the Eurythmics, I repeated the phrase, "Sweet dreams are made of these." 

I sewed my embroidered panel to a wonderfully soft cotton stripe, backed the pillow with another cotton print, and lined the stitched sections with a cotton muslin. Top that off with a bit of Kona cotton in turquoise as a binding along the pillow opening and there you have it.
So, what say you? Are you ready to try some transfer paper? Because if you are, I've got 5(yes 5) sample packs to giveaway. These sample packs have an assortment of transfer papers that will allow you to experiment on all color of fabrics. This stuff works with both machine and hand embroidery and when you're done stitching, it washes out, so nobody knows it was even ever there.
Here's a thought: download the free quilt PDF and then when you're done, use the transfer paper to make a beautifully "handwritten" label.  Or download the free quilt PDF and decorate some of the strips with stitched poetry or silly sentiments. The sky's the limit. So leave a comment and I'll announce the winners on Sunday.