Done!

Sophie's stocking!  Finished!  Complete!  Ready to stuff.  This is her third Christmas though.  Nonetheless, this unfinished project was weighing on me and I really needed to take it off the UFO list.

Also, I have new niece!  She is a darling little thing!  We were so excited to go meet her yesterday.  The kids were very excited to have a new cousin. 

Anyway, I put together this pink and black quilt.  I always refer to this as a wall paper pattern, I don't know if I have seen it called that somewhere or not.  I used Minkee for a few of the stripes and various cottons on the rest.  I love making baby quilts.  It's always quick gratification.  My sister-in-law liked it, which is of course the best part. 

I have no further sewing projects between now and Christmas, which seems kind of weird.  Not to say that all my UFO's are all gone, I just don't need to get anything sewn for Christmas specifically.  I did a lot of knocking things off my unfinished list.  I am hoping for an uneventful January where perhaps I can knock out a few more.  Then I need to start and finish some new things as a stash reducer, more specifically, a scrap reducer. 

Accountability

So, on my to do list for the past few years has been Sophie's Christmas stocking.  I am just slow with the handwork these days, because this will be her third Christmas, and unless I really focus, there is no way this kid is going to have a stocking.

Here is current progress, and what the stocking should look like when complete.  

So, now it is out there, maybe I will be motivated.  We shall see.

In other news, I need to send out a big Thank You to Jessica!  I got this in the mail today from her!

She made them, I said I liked them, then one showed up in the mail!  How awesome is that!

Simple Abundance

I find that every time I am near a fabric store, I buy a half yard of Simple Abundance. I love the reds and blues the best. What about you-what fabric are you in love with right now? At some point, I will have enough to make a quilt. Until then, I will be working on Sophie's Christmas stocking. It is one of those felt applique stockings. I am on piece 37 of 112. Wish me luck.

Sultry

Here is one of the quilts from all the sultry blocks I made about a month ago. I also have a twin size ready to quilt and some more blocks to make into something else. I love the whirlygigs, they go together so fast and look so cute. The colors in this are so soft. I used a light pink thread for quilting a meandering daisy design. Then light green loops on the small border. The finished size is 40 x 50.

How Much Fabric? Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

How Much Fabric? Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I need this, not that I mind purchasing extra fabric. But I am not as good at estimating for clothes as I am for quilts.

Tumbling Blocks

I love the colors in these fabrics. They are from the All-Star collection by Riley Blake. I was really excited when I got the opportunity to make a baby boy quilt from them. I love the honeycomb look you get when you put the same color blocks together. This quilt went together really fast. I quilted the middle with an echo of the honeycomb shape. Then I stitched swirly stars in the border.

The mom-to-be loved it! Which is always the most exciting part. The Young Women threw her a baby shower and we also gave her some coordinating burp cloths and soft toy block to go with the quilt. It is always hard to find boy fabric and I love this line a lot. There is something about orange that really draws me lately.

I met Heather Bailey!

A few weeks ago I scored a bunch of her fabric at the annual Quilt's Etc. sale. I had been amassing quite a collection of Pop Garden, and I easily doubled it. Then I heard she was going to be at Material Girls, a quilt shop up in Salt Lake, so I decided to go.

She was very nice and it was fun to meet a fabric designer. But I really wish Jessica or my mother could have come with me. I need a partner in crime!

Ottobre Outfit

This little outfit is from the Ottobre 3/2009 collection. I found both the knits at Hobby Lobby. The jacket is a velour knit and is so so soft. This project was the first I made using my serger, it went sooo fast. And I am loving the knits on the serger. The leggings took only a minute to construct. I do love my sewing machine, but it has always struggled with knits, even with proper needle and all it still skips stitches and gives me fits. And while the serger in no way takes the place of the sewing machine, it really compliments it. This out fit is 80cm, and should fit Sophie through the winter.

My New Baby!

Very excited about this little machine! I have wanted a serger for a while, looked at quite a few, and decided that me and the Imagine should become best friends. I spent a couple of hours threading and re threading so I would get the hang of it. Then I did samples of all the stitches listed in the book. I still need to change out the feet and see what the other feet can do, and I need to make a little bag to catch all the scraps as they are cut. I've been surprised with how quickly I have got the hang of using it. I plan on making the girls a lot more clothes now-not that they need any. And pajama pants will go so fast, with edges all finished. I may as well go work on something right now!

Craft Apple Car Organizer

When I saw this pattern, I knew I needed to try it. But every time I went to the store to get some stabilizer, they were out, so the pattern languished on my shelf for quite some time. Finally the stabilizer was in stock at Jo-Ann's and I went for it.



I do love the finished result. But some of the directions seemed a bit confusing. And I had to do a few steps and walk away for a while just so things would be clear. I am sure it is a combination of me being tired and the pattern. I bought enough stabilizer to make two, but my main motivation for doing so is that the stabilizer takes up a lot of space in my cabinet.

Twirling and Twirling

When we were gearing up for family pictures I decided we should all wear turquoise and brown. I had a really hard time finding anything I really liked for Sophie, so I decided to make her a shirt. When I got home with the fabric, it was had more blue than all our other clothes. but I still wanted to make something out of it. So I used a top pattern from Ottobre Designs and some of my Amy Butler Charm. Then I added a skirt to the bottom of the shirt and a sash. I really love how it turned out. It is a little long right now, which is good, it will fit all next summer.

Log-Cabin Christmas

I put this together about five years ago from a Moda Kit. It all came in a stocking and seemed so appealing at the time. Well, after I put it together it had some strangeness. I found out there were some errors in the directions, and at that point it was too late. So the top got folded up and put into the ufo pile. A few years ago I found some backing fabric and decided to pull it back out. Then I remembered how bad the flaws were and put it away again. In the spirit of getting things done this year, I finally finished it. But after being stored, and the errors, it really needed to be tied instead of quilted. So I tied it with embroidery floss, bound it and called it good. I still really like it despite the frustration involved, and it will be a nice cuddle on the couch quilt during the holidays.

Name Pillows

I finished these pillows a few weeks ago. The girls whisked them away as soon as I was finished, so I have to wait until they were not paying attention to to snap a picture. These are all Lakehouse fabrics. A few years ago they had alphabet panel that I really loved. Last year it was on clearance at Mormon Handicraft along with the coordinating prints. I made cording to go around the edges. The girls have used them as horses, doorways for forts, and they sleep with them like mini body pillows.

In Progress....

I made some whirlygigs from some sultry charm packs. I ended up with 80 blocks. I am working on a few different things with all those blocks, they are 9 inches each.

Fabric Bliss

One of my favorite local shops has their big sale the week prior to Labor Day.
They clear a lot of things out. Sometimes I don't find much, sometimes I hit the jackpot.
All of this was only 2.99 a yard, and there are over twenty yards. I could have bought more if I could have carried any more bolts.
If you are in Utah, the store is Quilts Etc. located at about 8800 South and State in Sandy. The sale is still going on today and tomorrow. If you're not here, my condolences.

Finishing Up Pillows

I stitched this about three years ago, then left it as it was. Finally I made it into a pillow and I feel much better getting it off of my to-do pile. I used some Amy Butler Charm to make the pillow. Now that I look at it, there may have been a button that was supposed to go in the center of the big flower, but as it is not there, it just wasn't meant to be.

This one was finished at least four years ago, but never framed. I decided to make a frame with a yellow solid and some black and white polka dots. There is a sleeve on the back to hang it up on the wall. The walls in my sewing room are bright and sunny, so it will probably go up in there, hopefully before another four years elapse.


And for some reason this picture wants to stay oriented this way no matter what I change, grr. Anyway, the general idea is there. I stitched this in the car a few years ago on a long road trip. I made it into a door hanger style pillow and it is on the girls room door now. They also think it is a good pillow for all sorts of baby dolls. The star is full of french knots, which I am not fond of, and at the time gave me trouble. I am still not fond, but they give me less trouble.

All in all, three unfinished projects finished! They were quick and easy, and it always makes me kick myself when I am done to think these languished on my to-do list for so long when a good solid hour of work was all it took to knock them off. Lesson learned-I doubt it.

Freezer Paper Stencils

The kids and I had planned on doing this project at the beginning of the summer, but for some reason we kept being too busy to fit it in. There are tutorials all over the internet on how to do this and where to get clip art for it. The kids picked out the kind of things they wanted. Sophie got a shark because she bites, hard. Even Nate got in on the fun and did a guitar shirt.

Fresh Cut Charm Quilt

I made this quilt about two years ago while I was expecting baby number 3. The Fresh Cut charm packs were the first charm packs I had ever purchased. It's a bit addicting, now I have quite a charm pack stash.


The pattern is from a Better Homes and Gardens Quilt's n' More magazine.


I did a basic quilt in the ditch design so the back of the quilt just looks latticed. Sophie loves this quilt, it is the perfect size for a crib.

Ottobre shorts and tunic

I have had this eiffel tower fabric for quite a long time, and this is the first time I cut into it. These little shorts are from an issue of Ottobre Designs magazine from last summer I believe. They are a size 80cm. They will fit Sophie this summer and maybe next.


I love the ruffles across the bum!

Next is a tunic from this years Spring Issue. It went together really really fast. I used some Pop Garden for the tunic, and some bubblegum basics for the bias trim.

I have several little leggings that match this, and it also looks so cute with denim. I made this in an 80cm, but was a little skimpier on the seam allowances, so it's a bit big and will last longer.

Blasts from the Past Part 4

This is a quilt I made for my Mother-In-Law at least five years ago. It's a basic nine patch quilt pattern. I had a lot of leftover pieces, and I think I managed to send most of them to Jessica, but every once in a while I run across one. This quilt is between a full and a queen. And at the time, it was the largest thing I had quilted on my machine. It is quilted with a giant stipple.

I made these booties from scraps of fabric from Heather Bailey's Freshcut. I made a charm quilt for my youngest daughter while I was pregnant and had a few tiny scraps leftover. I loved how these little booties looked on her tiny feet. They are lined with a supersoft terrycloth. I still have then in her sock bin even though they haven't fit for quite a long time. There is just something so lovely about tiny things. This is a quilt I made for my oldest daughter when she was a few months old. My mother sent me the fabric-it is Free Spirit I believe. I loved it so much at the time, and still do. She sent me the book Quilts from the Quiltmakers Gift and enough fabric to make one of the quilts from the book. Luckily, she sent more, or the pattern called for more than was needed, so I still have some of this left, I delight in scraps of my favorite fabrics.!
Anyway, this quilt is still regularly used by the current six year old and it still quite large enough to cover her up. I used a lot of different machine quilting styles, there is stippling, stitch in the ditch, and some freehand flowers, crowns, stars, and magic wands. This was one of the first projects where I really started feeling like I could draw anything on fabric.

Ottobre Dresses

About a year ago my mom sent me some fabric with instructions to make dresses for the girls. She had seen a dress in Sophie's size she really loved, didn't want to pay full price, so found similar fabric and sent it to me. So, I pulled out the ever loved Ottobre designs and found a few patterns. Just after I got the fabric cut out, the dress she loved went on sale and she bought it. Well, that made me lose steam in a major way. So, the dresses sat unfinished for almost a year. Last week I rectified the situation. For Bella, I made a bigger size, still fits as a dress. Sophie's dress has now become a shirt though. But, the main point being, they are done. I added the green fabric as accents. I have enough of the blue left to back a quilt-small one, or make a skirt for myself. Sophie was not thrilled to have her picture taken.

Both of the dresses have a lot of detail I failed to capture adequately, but I really love how the bodice of Bella's dress turned out.

Blasts from the past 3

I made this ladybug quilt for a friend three or four years ago. She went into labor the night before her baby shower and sent her husband in her stead. It was hilarious. He was a little uncomfortable at first, then started getting into all the unwrapping and such. He held up a few outfits and said things like "This is so cute, I bet we won't return it!". He had a roomful of women laughing so hard. It was so sad his wife couldn't have been there for it all.

I made this quilt for Jack right after he got his big boy bed. It's a crazy cut quilt with all the blocks cut at a slight angle. This was one of my first big lessons about mixing fabrics. I used both quilt store fabrics, and fabric store fabrics in this quilt, and the fabric store fabrics have really not held up as well as the others. This is a quilt that is used a lot, washed a lot, and loved a lot. So I really didn't expect it or need it to stay pristine. But some of colors still match my original scraps, and some are unrecognizable. Frustrating considering all the time put into it.

I love this jacket, so much so that it is still hanging in my closet despite the fact that it doesn't fit anyone who lives here. Jack was four when I made it and he wore it for about a year and a half. It is a dark blue corduroy lined with a baseball print and has olive green cording. Not really a water-proof type coat, but warm and toasty and snuggly. It has side pocket and the sleeves roll up for extra growth. I have big plans of making a few of these for my girls this fall.