I knew sewing for a baby girl would be fun

Aren't these cute little pants? I made them from a sheet I got at Goodwill. I also bought a sweater there to refashion into a tiny sweater for my girl.

Sweater before:


And after (with the front of the pants):


The sweater pattern is from Ottobre 1/2007. I had to shorten the sleeves a bit, and then taper them a little more towards the wrists but I think it will work well for Lauren through the spring and summer. The binding on the sweater is from the blanket I used to make these shirts. I was glad it was a close enough match because I still don't have any solid pink knit fabric.

I also got my Geese in the Forest blocks for February done this week.
These were fun to put together and I'm looking forward to the next block pattern, it should be available next week. If there's anyone that wants to swap some scraps for this quilt, let me know. There are some colors I have lots of but I do have some holes in my little stash (I could use reds, oranges, aquas, and I could trade purples, greens, maybe some yellows, and more).

Finally, I wanted to show off the dishtowels I made for my sweet mother-in-law, for her birthday. Happy Birthday Terri!!

The dishtowels are from Target and I embellished them with 30's reproduction fabrics, and some vintage bias tape and rick rack my mom gave me a while back.

Scrappy Geese

Today I started the Geese in the Forest block of the month project by Anina at Twiddletails. I've got a yellow block and a lavender block done, and fabrics picked out for green, blue, and pink. I need to look through my reds and pick out some pieces for a red block, too.
I'll post another picture with better lighting soon.

I've been window shopping for quilt fabric online. Here are some of the ones I really like at the moment:
Hello Betty--I like the 30's colors and the modern ones too.
Neptune--I really like this one a lot. I love the kelp shapes in the "Pacific Paisley" print.
I like all the Basic Grey lines--Sultry has some prints that would be perfect for a baby girl's dress. And I just discovered the Christmas fabric sneak peeks--look at this Figgy Pudding fabric. I really like the trees, and the snowflakes. So gorgeous.

I'm also thinking about Mountain Baby Blankets. Rachel is collecting handmade baby blankets for teen mothers in Appalachian Kentucky. I think I'll work on a simple quilt for this, starting this week.

Lavender love and what's in progress

Lorilee gave me a cute blanket to make something for the baby and here's what I came up with:

It is the cross front tee from Ottobre 3/2004, the first issue I bought when I saw the awesome boy patterns they had. My oldest was only 4 at the time. The smallest size for this pattern is 62 and it's still pretty big on my girl but that's ok. The pants here are from Ottobre 4/2004, a great basics and costumes issue. I made size 56; baby's got short legs and these are still plenty big on her.

I had enough to make a shirt for Lorilee's girl too:


She's in size 80. I got a kick out of making those double layer sleeves. And the appliques, too.

I've been working on my secret quilt project, and am getting closer to being able to put it all together. I also cut out a pair of jeans for my oldest boy. (My 4 year old refuses to wear jeans. He wants me to make him a vest though. And arm warmers.)

I have been reading some Kaffe Fassett books from the library and getting some inspiration. I am thinking of using my stack of reds and blues to make some other types of blocks to go with the churn dashes I've finished and make some kind of sampler-y type quilt. I'm going to need more reds.

There are at least 3 springy baby dresses that I want to make. And I bought 3 Simplicity patterns at the sale yesterday for making skirts and tops for myself. Too bad I left my coupons at home. I'm still not used to all the prep and stress that goes into doing an outing with 3 kids.

What have you been working on?

Finished scrap quilt

I finished it! I am still probably going to take some more photos and post them but these are the finished pics so far. I really like how it turned out. There are lots of special or memory fabrics in this quilt--fabric from the dresses my mom made me and my sisters for Jim and Marilyn's wedding. When I was 10. We served and I remember they had hot cider for drinks and they used glass plates and little glass teacups. I think some of the younger girls may have dropped and broken a plate or two that night. We wore cute sheer aprons too.

And there is fabric from the shirt I made for 4-H when I was 12. This was the only 4-H outfit that I really liked out of 4 years of sewing for 4-H. I made an oversized button-up, collared shirt out of a lavender/aqua print, and matched it with lavender stirrup pants. 1986.

There is sky print quilting fabric that I used in one of my oldest son's baby quilts. The first quilt I did meandering quilting on.

Pink valentine print from the valentine pj pants I made myself 2 or 3 years ago. I'm wearing them right now.

Pink and white big plaid that mom bought for me to use when I made Shelly's girl's baby quilt. I think I used the tiny lavender gingham in that quilt too. I don't have a picture of that quilt, Shelly, can you send me one?

The purple fans, the yellow floral print, and the light green and white print are all left over from the queen size quilt I made about 7 years ago. It had big flying geese blocks with 4-patches in the flying geese and a smaller flying geese border. I'll have to post some pictures of that quilt. Unfortunately I don't really love it; I'd say that at least 3 of my really early quilts show that I had a poor understanding of color and value.

There is more pink and a small bit of burgundy fabric from a mystery quilt that I did on sewingmamas.com in 2006. I entered it in the county fair here, won 3rd place in my category, and got a $1 prize. I don't think I ever photographed that quilt either.

Oh yeah, there is also mint green fabric from Savahna's quilt, the first baby quilt I made. She's my oldest niece and just turned 11.

I'm pretty sure the light blue solid is from Shelly's boy's quilt. And the light green solid is from Jacob's baby quilt.

And, I found the leftovers from Clara's quilt after I'd already finished the quilt top but before adding the border, and was able to use part of the purple leftovers in the border of this quilt.



I wanted to do a pieced back but not get too wild and crazy. I'm really happy with how this came out. I haven't measured it yet but it is bigger than the baby quilts I am used to making. I think it is around 45x70 inches or so.

I will probably make another scrap quilt similar to this someday, but I will not do the randomly sized blocks again. It was a lot of thinking and work to get it to all go together. I'm glad I did it once though. Thanks to Jacquie for heading up Project Improv and encouraging improvisational quilting!

quilted

I finished up the quilting yesterday and am working on binding today. It's going to feel good to finish a big project like this.

scrap quilt progress

Tonight I put a lavender border on my scrap quilt. It's scrappy but most of the pieces are close to the same color and value. I started out putting some darker pieces in it but it didn't look right. Tomorrow I'll piece the back and hopefully get it basted too. I have no idea what I'll bind it with, I might need to buy fabric for that.

Watercolor quilt pattern information

Someone asked about the pattern for the watercolor quilt in my banner up there; I should have posted about it a while ago. The pattern was in the May 1999 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine--it is called Colourwash Checkerboard and was designed by Deirdre Amsden. If you go here it looks like they have back issues for sale. Have fun!

this week's sewing

I made some fun things this past week. Last week after finishing my scrap quilt top, I sewed up a sweatshirt for myself. I took a lovely self-portrait but the bathroom mirror was dirty so I'm not sharing it, sorry. It's a nice lightweight sweatshirt knit I got from fabric.com and I really like it. I was happy to make something that was finished so fast after working on that quilt top for so long.

Then I made this baby outfit that I had cut out and waiting:



I was trying to make the top into a dress but it's not a dress, just a cute long shirt. I like it anyway. The patterns are from Ottobre Design, 4/2004 for the pants, and 5/2006 for the top (but I changed it).

The Kansas City Star had the first Block of the Month pattern for 2009 in last Sunday's paper. I decided to sew it up in a non-traditional colorway.



If someone knows the trick for doing those tiny 9-patches without them ending up smaller than the other block components, let me know. All those seam allowances made it so the block didn't go together as well as I would have liked. It was fun to make.

I also made my donation block for Project Improv. This was a lot of fun to make; I think it came out looking pretty good and I have some more ideas for whenever I do this kind of block again.


These two blocks were both 12.5", way bigger than what I usually do.

Finally, here's a tiny glimpse of a secret project I'm working on. I need to get to the quilt shop to buy some more colors I need for this project.


Next up--I am making another pink fleece hat for my baby. She outgrew her old one. Other things on my list:
*more churn dash blocks
*maybe add a scrappy purple border to my scrap quilt, then baste and quilt it
*vintage baby dress--I got this pattern at JA when Simplicity patterns were 99 cents last week but missed out on some other patterns. Next time I need to go closer to the beginning of the sale instead of the end.
*finish knitting baby hat (I'm making the Marley hat shown here)
*Valentine's redwork stitchery--isn't that cute?
*work some more on the secret project

I looked through the patterns on the Simplicity site and found a few things I want to make for myself--I'm getting ready for the next pattern sale, whenever it is, and spring. I like the short sleeved button-up view of this top, and am hopeful that it will work out ok for me based on the reviews at patternreview.com. And they have a bunch of cute skirt patterns, too.

Oh yeah, I also wanted to share a couple of free block of the month projects I found recently. Here's a fun Noah's Ark project, and I really like the looks of this project, too. Who knows if I will get around to making them but I'll keep them in the back of my mind for now.

scrap top finished

I decided I needed to finish this quilt top before going to pick up the kids from school. It has lots of mistakes and problem areas and I learned a lot making it. Mostly I learned that I won't do it that way again! I'm going to get batting this weekend and will finish this up soon.

I also saw this on Shelly's Quilts and realized I don't think I ever posted a picture of my quilt like that. So here it is:


I think I made this in 2001 or 2002. It has fluffy poly batting and minimal quilting. The batting beards somewhat and the binding is undone in a few places. But we all love that quilt for snuggling.

scrap quilt

I've been working on a few different things.... I have a cute baby outfit and a sweatshirt for me cut out, and I have 16 diapers in process but I put them aside for a while because I need to wait to buy the snaps. And. I decided to make a quilt out of scraps after I saw this link at Sew, Mama, Sew. I didn't follow the tutorial exactly but I'm happy with what I've got done so far.


big scrap blocks


sashing audition--I decided to go with the linen


puzzle pieces--just needs sashing now

I'm going to keep working on this today because it's fun. Some of the fabrics are from when I was a kid and when I finish up the top I'll put the picture on flickr and label some of the memory fabrics.

Oh--also! Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie started a Project Improv group and at first I wanted to sign up but I didn't really think it was my thing. (My first attempt at wonky log cabin blocks was... sad. And I like neat, straight blocks, too. I even like some traditional quilt blocks.) But the other day while I was working on this scrap quilt I decided that if this isn't improvisational quilting, then nothing is. So I'm going to join in and work on my own style of improvisation this year, along with all my other projects.

Made in 2008

Here's most of the things I sewed this year, along with 5 pictures of baby Lauren, who was my most important creation of the year. I felt pretty crumbly most of my pregnancy and had next to no energy for sewing for a long time. But now I'm feeling much better and have lots of plans for sewing cute baby girl stuff, things for the boys, and clothes for myself too. Today I've been making more of those churn dash blocks in just blue and red, and also sewing up bunches of tiny scraps into a future quilt top. I'm probably going to cut out some baby clothes and a sweatshirt for myself.

last minute

A couple of last minute projects from the last week and a half or so...

I decided on the fly (and the night before the last day of school this year) to make one of the storage cubes from Crazy Mom Quilts for my son's 3rd grade teacher. She has Jayhawks all over the classroom so we fused a Jayhawk on some white cotton and stitched that onto the denim cube. I had the perfect lining fabric for a Jayhawk cube.

I had been thinking about making a knotty doll for my baby girl and I decided the night of December 23rd what I was going to do. I got up and started dyeing the velour fabric in the morning on Christmas Eve, and then started sewing it later that evening. I finished sewing it up after we opened gifts on Christmas morning. This was one of those projects that turned out so well and I was just so happy with it. I love how the LWI dye job turned out and the doll is just so cute and snuggly. I already made another one for a baby friend and will make more in the future.

My 8 year old and I decided to make these recycled crayons yesterday. I couldn't remember where I'd seen them, was it OMSH? Not exactly. Was it Balancing Everything? Hmm, no. I checked my starred items in google reader and found it, at CraftSanity. (Check out her podcasts, they're awesome.) We had plenty of unwrapped broken crayons and made a dozen of these yesterday and a few more with friends today, too. It's a super cheap and easy craft. They're cool to color with, too.

hoodies, churn dash, with a side of pouty baby

I made some cool hoodies for the boys last week, from Ottobre 4/05. They went together quick and easy and I'm still loving my coverstitcher.


I also made a hat and some pants for the baby. The hat is from the wonderful NCBE pattern, but I made the newborn size and it's too small already. Pants are from Ottobre 5/2006 and I don't really like them. I'm thinking about drafting a footed pants pattern from the NCBE pants pattern.

Honestly though, baby isn't going to be going out much this winter--she was hospitalized again for a week earlier this month for bronchiolitis and apnea related to a viral infection (yep, a cold). She's hanging out at home in a shirt, diaper, and blanket most of the time. I might make it back to church by February, we'll see. Here's a picture of her making a funny pouty lip face. I love it.


I decided to start something from fabric I have on hand and here's what I've got so far:

At first I was thinking it would be another charity quilt but then I decided to make the churn dash blocks and now I want to keep this one, at least I think so. But I'm not loving it at the moment. The idea was to use up the red, white (really cream), and blue that I've got in my stash/scrap bin, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to need more red. I might go to the quilt shop tomorrow. I'm also trying to figure out how to set the blocks; I could do square-in-a-square blocks to alternate with the churn dash blocks, or just plain sashing. Or come up with something else. I don't know.

Finally, I'm looking for suggestions for Lauren's baby quilt. I've got the fabric for the top, and I really love the paper doll fabric, but I don't know how to put it together.

By the way, I really like how the coordinates I picked out all have different textures. I'd like to use fairly large squares of the paper doll fabric and I had a couple ideas for the colors--I could just alternate plain old paper doll squares with 4-patches of the other fabrics, or put sort of scrappy sashing around larger squares of the paper doll fabric, or... that's all I've got. So, let me know if you have any other ideas. I saw a couple of cute baby quilt patterns in an expensive book at the quilt shop, and if I go back there soon I might have to look again to try and refresh my memory.

I have a long, long sewing list, a few orders of fabric on their way to me, and my non-pregnant energy is back (although I'm still tired a lot) and I hope to be back to more regular posting here soon!

t-shirt remodel + baby clothes modeling shot

My inlaws gave a "little scout buddy" t-shirt to ds a few months ago because his older brother is in Cub Scouts. The shirt got too small really quickly so I remade it into this:


I cut out the design from the original shirt and zigzagged it onto this shirt front and then made a new shirt for him. I like it with the olive ribbing and stitching. I used the Ottobre raglan pattern from 02/05. It's size 110, the boy is 4.5 years old, and it fits pretty well. The fabric is a really stable jersey without much stretch though.



And here's the baby wearing one of the outfits I made for her.

I've been a little preoccupied....

A lot of people who read here already know this but some of you don't....

I had my baby last month; she was born 6.5 weeks early. Her name is Lauren and she was 4 lbs. 8 oz. She stayed in the NICU for 12 days and has been home with us for a week and a half. Click over there to the right on my flickr for a couple of pics. I was in the hospital for a week before she was born and came home a week before she did. I'm so glad that we are both home and heading towards getting settled in to our new life with her on the outside.

I have finished one sewing project since I've been home; a blanket and burp cloth for her out of the cutest pirate flannel I got at JA like a year ago, way before I was even pregnant. I saw the fabric and had to get it just in case I had another boy baby. Well I had to use it even though she's a girl. I'll put up a picture soon. Other than that, I'm thinking about what I should do for a blessing dress. We don't know when that will be, I really don't want to take her out into big crowds much any time soon.

She is still too small for the clothes I've made for her but is growing well. She is up to 5 lbs 6 oz as of yesterday.

Some more baby clothes

I finally got these ready to show off here at the blog. I'm getting the hang of using my new coverstitcher but it is easy for it to go a bit crooked and not always easy to undo the stitching. I'm really glad I bought some bulk needles for it and need to do that with regular ball point needles since they get dull fast. I need to order some snaps; I'm afraid the ties fastening the romper are going to be really annoying. Oh well. These things were made from Ottobre and New Conceptions Baby Essentials patterns; more info is on the photo labels at my flickr. (Click up there on the right, see it?) I'm especially proud of the green jacket; it's made from a $1.47 remnant of fleece from JoAnn's that was just barely big enough.

I have some flannel I bought at the JA sale so I might make some blankets, burp cloths, and diaper wipes next.

Baby Clothes

I finished this little set up on Monday; these are the first baby clothes I've made for the new baby. Patterns are from Ottobre Design 5/2006. I modified the bodyshirt to just be a regular t-shirt and made the shirts and pants in size 50 (tiny newborn). The hat is the smallest size so it will probably be outgrown really quickly. This is partly to make up for the stripey baby hat I am knitting--I'm afraid it will not fit until the baby is 6 months old. Also the hat still needs some ribbons for the ties but Hobby Lobby didn't have anything that matched well enough.

I really like how this turned out and wish the photo was a little better.

Skirt

Someone I know is turning 3 and I made her a skirt. I used pattern #16, Bell-shaped skirt, in Ottobre Design 5/2006, with some modifications. And, the directions on that pattern totally don't make sense. But I was able to put it together anyway. It took about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes, including tracing the pattern, rethreading and changing needles on the serger, searching for my brown thread, and threading the sewing machine. Oh yeah, and hunting down the child in question to get her waist measurement for the elastic.

recycled Koolaid pouch pencil bag

I made this little pencil pouch this afternoon using this tutorial. I'm probably going to make a few more for the rewards "store" in my son's classroom. And I want to find some other cool projects to take in also (I'm looking at things like Poptart box notebooks over at Craftster). I did the zipper wrong on this at first, and it turned out a little bit weird anyway. But it will go faster the next time I made one. Overall it didn't turn out as cool as I imagined; I'll have to see what my boy thinks of it. There's another picture over at my flickr if you want to click through.

Wrap Mei Tai Baby Carrier

Last week I finished up this wrap mei tai for Lorilee. I'm nearly finished with a second one for myself. They are made from a long Storchenwiege Inka wrap sling that Lorilee found and bought at the kids' resale store. I'm really happy with how they are turning out. The hood is too long on Lorilee's and we need to fix it but other than that I think it's going to be a great baby carrier. I'll post an action shot as soon as I can but it'll be a while yet.