Cathedral Window Quilt

As there really isn't much to photograph, I don't have much for you to look at, but I am making progress on my Cathedral Window Quilt. I have always loved this look and I has already reminded me of the past as being a really old design. Check out the tutorial I am using here. But let me warn you that it takes much more time than it looks like it takes. This quilt is beautiful, but the origami like ironing required takes WAY too much time! I finally have 30 squares ironed with 6 more to go. And for all the effort, the quilt will be 1/4 of the size of the original fabric. I am using a white queen size sheet that I got at the thrift store, so the quilt will be 1/4 of that. Barely big enough for a lap quilt. Oh well, it will look great when I am finished and I will have tried (and finished) something new. I will post pictures as soon as there is something more than a pile of ironed white squares.

Toy Story Quilts

So I guess I should state that my kids love Pixar movies. In my desire to make things that the kids like, I went all out and cut up lots of little squares to make a border around several Buzz Lightyear and Woody blocks. My oldest daughter saw my idea as I laid it out for her. She said that it was too big! She wanted something smaller for her stuffed animals. I was in the process of making a bigger quilt, so I turned it into a nice kids size nap blanket. I think that we will give this one to a friend of my daughters. I decided to use the original big blocks of Woody and Buzz to make simple small quilts for the girls. Just the original block with a border around it. To complete it more quickly, I machine sewed the binding (which doesn't look great, but works).

Woody:

The back is red Kona Cotton and bound in black:


Buzz Lightyear:


Again Backing is red with black binding:


Are they cute. They are about 14in square.


Who doesn't like a picture of quilts folded beautifully?


This is about half the size of what I had intended to make for my daughters. They didn't want that, so we will give this to a friend. I think it looks nice.


This is one of the small blocks. These were a real pain to work with because they were all cut from old sheets. Some are cut on the bias, some are with the grain, and others are cross grain. Because of all that, they were real stretchy and hard to work with. Next time I do something like this, I will try using starch spray.

Cogsmo Fabric

What a great way to start the kids nap times! I ordered 1 yard each of a line of fabric, a first for me! Most of this will become a quilt for my little boy. It struck me when I first saw it. It is perfect for Kyle and our family. The line is called Cogsmo by Cosmo Cricket and Andover. See the whole line here. The reason it is so great is it has circuit boards and gears and old fashioned robots. I just LOVE it!
Anyway, this was such a nice package to get in the mail. I ordered the fabric from Z&S Fabric, which I had never heard of before, but did a great job and were about $1 or more a yard cheaper than a couple of the other online stores that carry this line.



I can't wait to get started on Kyle's quilt, but several other things come first.

Keira's Cars Quilt

It is all finished!!! And almost three weeks early! Keira is a typical little sister and loves to do everything her big sister does and wants what her big sister has, so as soon as I finished making Avalyn's Cars Quilt, I started on one for Keira. She got a glimpse of it a couple of days ago (due to my carelessness) and jumped around and squealed with delight. (She was really really disappointed when it was not on her bed that evening.)

The whole quilt. (I still haven't figured out a god way to take a picture of such a large quilt.)


One of the corners where you can see some of one of the squares, the small black border, the crazy red Lightning McQueen border, and the black binding.


Each of these pictures is made up of for squares and black sashing.


Another look at the border.


The back of Keira's quilt. Unfortunately, I felt the need to take these pictures at the worst possible time during the day, thus the glare on the camera and the really faded look. It is true solid black with Keira's name in bright Kona Cotton. The black binding just blends in (I was a little disappointed with this, but it really works very well for the front, so I just dealt with it here on the back.)


I LOVE the way her name came out! I think I am getting better with my improvisationally pieced lettering.


And the token folded quilt picture.


I think I forgot to mention that this is a large twin size quilt. It has a pretty long drape, but I love the way it came out and I know one little girl that is going to love it more than I do!

Quilt Binding

I have been trying to stay focused. When it involves hand sewing, it is that much harder as I really don't enjoy that part. In addition to all that, I have dozens of sewing projects in my head that are calling to be started! It is hard to stay focused, but fortunately, I am almost finished. When I finish binding Keira's Cars Quilt, I will post pictures. I am very happy with how it is turning out.

Possible Tutorial: revisited

Ok, so it took me several weeks to even get pictures of my stationary holder! I know what kind of blogger does that make me? A lazy one that is for sure. Here are the pictures of the stationary holder. The fabric was som patriotic farm animals that I picked up at JoAnn's to make some napkins for a friend. I didn't make those napkins. I did make her a little tea bag wallet. (She will have to tell you the story of carrying her tea bags into a restaurant to make her own tea.)
Anyway, back to the subject of the at hand.

This is the front, with pockets for a pin, stamps, and addresses.


The inside has two pockets on each side to hold cards and envelopes.


The back has one deep pocket to hold more addresses or extra paper for a list of notes to write or whatever is wanting.


What do you think? I really like it and hope to make a couple more. When I do that, I will create a tutorial to go with it.

Fabric by the Pound

When my family and I were on vacation, we passed as large warehouse type store called Fabric by the Pound. (It is located North of Foley Alabama.) Apparently it was a popular idea because we saw at least one other store will the same idea on the same stretch of road.
Anyway, I begged to stop, and my husband, and father were really kind to indulge me. I promised not to stay long, so I didn't get to see everything, but I was amazed by how much fabric there was. Most of the by the pound fabric that I saw was sheeting and home decor fabrics both of which I was not interested in. There were tones of fabrics that I was interested in though! I found several of Denyse Schmidt's fabrics, and I bought several. There were many other pretty prints, but as I promised, I did not take long, so I can not tell you about all the wonderful things in the store.

Face Blankets for baby Paige

My sister is having a baby in August and really liked these loveys but thought they were too expensive to be able to buy them for her little one. I told her that if she bought the fabric, I would make them for her. She picked Alexander Henry's Juicy Jungle with pink Minkee Dot for the back and hot pink sateen binding. I was really nervous about these as it wasn't a gift that I made because I wanted to, but I was commissioned to make them. I was worried that they would not hold up to the standard of a bought and paid for blankie. After practicing 4 times, I thought I was ready to make the ones for baby Paige. I made three loveys approximately 15 inches square. I fussy cut the fabric to focus on different animals: the elephant, the hippo, and the tiger (my favorite).
Here are the results:






(Yes the pictures of the tiger loveys were taken at a different time and place than the other two.)




I love the pictures of two of the loveys folded up so beautifully!

These are the results of one of the projects I have been working on and was able to finish on Saturday. I finished two of them. They really don't take much time to make, but I was so nervous about them that I fussed over them for long than was necessary to make sure everything was perfect.

Man's Shirt to Girl's Dress: Take 2

I have been busy with many things that do not involve the sewing machine. In the last week or two I think that I have gotten to sit at the sewing machine one day, I think. I finished several things that hopefully I will get to post about in the next couple of days.
But first, I have been meaning to post about these dresses for a while. These used to be two mens Hawaiian shirts. I got the shirts at a local thrift store that puts different colored tags on sale for $.99. I just found a couple of large Hawaiian shirts that I liked the prints. Now they are cute dresses thanks to this tutorial. My little ones look great in them. I love the long length. And the knife edge pleats add a really nice fancy touch.

Both dresses:

Avalyn's dress front:


The back of Avalyn's dress (this used to be the front of the shirt):


One of the sleeves. I didn't have narrower elastic, so I used 3/4 inch.


Keira's dress front:


The back of the dress. I really love the buttons on the back!


Here I was able to use 1/2 in elastic (or I think that is what it was!)


I was really really happy with how this pleating came out!


My husband really liked these dresses and thinks they are some of the best things I have made as he sees the real usefulness of them. It has given me some ideas of making shirts for myself from men's shirts. We will see if I find the time to do that soon.