Super Simple Baby Quilt 5

One of the things on my to-do list for May was finishing a snuggly baby quilt for the wee man.  For those of you not in New Zealand, I can tell you that it's getting a smidgen chilly in Auckland now.  Not polar vortex chilly, but definitely put-the-fire-on-and-wear-multiple-layers chilly.

I thought the brown binding with mossy splodges was very Seuss-like

Now the wee man has quilts, but not a snuggly, buggly, lined with fluffy candlewick quilt.  The poor deprived little dear.  So I did what all crafty mummys do, and dragged out a jelly roll of Lorax fabrics that I may have bought when I was pregnant.  Good things take time, you know.

I sewed five strips from the jelly roll together to make the non-bordered patches, and trimmed them to 10.5" square.  This meant I got 4 blocks from each set of 5 strips.

For the bordered strips, I sewed three of the jelly roll strips together and trimmed the blocks to 6.5" square.  I got this meant I got 6 of the little blocks from each set of 3 strips.  I bordered the smaller blocks with 2.5" strips of white so that they ended up 10.5" square too.  All done.

Basting - not my friend

The most time was spent mucking around figuring out the layout.

Once it was all done I ummmed and ahhhed about the quilting.  I didn't really want to practice my free motion quilting, but in the end I decided that I should just suck it up and give it a go.  I channeled my inner Leah Day and got going.

I quilted the whole quilt in a pattern Leah Day calls "snake paisley".  Personally I think it looks like echoed flames.  It was okay for a first time, but that's about it.  There are various things that could have made the experience more pleasurable - a supreme slider, a quilting table, some machine quilting gloves, and a little more care.  I think I need to make sure I'm really keen on free motion quilting before I invest more money in gadgets though.

Attempts to take outside photos were thwarted by the rubbish winter light.  Sigh.

It took me about five hours.  It's fair to say that I had the hang of the pattern near the end - however my stitches were not as smooth and lovely as they should be.  Oh well, that is what practice is for.

How are you all?  What have you been up to?  In other news I had purchased the EQ7 quilt design software (for the Mac).  It seems this will be fodder for many blog posts.  Hopefully I use it lots!

Linking up on Friday to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Howdy visitors!

Shush doings

Hello my lovely friends.  Long time no see!  Life has been interfering most inconveniently with blogging.  I have managed to get some sewing in though, in between work and looking after Princess and the wee man.

So - I have decided to have a no sewing night tonight so that I can show you some of the things I have been up to - although I apologise to those of you on Instagram, because you will have seen these pics already!

First, here is a cushion I made for the birthday of a 4 year old friend of Princess.  Her parents are friends of ours, and her mum seems to like my sewing - which seemed a perfect opportunity to inflict a hand made gift on a child.  As you know, I love the feather European pillow inners from Spotlight, so I used one of those again, and squashed it into a 20" square rainbow cushion.  Squishy and delicious.

Princess and I chose the fabrics together.  Pink goes in rainbows, dontcha know?

Rainbow bright

The strips are 2 inches wide (finished) so this would be great for using jellyroll strips.  I quilted it with the super simple wavy lines that have become my current favourite.  I also put a strip of the rainbow into the back, to make it a bit more exciting.

Rainbow strip in hot pink corduroy

I forgot to take a picture of the zip, which Princess also chose.  It is bright orange, to go with the general rainbow brightness.

And pink ric rac edging, just because

I didn't go to the party, because I was on wee man duty, but Hubby tells me it was well received.  Everyone loves a rainbow, right?

I also made a cushion for Mother, it being Mother's Day and all recently.  She had said she was looking for a red velvet cushion to go in the shrine (aka bedroom) to Henry Fish: The Quilt.  The room has a lovely vintage look, so I thought a strip of the Japanese lawn I got recently from Polka Dot Tea fabrics would go really well.

The pompom edging was just because ..

I gave the buttonholer a run on Bernie and discovered that it works perfectly!  I really do love my gadgets.  The wooden japanese buttons on the back are from a cute little shop I found on Etsy.

I also put on a little label ala Pretty by Hand.  She is good at the little details like that.

In between the other projects I have managed to start on the Sugar is Sweet sampler from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I have found that cross stitch is the perfect antidote to the end of a long, hard day at work.  It doesn't seem to require the same level of energy as sewing!

I'm using a 32 count white linen with sparkles through it, which I picked up from The Embroiderer in Birkenhead - a lovely shop.  It doesn't have quite the range of linen you can find on-line (although it does have a good selection), but at least I could have it straight away.  I can be a bit needy like that!

Cakes and strawberries and all things good

I also might have the Cherry Blossom Festival sampler in my inbox, but we're going to pretend it's not there for a while, okay?!

And ... I started on the sudden revival of the ABC BOW - and finished the embroidery.  I have decided to make log cabin blocks with cool and warm colours.  It is a sugar sweet girlie concoction which Princess seems to like very much.  I am slowly putting the blocks together - they are taking a while to sew up.

C is for cupcake

Those strips are 3/4" finished.  Cutting them all up was not really the best job.

I have decided that there will be spontaneous revisiting of the ABC BOW blog posts (which as you know, died off slowly when I finished the wee man's quilt and I started work) to celebrate the finish of this quilt.  Everyone who has finished their ABC quilt can link up and we'll have a little giveaway.  So get sewing, if you haven't finished - it could be any time soon (or not so soon, more likely, to keep you on your toes!)

Did you know that Citrus Sweet Love BOM is nearly finished too????  Eeeeep.  The last lot of fabric is being sent out this month.  I could not be more excited - it is hard to believe it has been a year since this started.  I have learned so, so much from making this quilt.  And I still love it (despite us having some challenging months in the middle, mostly to do with my lack of desire to appliqué).  I couldn't say for certain, but I may have bought some backing fabric from Fabric.com in anticipation of basting it in early June.  I.  can't.  wait.

Late night photo of the blocks all laid out.

Are you still reading?  Then let me tell you about dumpling pouches.  Love them.  That's all I have to say.  Megan got me hooked on these.

This is the large size (scissors for scale) ...

And this is the small size...

There have been more, but I'm exhausted!

That's enough from me!  What have you been up to??

Linking up to finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. Howdy visitors!

Shush makes a Tilda princess make-up bag

Sometimes I'm last to the party.  That's just how it is.  One example of this is my recent discovery of Tilda.  Yes, I know, I must be the last person in bloggy crafty land who didn't know about Tilda.  In fact I would still be oblivious if Kristyne hadn't recently featured the book 'Tilda's Fairy Tale Wonderland' on her blog. Thanks to the quick shopping from the Book Depository, I've now been pretty much sucked into the vortex that is all things Tildaness.

Although I would love to make the princess and the pea on the cover, I first need to source a little doll's bed.  In the meantime, the princess make-up bag was an essential.  I did change it up a bit though - I decided to add interfacing, and change the construction of the purse so that the zip was fully hidden.  I also made it a smidgen bigger - which is relative, because it's still tiny.

The exterior is a cute butterfly fabric I snaffled in a de-stash recently. I used some hot pink Kaffe fabric for the lining, and a matching hot pink zip.  I also thought it was a good opportunity to use one of my little crocheted violets, made following a craft day at Spotlight one Saturday morning last month.

I added some little notions to the inside, because this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a pay-it-forward project finished.  I have three to do after signing up with Renee at Quilts of a Feather earlier this year.  Although it's not in the photo, there was also some teeny Whittaker's Easter chocolate and a wee manicure set that was too cute to leave at the shop.

I have to confess that I forgot the little side tag.  I'll add that to the next one.
 

And in case you were wondering what I was given in my pay it forward gift, here it is.  Renee did the most amazing paper pieced feather.  I would sooooo love to do a whole quilt of these.  That can go on my quilting bucket list!  She also made a gorgeous little zipper pouch for Princess, which has been swiped and filled with (even more) little treasures.  Lucky monkey.

I ummed and ahhhed about whether to take it to work or not.  In the end it has been put in pride of place on the china cupboard in the entrance way. It even matches the art work we have on the wall.  It was meant to be!

I will be linking up this week to Show and Tell, Needle and Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom Quilts.  Howdy visitors!

Crystallised - cushion finish

A long time ago I made a cushion for Princess' friend for her birthday. At the time I promised to make one for Princess, but never got around to it.  About a month ago I bought a feather inner at Spotlight, which then sat on the back of the couch waiting to have a purpose in life.

One hot pink cushion extravaganza

During the week, Hubby and princess spent some time going through Pillow Pop to choose the best cushion design. Princess decided on a half square triangle design called Crystallise. I think she has great taste, because it was one of my favourites too.  After all my recent hand sewing, I was keen to get on the machine this weekend.

All. The. Cushions.  Including mine - huh.

First I cut 100 3" squares (50 each in cool and warm colours). I then sewed the squares in pairs (one cool and one warm) down the diagonal (1/4" either side of the middle). Then the 100 new squares were pressed, and trimmed down to 2.5". That was definitely my least favourite bit. The best bit was laying the squares out in the design. Princess thought it was just like a puzzle.

A side trip to Spotlight was necessary to pick the hot pink corduroy backing, hot pink ric rac (I hate piping mummy) and hot pink zip. I then sewed it all up on Saturday night when little miss was in bed.  I inserted a panel of quilting fabric in the back to break up All. The. Pink.

The back in all it's glory

There may have been a moment on Sunday when I nearly traded Princess in after she announced she didn't like the ric rac after all.  It all seems to be sorted now, after we spent some time looking at all the special animals and pretty flowers.  I am not allowed to give the cushion away, in any event. I think that's a good sign.

Spoiled little madam. It's lucky I love her.

Turtle and snail

The feather inner was 25", but it was a bit sparse, so it squidged perfectly into the cover, which is finished at 20" square.

Fish and baby turtle

I pointed out to Hubby that if I had made the blocks 10" finished instead of 2.5", that we would have a quilt big enough for our bed, for the same amount of work.  *sigh*

More little fish

It is pretty cool to have enough of a stash to just get the fabrics you need for a project without going to the shop. It is a bit spoiled too.

Wee wander little footsteps

 I even used a snippet of Heather Ross.  Princess doesn't know just how lucky she is...

Heather Ross bees and mice

I think this might be a good week for some link ups (if I remember!) to Needle and Thread Thursday, Show and Tell and Crazy Moms. Hello visitors!

Super simple baby quilt 4

I had a sudden thought that I should get a baby quilt started on Friday evening after work.  I recalled that the baby was due on Sunday, so I thought that something super duper easy was in order.  And it doesn't get much easier than sewing six fat quarters of fabric together (18' x 20").  But I thought I could do a little bit better than that!

All wrapped up and ready to go and keep a baby warm.

I decided to do an appliqué word at the bottom.  I had some spare iron on appliqué stuff (I can't for the life of me remember what it is called), but couldn't figure out a word.  The baby name is the usual choice - but I didn't know that.  I have also seen the great "eat, play, sleep, repeat" baby quilt, but that seemed like too much work!  The main fabric gave me a hint in the end - zombies are attracted by loud noises and lights. See, it says so ...

Critical zombie survival information.

And as Princess rightly said, "shhh..." is what you say when the baby is sleeping.  Precisely.

Terrible inside photo taken first thing this morning.

The appliqué was done by printing up the letters "S" and "h" from Microsoft Word.  The font is American Typewriter, and I used size 600.  I then cut the letters out and traced around them (back to front) with a pen on to one side the iron on fusible web.  The letters were ironed on to the back of the fabric.  Then I cut them out along the shape of the letter, and ironed them on to the quilt top.  I blanket stitched around the edge in white thread.  If I was more confident with my machine appliqué skills with Bernie, I would have used colour thread.  I'll save that for next time.

The fabric is Zombie Apocalypse by Emily Taylor Design for Riley Blake.  I discovered there are zombie doll panels on fabric.com this morning.  My life is pretty much incomplete without one, so a panel may have fallen into my shopping cart.  Like I don't have enough fabric or projects.

I used some soft towelling for the back - it is drapey and warm, and 100% cotton, which I think is important for baby.  I love minky, but find polyester doesn't breathe.  It has been quilted in my favourite new quilting technique - wavy lines across the quilt, 2" apart.  The chevron binding is also from Riley Blake.

On reflection, I would have preferred to use dark grey for the lettering - but that is a lesson learned for next time.  As it turns out, it was just as well I didn't muck around with the quilt.  While I was doing the quilting, the baby turned up at Saturday lunch time on a friend's bathroom floor.  Daddy helped deliver him together with the help of emergency services over the phone.  The little guy is doing well, and Mum looks fantastic.  Phew.  Talk about making my hospital delivery look like high tea at the Hilton.

Hope you're all doing well and had a great weekend!

Sew together bag overload

Those of you who follow me over on IG have already Had Enough of hearing about my efforts this weekend to make a @sewdemented Sew Together bag (called so because it is spacious enough to keep all your sewing bits and bobs together).  I purchased the pattern for this when Crazy Mom showed the version she made a while ago on her blog.  That Amanda Jean has a lot to answer for, you know.  Anyway I loved it and Had To Have It.

But the kick up the bum I needed to get this off my to-do list was the cute little 3" square charm pack of Lizzie House fabric that I won from @queenbeefabrics on Instagram.  *awesome*.  So off I went to Spotlight to get some zippers (because I had forgotten about the pile of them I had in my sewing box - durrr).

This was my plan.  It looks simple, but that's because you didn't spend an hour with me messing around with the charm pack before I realised that I liked the look of it if better if I removed the yellow and green tones.

The pattern has faced a bit of flack on-line for being a bit tricky and lacking in graphics.  Luckily for me, there has been a sew-along held recently over at Quilt Barn.  I had a look through the tutorials they put up, and of course, having seen the pictures, thought it was just fine.  I have made plain zipper purses before too, so I know the basics of zipper installation, which helps.  Overall, I would say don't be scared - you can't go too far wrong if you just get started and do one step at a time.

Although I had the outside fabrics, I felt the need to get some linings.  Those two pink spots are Kaffe Fassett - this is the first time I have used his prints - the photos do not do them justice.  The low volume purse linings were from my stash.  The grey and navy dots are Riley Blake.

Here it is all finished - this is the front.

This is the inside.

And this is the side - with a little label - cause I'm posh, you know.

In terms of tips - I found that Bernie handled the fabric thicknesses just fine, even with a quilting needle.  But if you're on a smaller machine, I think that a thicker needle would help with the parts where you sew the inner and outer together.  I extended my stitch length to 3, which helped too.  I quilted the outside, but used medium fusible interfacing for the internal pouches, which gave it just the right amount of body.  I also used 10" zippers, and trimmed them down, because Spotlight doesn't sell 9" ones (as recommended).  They worked just fine!

So that's it.  If you are keen on making one, have a look at #sewtogetherbag on Instagram for some inspiration.  There are heaps of gorgeous examples.  You won't be able to choose!

Now I have to figure out what to use it for - sitting and admiring it on my table is only useful for so long.  Any family members who want one for Christmas better let me know now - it is a pretty time consuming labour of love!

Super simple baby quilt three - finished

This quilt got started some time ago, in a bit of a rush, when of the girls at work had her baby very, very early.  The baby has done really well, and went home recently.  In the meantime, I handed over a whole pile of the wee man's toys and clothes to him, so the quilt seemed an unnecessary extra.

Super simple baby quilt three - bold and quick

The blocks are 10" unfinished, so it is suitable for a layer cake, and super easy to put together - which is the point of super simple baby quilts!  The sashed blocks are made with a 5" centre square and 3" sashing.  I know there is a tutorial out there in blogland for the block, but I can't find it.  Let me know if you can, and I'll link it up.  The most time consuming part was trying to place the fabric so that it looked artfully scrappy.  I used a fat quarter bundle of "Fox and the Houndstooth", with some Spotlight specials to add extra fabrics.

I started quilting it with stitch in the ditch down the blocks, to hold it in place while I decided exactly how to finish it.  Because I was rushing, I did an absolutely rubbish job basting, with the result that it developed what I described as a mother-pucker on the back.  It was huge and ugly.  Because I couldn't be bothered fixing it, the whole thing sat on the back of the chair in the lounge for ages.

All of a sudden I decided to finish it last weekend. I unpicked the worst of the puckering, and then quilted the whole thing in wavy lines about 2" apart - an idea I stole shamelessly from Megan, who finished her own quilt with this technique just recently.

Attempt at a quilting shot, with the wee man doing what wee men do - racing around, getting into everything.

It was bound today, in orange Riley Blake small spots.  Awesome all purpose fabric.  And now it's done.  Why oh why didn't I just finish it before???  Although I have to say, the wee man trying to help me quilt today wasn't that awesome.  He alternates between trying to thump on the foot pedal (fingers near the needle beware) and attempting to rip out the power cord.  The knee lift for the presser foot has long since been removed because that is an irresistible temptation for little fingers.  We are safety conscious here, I tell you.  It would have been much easier if he just napped.

That is a handsome wee foxy, looking smart.

The back is a DS 2011 check.

Over exposed backing shot, with puckers et al.

Now the quilt is off for a wee trip around the world, with Alison's Mexican orphanage the final destination.  When Alison told me they want quilts in all sizes, because there are babies and toddlers there too, I was heartbroken.  The least I can do is send something special to show that people do care.  If you have a moment to make some quilt blocks to help her out, I'm sure she'd appreciate it.