Young Frankenstein Peignoir

Last week was a whirl wind sewing fest (the reason for my lack of posts) to make a Halloween costume of the peignoir worn by Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein for a most charming lady. It of course would look much better with someone wearing it, but we did our best to duplicate (as well as we could with the fabric available) the negligee set.

Pink, Blue and Green Pillows to Match the Lap Quilt

To match the lap quilt shown on October 15, 2013, I made two large pillows to match.  The front of the pillows are identical and match the quilt, though on a slightly smaller scale. It also has a layer of batting so I could quilt it in the same style as the quilt - a fun flower machine quilted into the center of each square. The back of the pillow (shown on the left), is from the same fabric as the quilt back.  The closure is an invisible zipper next to the pink piping (which is out of the same fabric as the binding on the quilt).

New Lunch Boxes for the Boys

I wanted to wait and post these when I had the girls' new lunch boxes done as well, so you could see all of them together, but I haven't gotten the girl's done yet.  Karina's none too happy about that.  I made these when I was in "solitary confinement" at the beginning of September.  I could see that the girls needed new lunch boxes, and had a new idea for a pattern that I wanted to try out. As soon as the two younger boys heard about me making new lunchboxes for the middle girls, Gideon piped up and said that he didn't even have one lunch box!  Would I make him one as well?  Porter than said he wanted one, too.  Well, the boys didn't have lunch boxes because they didn't NEED lunch boxes yet, being in half day kindergarten and preschool, but I told them I would make them each one. After all, when you're on a roll making something, it's easier to make the same thing back to back than wait several years in between. Of course now, I don't know if I can find my written instructions that I made - I may have to re-figure everything out all over again. Ugh!

I made the boys lunchboxes first, figuring if I made a mistake, the boys would care less about mistakes than the girls would.  The problem with that was that I made the boys first, and the girls, who need them more, are still waiting.  Karina told me that all the kids at school are still waiting to see the new one that she had promised she would have last month. I told her I haven't had time to make it yet.  Donovan, my say-it-like-it-is teenage boy said, "You always have time for Trenna when she calls."  I looked at him and said, "Well, yeah.  She's paying me.  If someone was paying you to do something, wouldn't you find the time to do it?"  Mumbled "yes" in reply. ;-)  Yes, paying customers come first, so the girls still wait while I show you the boys' new lunch boxes.  I must add that the fabrics used to make these were left overs from their baby quilts, so they are extra special in that regard as well.

I did Gideon's lunch box first and decided it was a little taller than I wanted, so I revised the pattern and then made Porter's, which was a better size, in my opinion.  There's a pocket inside and since taking the pictures, I added some elastic inside to hold a water bottle in place.

Melissa's Christmas Lap Quilt

Here is a fabulous lap quilt for those cold winter nights. The pattern is called "Turning 20" because it can be made with 20 fat quarters - at least that's how many you'd need for a big quilt.  This is a lap quilt and is the equivalent of 12 fat quarters, or really 6 half yards. Melissa, for whom the quilt was made, let me experiment with some fun, new machine quilting.  I also tried a method of quilting half the quilt to half the back, and the other half to the other half of the back and then sewing them together.  One of my sisters swears by the method and Melissa let me try it out on this.   All in all, I think it turned out pretty well, and hopefully she can't see the errors that are obvious to me. ;-)

 I hope you can see it in the photos. Each fabric has it's own style of quilting in it. The mittens have mittens.  The hot chocolate has a simple stippled pattern. The red stars have holly leaves.  The light blue stars have stars. The red and white snowflakes have poinsettias. And the cookies have a variety of ornaments.


                                       Below is the label on the back of the quilt.

Pink, Blue and Green Lap Quilt

I was asked to make a quilt for a charming lady's baby girl.  She wanted it to be larger than a regular baby blanket so the baby could continue to use it long after she was out of a crib.  Taking the fabric used as her curtains, we found colors that matched.  The backing of the quilt is the same fabric as the curtains.  The final quilt made is lap blanket size - big enough to still lay on the top of a twin size bed, yet small enough to drag around and snuggle under.

Here's a close up of the simple, flower, free motion quilting motif as well as the label on the back.

October Quilt

Despite its imperfections, I enjoy this quilt, one of the 12 quilts I made with my sister, Tamia back in 1998 shortly after falling in love with piecing quilts.  These firsts  12 quilts - one for each month of the year, were wonderful at teaching us new techniques.  We kept them pretty simple as we learned about different blocks and how to make them.  This quilt, often called the Spools design, gave us the opportunity to learn about inset corners.

To spruce it up a bit, I took fabric paint and painted the ghosts in the center squares.  They were originally all white ghosts, but I painted some black, but left the outline, some gray, some gray with sparkles, and the ones I was leaving white, I painted with glow in the dark paint.  This still thrills the kids when the lights are turned off in the dining room (where it hangs through the month of October).

 

Houndstooth Quilt Label

You are always supposed to label your quilts, so that future generations know who made it, why, when, where, etc., etc.  I sent the gray and white quilt home without it, so I asked for it back so as to put on a label.  Here it is:

iPad Case

Another item I made for Fabric Nosherie as a demonstration for a class I would teach, is this iPad case. It was not too difficult, taught some good basic skills and was cute.  The fabric was fussy cut so the patterns on the fabric would line up just so.  It's a good advanced beginner class - someone who has a bit of sewing behind them, can sew straight lines and is ready for zippers and some new tricks.

Green and Blue Eiffel Tower and Polka Dots

Love the green Eiffel Tower fabric used in the top.  But then again, there's no surprise since I lived for 7 months of the mission I served, in Paris.  This is another outfit my sister, Emerald, made for Trenna out of Michael Miller Fabric.  Sorry, it's from long enough ago that I don't know the names of the fabrics.  Still, super cute!

Green and Blue Striped Dress

Here is one of the photos of a cute little girl's dress in blue and green that I made for Trenna and Michael Miller, probably a year or so ago.  Unfortunately it was long enough ago that I don't have the exact name of the fabrics. Still cute though.