some finishes

I have a few things to show off today... yesterday I finally finished up my daughter's little ABC book.

This was fun and she was excited about it the whole time I was working on it. Of course it's in a toy bin now.

Here's a shot of E and F:

The instructions/recipe for this project are over at Moda Bake Shop. I would like to put the pages all on a ring but haven't found one yet. Oh, and I used Jacquie's grommet tutorial; it was very helpful! This was a project I started a couple weeks ago. I am not that great at just starting and finishing a project all in one shot, but I think that's ok (mostly). I work on what I like at the time and sometimes I need a break from something and need to make something else. Sometimes I wish I could be a no-UFO kind of person though.

Speaking of UFOs, I decided to give the tabbed zipper another go and finish up my very own gathered clutch. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of this zipper, and I like how it turned out! I'm so glad I'm finally keeping one of these.

A couple notes on how I made this/changes I would make for next time: (might not make sense if you haven't made one of these, might help if you have)
*Mine is a little smaller than the instructions are written for, but my front piece pulls up and distorts a bit when I pull the gathers so I trimmed all the other pieces to fit. Next time I'll start a little bigger than I want the finished clutch to be to account for the trimming.
*When I topstitch the fabric edges next to the zipper, I start about 3/8" in from the end.
*In the final step, I sewed the outer layer and lining separately, starting right at the seam allowance where they are sewn together but not stitching the seam allowance down.
*Next time I will work on making the lining a little smaller so it fits better inside the clutch.

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Finally I wanted to show off my kiddos in their Easter duds:

toothy grins... but none of them have all of their teeth.

I made my daughter's skirt on Saturday night, using the border skirt pattern from Little Girls, Big Style. (yes, affiliate link) I added the bottom ruffle; it was 2x longer than the skirt panel it was sewn on. The fabric is a sort of twill (what? yeah it's from that Target clearance tablecloth I bought a long time ago for fabric) and gathering it was kind of a challenge. Next time I do a ruffle on a twill or other heavier fabric, I'm going to go for a 1.5:1 ruffle ratio.

I am thinking about what I want to work on next and waiting anxiously for warmer weather tomorrow! Hope you're having a good week!

Current Projects + Winner #4

I wanted to share a couple things I've been working on over the last week or so.

I finished up this little blouse for my girl. The pattern is from Ottobre Design 1/2006, #11. I worried about the neck facing and that slit for a while... but when I sat down and got working on it, it turned out just fine. I omitted the back zipper. Now I just need to make her something to wear with it. I have lime green that will probably be a skirt and natural linen for capris.

And I got some more monkey blocks finished:

I only need to make 7 more and then I can put together the quilt top! 

And then after I get that done, I think I'm going to give the Naked Bed Challenge a shot. I have an idea in mind, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to use up all of my Flea Market Fancy fabric on this one. I hope it works out ok!

I need to announce the winner for my blog birthday giveaway #4. The Mendocino fabric/scraps/towels will go to Anna. Congratulations!

p.s. There's still one more day to enter giveaway #5!

catching up

Last week I finished some handmade gifts that I can't show yet, and one that I can. Here's Grandma M's quilt:

and the back:

I know I've shared some of this before, but here's the story behind this quilt, really quick. My husband's grandfather died in March 2008 and when his grandma was giving some of Grandpa's clothes to him and my boys, I offered to make a quilt using his shirts.

I got a bit sidetracked along the way--it's been nearly 3 years--but the quilt is finished and she'll get it on Christmas. I really hope she likes it. I started out with these somewhat modern quilt blocks and part of the reason the project sat for so long is that I wasn't sure she would like it. I showed them to a friend who told me to just continue and finish the way I'd started, and I'm glad I did. I chose a more traditional floral fabric for the back and hope she'll like that as well. I didn't buy quite enough fabric for the back (by accident/bad memory) and that's why I added the big square-in-a-square block.

I also got my daughter's Christmas dress finished this past weekend (quilt made by my friend Lorilee):

The pattern is from Ottobre 1/2007, #6. I made it in size 80 with 86 length. It's too wide for my skinny girl, but it will be ok. The fabric is embroidered black mini-cord from Jo-Anns. Here's the back:

I'm glad the ruffles show up in this picture. I think they're really cute! The black fabric was a bit of a challenge to work with, especially when I was undoing stitches that I couldn't see very well. I enjoyed making it though... it's nice to remember that making clothing is so much faster than making quilts!

Finally I wanted to show off this hat. It was given to me by fellow KCMQGer Julie, who brought it over to me and said she reads my blog (and had read about my hat making pursuits) and wanted my boy to have this. It didn't fit the oldest (HEED! Pants! Now! name that movie, anyone??) but it's perfect for my 6-year-old and he likes it a lot. Thank you, Julie!!

Three Shirt

I finished this up for a sweet three-year-old friend this morning. It was nice to make this, so refreshing to work on a small project with a quick deadline and just be done with it. I had a couple hiccups with the lettuce edge hem--the back is made from the cotton floral interlock that the "3" is made from, and I was stretching it quite a bit, like I stretched the cotton/lycra stripe fabric on the other shirt I made in this style. But it was cutting the hem off as it sewed. So I got out a scrap of the interlock and realized it would still do the "lettuce" thing if I stretched more gently, and the hem wouldn't get cut off either.

The sleeve hems are the original hems from the fuschia/heart shirt--I like doing that. Also, this is a boys' pattern and the sleeves on the pattern are much wider than the fuschia/heart sleeve ends were (it was a "large" girls' shirt, but close-fitting), so I had to taper them down quite a bit. I hope it fits the birthday girl all right!

I have 65 pages left in the book I'm reading, The Passage. It is very suspenseful, but not too scary, and sooo good. (yes that's an affiliate link yo.) I'm going to go see how it ends... and if I'm going to be dying that I have to wait until 2012 for the sequel.