Teacher Gifts

Each year I try and make something for the kids teachers as a thank you. This year I made patriotic table runners for each of them. Of course, I didn't remember to take pictures until the absolute last minute, so they are not great examples, and excuse the feet. But I really loved they way they turned out. The fabric is Moda Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. I quilted in the ditch for the most part. They went together pretty fast, considering I had company the week I made them. And everyone loves red, white, and blue, right?

Blasts from the Past 2

I made this jacket about a year ago. We called it the Peep Coat because she looked like a marshmallow peep. My mom had sent me a yard of the yellow plush and I had the Heather Ross fabric in my stash.

This skirt is from an Amy Butler print from her Charm line I believe. The flower is detachable and can be a hair flower as well. This outfit should fit my younger daughter in a few months.

I made this quilt and outfit for a friend for her baby girl. It is Seaside Rose from Moda. One of my most favorite lines of fabric. I have made four or five quilts from it and two or three dresses, and I still have quite a bit left.

Every year I make the kids Halloween costumes. They sometimes have an opinion, sometimes not. But Jack really wanted to be Harry Potter and Bella had no opinion, so she became Hermione. I got the Hogwarts patches on eBay and I knit the scarf (badly).

This little shirt has a fairy hand-stitched on the front. I had quite a bit of this floral fabric as well, I think it is Moda, but the line name escapes me. I made quite a few clothes from it, but have no memory of using it in any quilts.

Old Red Barn Quilt A-Long

I managed to get this together this afternoon despite being gone all week. I really want to keep on track with this quilt-a-long. My quilt measures 62 x 84.5 inches. It's bigger than I pictured, which is great. I have no idea what I am going to do with it, my daughter is really liking it. I plan to go get the backing tomorrow and starting on the quilting. I do love the way the colors turned out. I am thinking maybe a brown damask back, I don't have anything big enough in my stash to really cover it, so a shopping I will go.

Blasts from the Past 1

I am not always great at taking pictures of everything I make. Nut going through my archives I have found a few. So I am going to try and regularly post some pictures of projects past. The first is a star block sampler quilt I made for Katrina when she was expecting her baby boy. I think he is closing in on three now. I remember really loving the small pieced inner border and the star quilting.
This one is a wallpaper stripe quilt I made for my nephew. I think this one was constructed in 2007. How is it holding up Jess?

Each year I try and make something for my kids teachers as gifts. This was for my son's first grade teacher. He was so excited because she wore it all day the day he gave it to her. And he picked out the fabrics. I have made this apron a few times since and have always been pleased with how it turned out.

Stuff I occasionally make for me

Every once is a while I get the idea to make myself some clothes. I love this Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric. I used an old vogue pattern for the skirt. One of my favorite things is the skirt has pockets, I can always use pockets. The shirt is from Old Navy, don't you love how is coordinates.

This shirt is from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. The fabric is a gauzy blend from Jo-Ann's, with a white tonal flower for the placket. I really love all of Heather Ross's fabrics and was really excited to get her book. One of things she said she hoped for was that people would alter her patterns to really fit themselves and their lives. When cutting out this pattern, I took a few inches off the sleeves, which was a good thing, you can tell they are plenty long. Next time I may make way shorter sleeves. And the other thing I changed was the darts didn't have any extra reinforcement, and with this particular fabric, they needed it. But I really like the way the blouse turned out and will probably make it again. I saw someone make it into a full dress, not sure if I could pull that one off, but maybe.

Bella's Birthday Quilt

Last Summer Isabella picked out this blue Heather Ross fabric and wanted me to make something for her. Then she promptly forgot about it. We were in Oregon when she found it and had too many other diversions to be thinking about fabric while on vacation. Unlike her mother who definitely thinks of fabric on vacation.

I decided to make it into a really basic quilt. I didn't want to cut too much into the horses as I think their simplicity adds to their beauty. So last fall I made this quilt and put it away until last week for her 6th birthday. Bella is in a loving horses stage. We pass them a lot on the way to school, and occasionally one rides down our street. She was pretty excited and has snuggled the quilt all weekend.


I just did some very basic in the ditch quilting along all the squares and sashing, then I quilted diagonal lines across the large and small squares. The quilt is backed with a tonal ecru floral. It is throw sized.