Eating my curds and whey...

Lorrie, from my SewMod group, came up w/the idea of making a tuffet at one of our sew-ins. Her neighbor was kind enough to cut the base and sink the grommets for the feet for us. Lorrie acquired and cut the foam and the ginormous buttons, so all we had to do was pick out feet, fabric and sew our little hearts out!

My cousin Ashley and I spent the evening 2 Fridays ago rummaging through my stash and were able to come up with these:

They are mostly Amy Butler, but there's a couple of Denyse Schmidt and Robert Kaufman thrown in. I love these so much, and have a ton of strips left over, that I'm going to have to make a quilt out of them as well.

There was a lot of prep involved to make the tuffets. I spent all day Saturday foundation piecing my strips into 8 sections. I tend work slower when I do scrappy projects, agonizing over each fabric placement. I think it's harder than a planned out quilt. I would not have known how to make the foundation peiced sections w/o having previous paper piecing experience either. The directions were not very clear on that part. I eventually got a system in place, and that helped speed things up.

Shelley made her entire tuffet at the sew-in. I was very much impressed. And for some strange reason, everyone of us felt the urge to wear our tuffets on our heads. We were all reminded of that cartoon character on Fat Albert.

Some action shots:

Lorrie, Shelley and Andrea arranging the tuffet cover.

You have to get it on just so, or it will be off center.

Andrea and Lorrie  Pattie putting the feet on. (sorry Pattie!)

Yeah! Andrea clapping at our success.

There are no photos of us putting the buttons on, since it took all 4 of us to push the button in, brace the back of the tuffet against the pushing, tie the button and staple the beejeezes out of the thread to the back to keep the button in place. I pulled a muscle in my buttocks doing it. The lengths we go through for a good project! Pattie had left after we made her help w/the first one, smart woman!

I had to strip piece the fabric for my giant button, because I didn't bring any yardage with me to the sew-in.
Mine is about 17" in diameter and 9" tall. You can alter the height w/different feet. (I added this because I've had a couple of people think they might be pincusions).

I L.O.V.E. it! It's true, I do love it. And yes, Sue, I would marry it! Wouldn't you?

The tower of tuffets:

Top - Andrea used Kate Spain Fandango

Middle- my Amy Butler and friends

Bottom - Lorrie used Amy Butler Soul Blossoms

And all finished (except for Pattie's, because she had to leave early, but which I'm dying to see because she is using Sanae's Arcadia, which is totally gorgeous.)

Shelley's is on the top, she used a wide selection of Kaffe Fasset, of course. (Shelley's a Kaffe-o-phile).

I'm already thinking up what I should make my next one out of! They were all totally fabulous.

But I can't start another one yet, because I have a waste bin liner to work on tonight. That's a different post all together.

Our next group project to tackle will be the Amy Butler Gumdrop Pillow poof. Now I just need to find where I put that pattern!

Lorrie has more in process photos over at the SewMod blog and the SewMod Flickr site.