On My Sewing Table - QuiltCon Fabric Challenge, MCM Pillow, & Other WIPs 

Does anyone else find themselves smiling thru these videos?? I enjoy the way your mind works and I love how these fabrics are analyzed! ❤

I just have to say to everyone to JUST BE KIND !!!! There was some very negative comments after last week's video. If you don't like a video JUST STOP WATCHING !!!! Don't make RUDE comments !!!!! Cathy is doing all her videos out of her kind heart and definitely DOES NOT deserve to have people being so negative. ✌🏻♥️

I vote for your Super Funky pillow. The orange binding and striped back really gives the pillow that extra excitement to it's look.

Oh! Oh! Go for the funky orange and the wild stripe on the pillow! Beautifully playful and fun!

Just a thought.... for the pillow binding, you could use the same blue fabric as you used in the middle of the pillow. 1) It has the vibrancy that you're looking for. 2) It would accentuate the blue in the middle of the pillow. 3) It has a nice contrast with all of the fabric on the outer part of the front. 4) It also matches that lovely striped fabric for the back. 😊 Thank you for all you do! I love everything about your channel! ❤

Wrt QuiltCon challenge: you have an excellent chance of pulling it off. You're detailed enough, have the design sense, and are intuitive so that you could create one of those quilts that the rest of us go "whoa, look what she did with that color palette!!".

Here’s my vote: Vintage sheet with grey binding. Would love to see a video on MCM. MCM Pillow I would either do matchstick quilting (my favorite quilting) OR stitch in the ditch and then do big stitch quilting following the white curve in a colored thread.

Okay. For thr MCM pillow conundrum. Perhaps if you put all the candidates together on the sofa they will ultimately rest upon, the possible best answer will reveal itself. A self-fulfilling harmony 😊

I gotta say Cathy, I prefer the name, “nerdy man from the 50s,” over, “turmeric!”😅

You already have the name for your quilt challenge entry. "The odd man out!" 😊

Seeing as you asked, here's my ideas on the pillow ... do with them as you will (or won't!!). Love that front, and the funky back will give a hint of fun as you typically only see a little section poking out at any one time. Perhaps you might like to add some piping around the edge of the pillow rather than binding - it can be a really effective way of finishing. You could use that red but because piping is so thin, it won't overpower the colours on the front.

I think you should definitely take the challenge and use the fabrics to make a plaid quilt. You only need to use four of the colors. I think you could make this entertaining for us all in RU-vid land.

I enjoy watching Cathy. It’s relaxing and she has a great sense of humor

Love "inviting" you to share breakfast and get my day started. Thanks to Paul for the little "interjections" to the left of the screen.

I love the names of nail polish. Here are my favorites: dark grey, Don't take me for granite, purplish lavender, You're such a Budapest, pale pink, Bubblebath. Naming fabrics, paint and nail polish must be a really fun job, for a few weeks...

If you're on the fence about backing and binding for the pillow and the pink quilt I think that just means that you need more thrift store trips. 😉

I LOVE the pink and white quilt! Keep the binding pink or white or scrappy pink and white. I really enjoy your videos and all the ways you make a quilt!

Funky pillow! I also have wanted to say to you that I just found you, and I am very very very new to quilting. I have never been very confident with color, but I have learned so much from you. You have made a huge difference in my creative process moving forward! I appreciate everything you do and that you are willing to share your journey! Thank you!

Morning ! I love the orange binding for the pillow, and the stripe for the back. It looked fun right away :)

The stubborn rebel in me would have to use all of the colors in the QuiltCon challenge simply because nobody would think I could/should. I would name the quilt "Dogs Breakfast" because that's the first thing that came to mind when seeing the challenge colors. Remember pin the tail on the donkey game? That's how I imagine someone chose these colors. If I were to attempt this I would have to keep a bottle of Pepto next to my machine. :)

The coral binding would have a Danish vibe which I personally highly endorse 😊

For your pillow: the turquoise comes across as light blue on the screen, which I love. It's soft, and would look great with your linen quilt as a finish. Versatile, cozy, giving a "welcome home" feel.

You could use a shirt with the buttons still in place for the back opening of the cushion.

That was an epic marathon Quilt making weekend. Exhaustion at the end does not describe what you must have felt. The pink disappearing square Quilt would be fantastic with the yellow border, not grey. Love love, love, love it. Keep up the good work. Thanks. Joanne Vervoordeldonk ❤☘️🇨🇦

For the pillow, I would do inside out style with piping made from your striped fabric. Backing could be the blue or do you have any shirts not broken down that would coordinate? Instead of envelope use the fronts including the button strip. Cool way to feature what you love (shirts) and easy way to change out cover using the original buttons. Whatever you end up with will be lovely

How about the blue for the envelope and the stripes for the binding? That might be fun!

For the pink quilt I would use a green binding- either Granny Smith apple green or a sage green.

Always enjoy having you with breakfast on a Saturday here in Oz 🇦🇺. In under three weeks now I will have sold our childcare business of 13 years, 17 years working there. I dare not breathe and think of the possibilities coming my way and am SO EXCITED to be able to harness your inspiration and awesomeness for my “sewing” ( read quilting). Keep up the good work Team Catbird. Sending hugs from wintery Australia 🤗 xoxo

For your disappearing 4-patch, I love the pink for your binding. It's soft, not distracting, complimentary. The yellow or gray grab my attention. Thanks for sharing your thought processes.

RED IRANGE! says look at me! and draw people in the others are wallflowers and so muted when someone sees them, they'll just keep looking for something else around the room

Hi there from a chilly South Australia. Love the funky red for the binding of your wonderful cushion. Your quilts are great and you make me feel good. Bye for now. Beth 😊

I have found with myself if I "over think" it, I can't make a choice. I just go with if I have a strong negative reaction, don't go there, but if I have a hmm feeling, I go that way, and then when I lay it out it seems to make sense. I would go with the striped material on the pillow, and the orange on the border. Struck me as "wow" right off.

Funky binding for the pillow and gray binding for the quilt.🎉

I really like the pink for the binding! It’s very calming, which is great for a quilt! I think your friend will love it!

I really like the red on the edge of your pillow quilt,gives it life.

For the pillow, nix the spring colors, and go for bright. BTW, nice shot of Gary Oldman in the Fifth Element! GO, PAUL!

Hi Cathy, my ideas: for the hidden four patch-I say use a large white dot on a bright pink background. Your friend loves pink. Give her pink. 😅 The pillow: stripe on the back and a bright turquoise binding! Just for what they are worth because my taste turns down the wrong road sometimes.

The orange red would be fantastic for the pillow 👏🏽

IMO, you would be better at naming products than many of the product namers currently working in the industry.😊

For your pillow, the super funky all the way!

The first orangish color makes that fabulous pillow look faded. I LOVE the turquoise/blue. I want it as the back. Binding too. Maybe the stripe as a binding?!

My vote for the pink quilt…love either back (the vintage would be fun if she loves vintage), but I vote gray for the binding!!

I personally would use the light blue for the back of the pillow and use the pretty striped fabric to cover piping to go around the outside of the pillow. So fun!😃

I think this is the first time I’ve been thinking “No Cathy, no”. My suggestion would be to use the funky fabric for the backing and the stripe for the binding. I’m not sure if that’s because I luuurve a stripe binding, or because it’s the binding which anchors the back and front.

I love the way you think! I liked the orange for the pillow trim the best! Although the blue one was really nice too. That’s with so much fun about sewing it’s the journey of making decisions and spending time doodling in your mind!❤

Oh my goodness! I was laughing along with you. 😂 I vote for funky for the pillow.

I vote for a pink binding. Maybe even a scrappy pink binding.

Turquoise for the MCM backing, and I like the look with the knife-edge treatment. I think it will emphasize your piecing work, which I think is lovely. If you think you need a band for stability, that's fine too, but I really like the entirely light look with just your lovely colors showing their best. And my pick for the ever-so-pink quilt is the gray binding. However you choose, it will be great, though. You are such a winner!

As far as the binding for the pink disappearing 9 patch, I rook the liberty of doing some shopping. There are some beautiful batiks (maybe Robert Kaufman retro rainbow) that have both the yellow and the pink you might work for you. Also, using colored and sturdy fabrics for the binding will hide the wear that always occurs in a well-loved quilt which the pink one will certainly be. Also when I saw your MCM block, I loved it. When I saw it I immediately thought of a Deb Tucker Studio 180 design pattern called Horizon Line. Made in your color style, it would look great with the furniture in your living room.

I love the light turquoise. 2nd choice would be the red. I absolutely love the backing!

👏👏👏 - I’m always so excited when I see your video come up. For the MCM pillow top - yes. 😅 I like them all.

One of the first things that came to mind when I saw the Quiltcon colors was a tumbling blocks quilt. I think that could be interesting.

I, too, have Scandinavian furniture purchased in the 90's so I stay modern traditional. I think the orange would make a nice statement and work for spring, summer and early fall.

I enjoy your sharing on decision on fabric or color choice, it is a great learning value to me. I also collect 2inches squares, but sit on them. I decided to make 2.5” finished pinwheels (or is it 2”?). I also have a collection of 1.5” finished 9 patches, and 2 different 3.5” finished 9- patch called 4 squares. These are long term projects, but I have about 420 tiny 9- patch, almost ready for a quilt. Having finished a preemie quilt which I worked on for over a month, I can now breathe and return to normal program… Happy quilting.

Any quilt will be "stellar" if quilted close enough.

Turquoise for the MCM pillow would be my vote. You can eat an elephant a bite at a time (checkerboard linen leader and ender). 🤔 Naming paint colors is a job and we can share that job. 😊

Perfect striped backing and perfect binding (the bright one).

Love the stripes for the back of the pillow... if orange was your favorite color... orange binding...but since it's not... put the two fabrics in the room and choose a color that goes in the direction you want to take your new color scheme...

I love the striped shirt for the pillow back! Awesome! I wouldn’t do binding on the pillow but I like the first blue better (just my opinion). I’m all about ‘it goes’ and not ‘matchy-matchy’ 😉

Such a fun video today. Gray binding with the fun floral. Get funky with the orange. Hope to see you at quiltcon next year

Heather Ross is a favorite of mine. I can't wait to see your quilt con video for 2025!!

I like the funky why not every time you talked about it you smiled so obvious choice for you!

“I hate this. I don’t know why I made it.” 😂 Yes I think it takes a while to get good at visualizing accurately! I would do a medium to deep pink binding on the quilt. On the pillow I would definitely go for the striped backing and then bind it in that brighter blue in the center of the pillow that’s echoed in the stripe. 😁

I love the striped fabric and bright orange binding, it’s fun and funky and pretty. Go for the gusto Cathy!

i love the vermillion with the blocks and that backing

For inspiration for the fabric challenge, omit the poppy and take inspiration from the Spring Equinox line by Art Gallery. The blues in that line lean a little more turquoise, but there are similarities color-wise. And there is a free pattern that plays with those fabrics with a ballerina pink.

Oh you know I'm willing to tell you what I think! *makes tea, brings out cookies* (Spoiler: I'm in the superfunky camp (WOW but did I nearly misspell that like three times) all the way.) And thanks for showing the quilt back on the luxuriously broken-in linen.

I love the super funky. But I used to like to stay with the safe colors. But I now sometimes like to be bold.

I like the vintage fabric for the backing and the grey for the binding.

For pillow cover: Binding not really required. If so, love the orange/red!

Stripe for binding on pillow ❤ Good interesting video😊

Hello from Melbourne 👋 Lovely to catch up with you and see the current creative process! In my mind I see new cushion covers bound with one of the star fabrics or perhaps even the main colour fabric you used. To me the red was quite polarising and detracted from your design and remember that when you narrow the colour to binding it will look more intense. The striped shirt fabric could be fun to use as binding if you cut it so that the stripes were horizontal rather than vertical along the binding. The Pretty in Pink quilt is going to great! I like the floral sheet fabric and thought the other sheet could be fun binding. Or why not do a bright pink binding? I'm sure your friend will love whatever you decide ❤ Loving the Quilty Stars progress in the background too. I've not started mine yet as I committed myself to some test knitting and some dressmaking for myself. I really like the dark blue background fabric and find myself often drawn to quilts that use dark fabrics like that. It creates a very different look that appeals to me a lot! Anyways, hoping you are both well and it was fun to catch up with you again ❤

Kay … you HAVE to keep pushing with the challenge. There was so much personal quilting growth last year … do it again!,, weirdly … the colours make me think of pharmacy labels. You could do an abstraction blocking. Colours “go” together when they hav an idea that bind them together. Colour works hard when pattern is the main element. Anyway … my $.02 from the cheering section in Canada … 💕💕💕💕💕

Enjoyed your thoughts on the QuiltCon challenge fabric. Since only 3 are required I think it could work. But I am going to try to make a simple design using all 6. Maybe it will be interesting instead of ugly!

How about using the stripe fabric for the binding on the pillow?! Use the blue on the back.

If you enough stripe fabric for the pillow back I think you should make a zipper pillow then you basically have two options for decorating your sofa

Noooooo to the tan boring binding for the modern pillow . Love the bright orange red and the blue was great also. I agree … you need a bit of color to make that muted pillow top pop better

I was surprised that you described your quilt with the same words used to describe me: soft, frumpy and snuggly that looks 100 years old!

You are not the only person who gets a quilt top done and then thinks about borders, backing and binding. When it comes to throw pillows and their covers the beauty of being a quilter is that you can more than one set

I'd use the blue shirt for the back of the pillow and the stripes as binding.

I’m so excited about the challenge!!! I would totally make a log cabin courthouse steps quilt with a poppy center and solid colored block sections that create a linear grid pattern. Check out some Amish log cabin, courthouse steps quilt images to see what I mean. Could be incredibly beautiful❤️ Love the modern pillow top as well. Audition the backing and piping colors on your sofa, “go long”, aka stand back and look at the entire room as you audition the color combos. You’ll pick the one that’s best for the room, no worries. Enjoyed the creative video today! Thanks Cathy and Paul 🥰

I love that Striped fabric for the envelope back. And what if you use that bold orange as piping, instead of binding? That way you'd get a great pop of intense color but not overwhem the more subtle colors in the fabulous pillow top.

Love the quilt con colors! You will figure it out you have such a great color knowledge!

Binding for both the pink quilt and pillow - striped bias binding! (Pink and white candy stripes or even pink gingham on the bias for the quilt, pale blue solid back and then use the orange and blue stripe as the bias binding for the pillow.) Just a crazy random thought.

Happy Friday, I always look forward to your videos! For your pillow, If you still have some blue like the center of front; it would look amazing as a binding with the funky backing. The colors for quilt con are tough… oof. I didn’t know Unicorns were purple either! 😂

When you showed the pink quilt squares I thought you should name it ‘Steel Magnolias’ and embrace the pink binding. For the fabric challenge what if you think of the even man out colors like you did with the Kaffe Fassett fabric and surround them with one of the complimentary colors? Your videos are so entertaining and I love the humor.

I love the bright orange.

I really like the blue for the backing of the pillow💙

I also do that all the time wait till my quilt top is finished and then I go. Oh, I need a backing I need a binding! You would think after all these years, I would think of that first but no, I don’t! 😂 So much fun!

Go for the Super Funky!

8:36 My opinion on your beautiful simple relaxing MCM design, is that it would be wonderful if you did nothing to dilute the front, on the front. That would include probably mainly stitch-in-the-ditch on the orange peel. •Then you would have the option to put all the busy vibrant effects on the back. That makes it two-sided or reversible, not just featured side = front and supporting side = back. •You could even do a little piecing on the back, like having the stripe be your main back, then you could snowball-effect your orange peel piecing on the 4 corners, perhaps using that very soft blue solid fabric you are considering for the binding. 11:47 •That blue at the orange peel corners would help bridge the stripe to a sage or celery binding (matching your orange peel pieces on the front. •So then it would be okay to have solid color binding on both sides, which will maintain the soothing cool relaxing effect of the orange peel solids on the front. •That’s my take on it, looking forward to yours 😎💃✨. Thank you for the thoughtful and encouraging quilting discussion. P.S. Working on breaking down my linen collection while I watch your video. So glad to be at my sewing table too.

Pink and yellow!! Yes, such a soft, sweet, happy combination! Go for it! And Go Bold on the pillow backing. I love that stripe for the back and the bright orange for the binding, or even vice versa. The bold colors are more MCM to my eye (and I was there!).

Sometimes I think the decisions to be made on which binding and backing for a quilt, are the most fun! Especially when the front of the quilt was made from a pattern or particular design - the binding and backing are the 'free style or free thinking' phase of the quilt. Can't wait to see what you decide.

I love, love, love the pink quilt!🥰 As a scrappy quilter, myself, I would also do a pink scrappy binding. I’m just not fussy on the solid fabric choices. I love your videos! 🇨🇦💕

Challenges intro spiel …. “…Not anything HELPFUL…” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 … gasp … 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 …. The visceral ATTITUDE and UNSPOKEN COMMENTARY… 🤣🤣🤣💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

I like the turquoise 😊

Oh I hope you use the stripe for a diagonal piping binding! I liked the reddish but not the light ones.

Oh what a great video! Love the idea of mid century modern idea of quilting. Not in my wheel house currently but maybe in my future! I would love to start leaders and enders also. You keep inspiring us!

Good morning! I love the pillow top. The stripe and the colors you are auditioning for the binding don't work for my eye, but it's not going on my sofa LOL! (I would like more of the colors in the top.) The challenge quilt colors are Extremely Challenging but I think you already have a name: Odd Man Out. Now to come up with a design to express that. (Beware of googling images of Odd Man Out because the movie references will be a huge distraction.😉)

Maybe a turquoise back and the funky stipe for binding on your pillow?