A 'little' batting a 'little' applique pillow

Homemade gift ~
I am starting to feel more and more confident sitting behind my sewing machine. Self learning comes with soooo many mistakes I feel, especially me who doesn't like to read directions. lol. I have started to realize however, that I am the creator of my creations.  One of my newer goals in sewing is to be willing to explore doing things in ways that I don't normally see.  I figure no inventor ever invented anything without risk and doing things differntly. So I will experiment as I go because I have noone to tell me 'no thats not the way you do it'. ;)

Here in Turkey there is not 100% cotton batting and I like it so much more than anything else. Batting is the stuff you put on the back of a quilt that actually makes it a quilt and gives it that puffy, cozy look. (fyi because I didn't know that one year ago. );) My friend gave me some of her small stash of batting this last Christmas, for me to quilt my first pillows. (here and here) Well now I have very little pieces of that batting left and I used a bit to make this small applique house on this pillow.  I made it for my firend who just moved into a new place..it was a house warming gift I guess. :)

I really like the way it looks frayed but I think next time I could do better.
The word : 'EVIM'  means 'My home' in Turkish

     I hand stitched this little quilted house, I just followed the pattern on the fabric.

Truth is I have no idea what I am doing and I am learning while I go.

The word Evim was hand stiched with a thicker thread.

Sewing the pillow this way with the mouth of the pillow open was much easier for me and quicker so I decided to do it the way I wanted and I like the way it turned out.

A sweet gift of fabric. 

I loved getting this fabric from our friends. I had a riot going through it all and there are some pieces that are just perfect for me!!! I am sosoo grateful for this sweet gift that weighed a lot for luggage allowance.

Ever since we had some friends come from the States and bring over all these bundels of fabric (most 100% cotton) I have had more inspiration to sew.  All the patterns are not my personal choice however what I like about not getting everything at my fingertips is that I get to become a more a diverse sewer (that is my hope anyway)and learn to experiment and put colors and such together that maybe I normally wouldn't.  I figure if I can learn to 'use what I have' regarding my fabric and not wait until I have everything that I want then I will be more versitle and when I do have more choices I won't waste them. :) 

Well that is all for now. Thanks for following me on this 'use what you have' journey. 

over here in the west corner ~Becky

For those of you newly visiting "Use what you have" is my theme for this season. I would love to have you follow/subcribe to this blog if  you too are at a place where you would like to thrive at 'using what you have'  instead of being discontent with what you don't have.  If you are simliar in this then please conisder joining me. Hopefully we can inspire eachother.

~~~