What I Wrapped, Part 2

Sassy and Sweet embroidered onesies



Toddler Backpack. Modeled by a horse because that is the closest thing I have to a toddler in my house (the cats don't make very good models...)



Teeny Tiny Baby Shoes


And a Quilt!!

Works in Progress

Since the dragon bag isn't working as my daily bag, I am making a new bag, using the Carry All bag from Nicole Mallalieu. I figure a bag named "Carry All" should be good to...well...carry all my crap.

I am going to applique an owl on it, because I have a thing with owls lately. I have over a dozen owl fabrics, but they are all quilting cottons and I want to use a more substantial canvas for my every day bag. Here is the owl pattern and my pile of fabrics that I plan to use laid roughly in owl shape to see how it will look.


I am set on the body fabric, but the rest of them I am not sure about....

Another work in progress is a toddler quilt. Cars and trucks is the theme, and this is the quick sketch I made for it. (Lame sketch I know, but I use Paint to do it as that is what I have available. I am sure there is a better way.) I am going to do yellow lines down the black sashing so it looks like roads.



The focus fabric is Dig It by Michael Miller.


The fabrics for this one are all washed up and ready to cut. I think this one is going to be really cute.

Animal Party

Another Baby quilt, done!



Giraffe Close Up


All tied up, ready to go!


I really like this one. I like the bright colors and I love the Animal Party fabric. So much that I couldn't bear to just meander quilt over it like I did the rest of the quilt. So in those squares, I loosely quilted in circles around all the animal circles.

I also made this card to send with the quilt to its recipient.



I hope they like it!!

Twin Boy Giraffe Quilts

Baby quilts are done! Good thing too because the shower was today. Nothing like last minute sewing. I finished the binding on the first one during my lunch hour at work yesterday and the second one last night around 8pm. My shoulders and hands are kinda achy though--from now on I will plan other projects as breaks between quilts.

But enough talking, here are the pics. Sorry that I couldnt do natural light, but by the time I finished them it was dark!!

Green sashing


Blue sashing


Giraffes!


Both quilts together with soft cuddly backs showing


Folded close-up. You can see the quilting better on this one.


All tied up, ready to go!


One thing I learned about myself is that I need to watch myself as I tend to get smaller and smaller and tighter and tighter with the quilting as I go on. I do the same thing with knitting. I think it has to do with my natural personality, which is somewhat like Cameron in Ferris Beuller. Coal + My Ass = Diamond. Ha!!

So productive I don't even know what to do with myself

A very productive weekend for me! First, I made a quick Jalie top to wear to our usual Second Saturday swing dance in Richmond. Fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics, of course.



I had a few problems with it, mostly of my own creation. I tried to do a FBA, forgetting that I usually don’t need to with Jalie knit shirts. But after fiddling with it for a while, it was pronounced Good Enough and worn happily to the dance. I like the style and it was pretty easy to put together. I am sure I will do another one and not try to “fix” it and then it will turn out splendidly. All I see are fitting issues, but I got many compliments on it at the dance, so perhaps to the non-sewing eye it looked fine.

Most of the sewing was quilting stuff. I am still in progress on the Giraffe Baby quilts. The tops are done now, and I spent the weekend practicing free motion quilting. Here was my very first attempt.



Not perfect, but not too shabby for a first try. But I wanted a bunch more practice before I quilted on the Baby quilts, particularly since they are a gift. I decided to make a very small little quilt to put on the cat’s window seat, a Cat Mat. I figured the cats wouldn’t care if the quilting was a little wonky! 

I whipped together this quilt top and quilted it as my second practice piece.



Much better! Still not perfection, but good enough to start on the Baby quilts. I set it aside to do the binding later.

I actually finished the quilting on one of the Baby quilts and started the binding. There are a few boo-boos, but I don’t think they are noticeable and I really feel like I am getting the hang of free-motion quilting on my machine. But all of these projects are very small, so doing the Mod quilt will still be an adventure. I will try to have pictures of the finished quilt top tomorrow, but no promises as I am meeting with Vintage Pants dude again tonight to go over some changes he wants in the pants.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

Parting shot: The children are enjoying the end of rain and the opening of the house.

The Good, The Bad, and the Hopefully NOT Ugly

After such a fabulous experience at the Artful Quilter, I was looking forward to a trip to another local quilting shop in Fairfax to grab a few more fabrics for the baby quilts I am making. Sadly, my experience there was quite the opposite.

First, the Quilt Patch is in an old Victorian house, which means that unlike the friendly open spaces in The Artful Quilter, the fabric is jam-packed into 3-4 tiny tiny rooms. But they do have a lot of fabric, and I could get past that if it weren't for the rest of the atmosphere problems I had there. Although I will say they need some better signage, because I wandered around for 15 minutes trying to figure out what was what and left still not sure about their organization method.

And the wandering brings me to the main problem. At the Artful Quilter, I was greeted when I came in the door, offered friendly advice, and given a lot of personal attention even to the point of the gal staying past closing to help me. She asked questions and when she learned I was a novice quilter, had all kinds of advice and tips. When I came back a week later, she remembered me and my project, and honestly seemed as excited about my progress and my quilt as I am. If it is an act, it is a damned good one.

At the Quilt Patch, no one said hello as I came in, although I did get what appeared to be a somewhat icy stare. I wandered for a time, with no one offering to help. Finally when I passed for the third time one of the sales people who was cutting fat quarters, she asked if there was anything I needed. I finally did get one small piece of fabric cut and then got the heck out of there.

I am not sure if it was because I am not one of their "regulars" or because I am quite a bit younger than the rest of the folks there, or maybe the purple and blue stripes in my hair. But I felt decidedly UNwelcome at the Quilt Patch, and I will not be going back. Next time I have some gaps that I can't fill with the stock at the Artful Quilter, I will go to G Street (which I try to avoid because I always spend too much money there) or buy online.

I am on a real quilting kick now, but I am willing to bet if my first stop had been the Quilt Patch, I never would have gotten the fabrics and started the first quilt, let alone making and plotting several more.

Speaking of the several more.....I got the top done for one of the baby quilts. I am making coordinating but not identical quilts for a work friend of The Husband who is having twin boys. Here is the completed quilt top, with a felt giraffe applique just laying on top of it for now. Hopefully I will start the actual quilting this week.



I am using the same animal print as a focus for the second one as well, only with blue sashing, as you can see in this photo of the second quilt in progress.



I also got a muslin done for the vintage pants I am making for a fellow dancer. We are doing a fitting tonight and I will take pictures. These pants have a lot of really fun details.

I am officially re-mojo-ed. :-)

So many toddlers, so little time

Been quilting up a storm and I am almost done with the Mod Sampler quilt top. I finally get my fancy machine Sven back from the spa today....so no more excuses about starting the actual quilting part of the quilt.

And of course, my scatterhead has started new quilts before the first one is finished. But this time it actually makes sense. The Husband and I between us have about a billion friends having babies in the next few months, so I am making several small baby quilts. These will be easier to machine quilt than the big lap quilt, so good to do them first for the practice. I'll take some photos of the fabrics and progress this weekend, but I think they will be really cute. Children's quilt fabric has come a long way from the cutesy stuff it used to be. Now you can get cute AND funky. YEAH! There was even some robot fabric that I had to buy for myself. :-)

Speaking of cute and funky, more toddler shirts, made several more for the many many toddlers of my acquaintance. Cause everybody wants some...I want some too! (sorry, Cusack flashback. it happens.)



I like what I did with the hippo--took off the bird, resized, and reversed so there is a momma and a baby. Designs, of course, from Urban Threads.

Before I do the quilting this weekend, I need to work on a commission piece. There is a REALLY good lead in our local swing community who wants some vintage style pants. He has a pattern that a tailor made him long ago, but no one to make the pants. It has been really interesting to work from someone else's hand-drafted pattern and it is a fun project. Plus I get paid with some private dance lessons, which is great!

Urban Threads is made of awesome!

I have an embroidery machine that I rarely use. Partially because I am lazy, but also because a lot of designs out there are kinda country cutesy style. Now I don't have a problem with that style, but it really doesn't suit me.

And there are also a lot of poor quality embroidery designs out there--stitches that are too dense or not dense enough, outlines that are a little off, etc. So even if you find something fun, it is either outrageously expensive, or not worth the few bucks you spend on it.

Just when I thought there was no hope besides digitizing designs myself (which I can do but really am too lazy for that), Urban Threads saves the day! Her designs are modern and funky and include things like zombies and robots and monsters (oh my!). I bought a few to try out on some shirts for a friend's toddler, and I couldn't' be happier with them.







She has lots of fun project tutorials and a fanged stuffed bunny as a studio assistant. I desperately covet her boingy curl hair.

I had a question about their designs and they wrote me back within an hour or two. Fabulous customer service!

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

Parting Shot: I just rediscovered this one of The Husband and Bella as a kitten on the camera. She is SUCH a Daddy's Girl

But not for me

I have been doing a lot of sewing lately, but not for me. Alterations and other commission work. Including this diaper bag that I whipped up this weekend.



I experimented with my usual diaper bag pattern and added a zipper closure on top by request. It turned out pretty spiffy. I love the fabric and now have lots of scraps that I think will become a bag for me!

This weekend is The Husband's birthday (he is a pi baby!) and we are going to a dance down in Richmond. So hopefully I will have a new dress made for me by then. I am making the Hot Patterns Kimono Wrap Dress and I really hope it turns out. Sadly, I have not always had the best of luck with Hot Patterns, but I love their styles so much that I keep buying and keep trying. I have it all cut out ready to sew.....but sewing for others sometimes kills my mojo, so I have a backup dress in the closet just in case I don't get to it. Or in case it turns out to be a hot mess.

And before I forget (again!), big thanks to Amy and Ann for the Sisterhood Award nominiations! Yay!

ARF!

Presenting, Spotty Puppy. Companion to Dotty Kitty.

Bad Auntie! No Cookie!

My best friend had her second child the first week of October. And as I made her first child a beautiful hand embroidered wall hanging thingy and gave it to them the day she was born, I felt the need to do the same with the second.

But it wasn't finished in time. So I figured I would give it to them for X-mas.

But it still isn't finished. Instead they got a picture of what it might eventually look like if it is ever finished.

But I didn't feel that guilty, as the child is still an infant and will not ever know that her wall hanging was many many many months too late.

I do feel slightly guilty that the fabulous stuffed doggy complete with dog house that I am making for the three year old--who DOES know that Auntie Brooke did not come bearing gifts at X-mas--is also not finished.

I stopped feeling all that bad when I saw the ginormous mountain of gifts she had. My hard work would have been lost among the Dora Beauty Salon and the mini-trampoline I am sure. So I have decided that the dog with house will be a Yay, You Pee In The Potty Now present, as that is the big effort that is going on in their house right now. That should give me at least a few more weeks, right?

But just to make myself feel a little better, here are a few pics of the awesome gift she got from me last year, Dotty Kitty and Carrier--the dog/doghouse will eventually be a companion to them.








As an aside, Dotty Kitty is rarely allowed in her carrier now, as the two real live cats in residence have decided that it is theirs. Despite the fact that it requires elbow length gloves and three people and a taser to get them into a REAL carrier. I love cats.

Not totally useless

I have done a LITTLE sewing. I made these bags, as well as one I made for my niece that I never got a photo of....




And I embroidered these burp cloths as a gift for a friend.



And I made another dance shirt that I will post about this weekend after I have taken it out for a spin. And am in the middle of making a couple suits to wear to a big work event that is coming up in a few weeks.

So lately, I have only been lazy at posting, not at sewing. Progress! :-)

My first serge

I bought a serger many moons ago and then sat on it. I feared the serger.

But NO MORE!

It began with my niece, who is in the hospital for an extended period. She has this one pair of jammies that is comfortable and that she doesn't have to take off for the nurses to get at everything they need to get at. But her mom couldn't find another pair anywhere and called me to make a copy. And as they are made with a knit fabric, I figured it was the perfect time to confront my fears.

The result:



Not perfect, but not bad for my first serge. And niece is very happy to have three new jammies in her favorite colors. They are made with a medium weight cotton stretch fabric, bound with strips of the same fabric in a different color.

Yay! I am Hero for a Day!