Finished Stuff

I've been working hard on Christmas gifts and hope I'm in the home stretch. Unfortunately, I usually add more on as I go, so...probably not. *grin*

I'm thinking it will be safe to post some of the gifts, as few of my family members actually read my blog. Doesn't hurt my feelings one bit, because I totally understand that they have other interests.

This is my "In the Garden" paper pieced quilt. I participated in Quilt Art Designs quilt along and this was my finished quilt. I quilted it in strips and then joined them. I find it's much easier to do that on my little domestic machine. Unless I have something really special for a backing, that will be my norm from now on.

This is a quilt I created for my nephew. He loves muscle cars and told his Mom he wanted a muscle car quilt. Aunt Belinda to the rescue! I love how it turned out and it too is from Quilt Art Design patterns.

Close up of some of the cars.

I created some dresses for my baby girls, but they aren't gifts. I've already given them so they can wear them now.

Right now, I'm working on a neutral Christmas quilt that incorporates some tone on tone machine embroidery in some of the squares. There are five rows and I'm now quilting the third row. Can't wait to finish that.

I have plans in the works to make a paper pieced turkey quilt. I hope to get it done by Christmas, but it's doubtful. Still, it always gets me pumped to have a new project on my mind and I can't wait to get started on it.

Back to work!!

What a Mess

You see this mess?

Well, it is supposed to be a Christmas gift. By the looks of it, I doubt seriously if that will happen. But, it's for my LeLe, she knows it probably won't, and is ok with it.

That's how my sewing room usually looks when I'm in the middle of something. Not a pretty picture is it? But, it's how I work. I don't have a good space to spread it all out, and the ironing board usually doubles as a table, the bed as a design board. You use what you have eh?  I normally clean the biggest part of it up every other day or so. If someone should come in and see it before I do, oh well.

This is a little wooden Nativity set I made umpteen years ago for my Mother-in-Law.

I had a band saw and lots of scraps and I made countless little things like this. They are all gone now except for this and a few Christmas decorations. I made this simple by design, and she thought LMW would enjoy playing with it. He does like wiping them all off the table.

Back to work in the messy sewing room.

In the Pink

I've had this set sewn and waiting for a name. Today, I found out what I needed to know, and finished them all up.

Two bibs and two matching burp cloths....

and a bound fleece blanket.

One more project checked off my to-do list.

Quick Tees

I've been pretty tied up, trying to get my Mom's wisteria quilt ready for the machine, and keeping LMW. But, I was able to finish a couple of embellished tees.

After finishing them, I realized I probably should have switched the designs. The blue on blue and the bluegreen on bluegreen. But oh well. At least I was able to finish something in all the chaos.

Celtic Trinity knot                                      Blue flowers

Pink Butterflies

Last week, I found out a friend of my niece is expecting a little girl. And I was sooo excited to finally be able to make something girly. I immediately bought some pink fabric with butterflies on it and got to work. I made two burp cloths and two bibs, with the first letter of her name appliqued on each.  I used an inexpensive kitchen towel on the back of the bibs and inside the burp cloths for absorption.

I planned to put some little ruffles on the back of the onesie, but my 30+ year old sewing machine had other ideas. The more I tried, the more the onesie began looking a bit torn, so I opted for just putting more butterflies on the back as well as the front.

I'm looking forward to doing more girly things soon.

Newest Quilt Project

I haven't even finished the wisteria quilt, and I'm already working on a new one. This is the stash I came home with last Monday. The newest quilt will be for a little baby girl.



 

It's rather disconcerning to walk into Hobby Lobby and march back to the fabric as if my life depended on it. Not looking right nor left, but on a mission to get there as quickly as possible.  I feel I'm drowning in fabulous fabric and just when I think I've chosen what I want, I spy something else across the way. It's pitiful really. Like a terrible addiction. (But I kinda like it, eh?)

I went home, began washing fabric, and drawing out the design I want.

There will be some squares, some applique, and some hearts and circles. And it will be personalized with the little darling's name. I'm anxious to get started cutting.....

Ready for Batting

Here is the finished Wisteria quilt top.

It's a little hard to find a place in my house where I can take a good picture of it. But I think you can see it well enough.  I think it turned out great and SR could finally see the wisteria in it. He even offered to take my picture with it....

Not the most flattering shot of me ever taken, but I'm trying not to worry about such things as that these days. Trying being the key word here.

Now I'm anxious to get the batting and backing fabric, and get this baby put together. I can't wait to see my Mom's reaction. It's going to be a surprise, so mums the word, k?

I'm not even finished with this one, and I created another one on paper this afternoon. It's going to be a small quilt for a little girl. Can't wait to buy fabric.....

Partial Quilt and Definite Decision

I finished hand piecing the main portion of my Wisteria quilt.

SR couldn't see the wisteria in it, poor thing, but I think it's obvious. In any case, last night I figured out how I want the edges to look so I'll be tackling that next.

I didn't really want to give this quilt up. It was for my own enjoyment and use, but......God kept nudging me about it. And nudging and nudging. And then, my Mother was diagnosed with more cancer in her colon and around her liver. And it was if God gave me a big shove instead of a little nudge.

You see, purple is my Mom's favorite color. And all along I kept thinking, I really should give it to her, but I just didn't want to. Now, I feel the desire need to give it to her. And making that decision led to another one. I will be giving up my plans to hand stitch it completely. Time is a factor here, and I want her to be able to use it asap. Not that I think she is going to leave the earth soon, but I want her to have it as long as possible to wrap up in when she's cold, and remind her that I love her.

So, back to the sewing machine I go. And gladly.

Tummy Time Mat

Doctors these days suggest laying infants on their back while sleeping, to prevent SIDS. When I was raising my children, the norm was to lay them on their stomach, to keep them from choking if they spit up. Times change. But, doctors also want little ones to spend waking time on their tummy, to strengthen their neck muscles, and this is very important to Little Man with his torticollis.

                                    

There are cute little Tummy Time Mats at the local Walmart and such and LeLe purchased one for our W. I looked at it and figured I could make one for Nanna’s house and got to work.

Step 1: Making the patterns

I used my trusty leftover wrapping paper to create two patterns. One for the mat itself and one for the little pillow that raises LMW up. The mat is shaped like a very fat hot dog and is approximately 25 x 35. In this photo, the pattern is halved, and you cut on the fold.

The pillow is shaped more like a thin kidney bean. It is approximately 21 x 8.
(I have food on my mind….)

Step 2: Cutting out

I used one yard of printed flannel for the top and one yard of coordinating fabric for the bottom of the mat. I intended using the same fabric, but miscalculated and just used something I already had in my stash for the bottom. I cut one each out of the two fabrics.
I used two layers of batting, because I wanted it to be cushy. You could use one and it would probably be fine and probably easier to deal with as well. One of the packages of crib sized batting was the perfect size for two layers. I also used the pattern to cut that to size.

Taking a solid color coordinating fabric, different than the bottom fabric, I cut two pillow shapes out. It will be stuffed with fiberfill.

Step 3: Assembling the mat

I layered first the bottom fabric right side down, the batting, then the top fabric right side up and pinned them all together, smoothing everything as much as possible and making sure there were no folds or wrinkles.

I stitched all three layers about ¾ of an inch from the edge, all the way around. I then took the pattern and using a water soluble pencil (watercolor) I traced another line about 2 ½ inches or more inside the original stitching line. I stitched that all the way around as well, to secure the batting a bit more. You could quilt it, if you wanted, but I wanted to leave it as soft and cushy as possible.

I trimmed the excess batting from the edge to the stitch line, and then made cuts all the way around the edge for fraying. This is much much easier than trying to bind it and it looks great.

I wanted to be able to roll it up to go, so I decided to use more of the bottom fabric to create ties. I created them by cutting a long strip of fabric about 3 inches wide, folded it wrong side out, and stitching down the open side creating a tube.

I turned the tube right side out by attaching a safety pin to the end, and running it back through on the inside. I pressed it, then cut it in the middle making two ties.

I placed them together, right side down onto the second stitching line, on the bottom of the mat, and sewed across, then folded them back over and stitched again hiding the raw edge.

I finished the edges by turning the raw edge inside and stitching across. Now your mat is finished.

Step 4: Assembling the pillow

Lay the two kidney shaped pieces right sides together and pin. Starting on the outside edge, stitch around the edge with a normal seam allowance. Leave a 4 inch opening to turn it right side out. After turning, press, and stuff with fiberfill. Don’t overstuff, as you want it soft and comfortable for baby. Turn the raw edges inside, pin and sew a small seam close to the edge to close the pillow up.

The store purchased pillows have rattles and teething rings attached to them, but I didn’t have any available for this first endeavor. Still I believe it turned out great and I’m happy with it. I can roll the pillow up inside the mat, tied it and put it away when LMW is not here.

Finished:

All ready for Tummy Time!

Rolled up to put away for his next visit to Nanna's.

I hope I've explained everything clearly. If you have any questions, please post them and I'll edit the tutorial as much as possible to clear things up.

Embellished Tee

I decided that I wanted something for ME this time. I've been doing a lot for LM, but nothing for myself. I really don't like sewing for myself, but embellishing tees I do like.

I took a sheet of ordinary printer paper, and drew my design out. I folded the paper in half to reproduce the exact image on both sides. I then  traced the design onto a piece of WonderUnder and cut around it.

After ironing the WonderUnder onto the wrong side of my fabric, I then cut it all out with small scissors. I ironed it onto the front of my tee then pressed some fusible webbing onto the back side for stability. ( I highly recommend this, because the stretchy tee will be hard to work with smoothly if you don't. Not to mention tearing if you pull a little too aggressively.)

 I then began the slow S L O W process of stitching around it. When I say slow, I mean at times, I moved the wheel by hand. Lots of hand turning and stopping to turn the shirt.

 

All in all, I'm very pleased with the result and plan to embellish a couple more shirts I picked up at J.C. Penney. They hold up better than Walmart or dollar store brands and they don't really cost much more.

Messy

You know, I confuse myself going back and forth between my main blog and this one. I can't decide whether to post everything on both blogs, just start posting projects on the main blog, with a link to a shorter version here, or what.... What would you do? 

I did some Messy Monogram tops for LM and my nephew and posted it on To Be Me. (Thanks to Tanya for the inspiration.)

Tea Towel Aprons

I made hostess gifts for my baby shower on Saturday using this tutorial. I think they turned out quite nice. I used two Better Homes & Gardens tea towels from Wal-mart and some wide ribbon. Soooooo easy and so cute! I whipped both up in under an hour.

Couch Organizer

In my effort to nest/get organized this year, I decided to try out this simple tutorial. Mom had given me some pieces of white cloth she had purchased that were already sewn up on the ends. She called them something but I can't remember. They resemble small table cloths. Anyway, I put two of them together to make a couch organizer. I had to do some finagling because the ends didn't exactly match up, so I had to turn the sides under in certain places before I sewed them up. It turned out pretty well. I wish I had had some iron-on transfers at home in addition to a full cartridge of ink so that I could do something on the pockets, but oh, well. It serves its purpose and allows me to put my fingernail files, lotion, devotional books, chapstick, and odds and ends in the pockets.

A few new things

Here are some things I did yesterday, while I was home sick again. I haven't felt good all week but at least it resulted in lots of sewing!

I made this little snap wallet to match my purse.

I'm in love with this and want to make one for myself. This one is for a dear friend.

Tutorial

My MIL bought me six new patterns yesterday because they were only 99 cents a piece!

The bag on the bottom left looks like it would be a good pattern for a diaper bag. My cousin is expecting in October so I think I might try to make that for her.