Pillows in Toujour Bleu et Blanc

From the same line of fabric as the Blue and White Porcelain dress, I made some pillows in navy and the "Toujour Bleu et Blanc" from Michael Miller.  Simply translated, "Always blue and white," yet it sounds so much more elegant in French.  Ah, French . . . almost everything sounds nicer in French.  As a friend of mine used to say, "If you don't have something nice to say, say it in French."  I already have a plan to make something else in these blue and white fabrics.  Love them!

Blue and White Porcelain Dress

I've been busy this week sewing for Trenna Travis Design Studio.  Here's the stunning dress made from the Michael Miller Blue and White Porcelain fabric that will be coming out this fall.  The pattern is Vogue (V8789) original design from 1957.  I'm so in love with the material!

Multi-Tasker Tote

Here are two Multi-Tasker Totes (pattern by Anna Maria) I made, both of which I added extra pockets inside.  The first is a one I use for a purse and it gets a lot of use/wear and tear, etc. It can hold a lot of stuff.  The beautiful bird Fabric is designed by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics. It is the Garden Wall line, fabric name, "Wing Song" in blue.

The other bag is also made from Laura Gunn fabric from her Lantern Bloom line.  This one hasn't seen quite as much daily wear since I use it for my sewing bag when I go to teach private lessons.  It's wonderfully roomy.  I have extra pockets for scissors, tape measure, calculator, pencils, paper, safety pins, a can of V8 V-fusion, a little bag of nuts, etc. You name it, it's probably in there.  Plus there's so much room in the large center pocket that I can throw whatever else I need right in there.  It's great!

Lollipop Bag

One of the items we would make in our Not Quite Beginner classes was this Lollipop Bag (pattern by Atkinson Designs).  The pattern calls for some neat hardware to attach the handle - a D ring and a clip and that's the one we would make in class. This one I made from the left over scraps, so it doesn't have it, but it works just fine for what I use it for - carrying small scissors, seam rippers, needle package, etc. in my portable sewing bag.

August Quilt

Here is the August quilt I made many long years ago when I first became interested in quilting.  Even though there are things I wish I could fix on this quilt (the small strips of fabric don't line up well, nor are they exactly the same size due to inexperience making perfect 1/4 inch seams), I still like the overall effect and colors.  The suns on the border are painted on with fabric paint. Forgive the photography - it hangs in a room with not much natural light.

Crib Bumpers

School has begun and it's amazing how fast things can get done when kids are no longer around to demand all of your time.  Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love spending time with them, but by the end of summer, without having gotten much done for 3 months, I'm anxious to finish things that have been on hold.  I just finished Danielle's crib skirt, bumpers and a matching pillow. All of the fabric was from the Michael Miller Bekko by Trenna Travis line.  I didn't get a picture of the pillow and skirt, but the bumpers are pictured below in the Coral Tatami pattern.  The skirt was a solid coral with a pleat in the center of the front and back. A picture would not have shown much except the color which is an exact match to the coral on the bumpers.  The pillow was in the Coral Billow pattern with a white piping around the edge and an invisible zipper on one side to close it.

Superhero Cape

Just found this picture of a cape I made for a Fabric Nosherie kids class modeled by a reluctant son.

Doll Blanket, Scrappy Belt, and Beginner's Pillow

My apologizes in not having posted anything the last two weeks.  I was out of town at a family reunion and had internet access only once for a very short time (got 2 e-mails read).  I'm back in the land of the living now. ;-) These three things are things I made as samples for kids classes at Fabric Nosherie.

This is a simple Split Rail quilt pattern.  Easily done for a kids class.

Fun Scrappy Belt.  Also easy for a kids class.

This is the basic pillow we make in a beginner kid's class.  Of course the kids get to choose what pattern they wish to make with their squares.  Each one is as unique as the children are.  It's very fun to see what they do.

Original July Quilt

HA!  I found a picture of my original July Quilt that I gave away.  So after you look at this photo, go to the post in June entitled "July Quilt" to see the new one that I made to replace it.  This is not the best picture, but if you look closely, you can see that in the blue, there is a large star quilted in the center.

Winnie the Pooh Blanket

When my oldest, Monica, was turning two, she loved Winnie the Pooh.  Really she loved him because she had a pacifier clip that was a little Winnie the Pooh, so she called her pacifier (that she was strongly attached to, and not just by the clip), "Pooh."  So for her first birthday we had a nice big Winnie the Pooh party for her where I had made and decorated two Winnie the Pooh cakes, and all the presents were Pooh things.  My present to her was to get her a toddler bed with Winnie the Pooh sheets and blanket.  The only Winnie the Pooh sheets were twin sized, so from one set, I cut them down to make two toddler bed sets and was able to have scraps of the material left to add to the reversible blanket.

The blanket, as you can see, was one of my first to make by myself, and you can see that the corners didn't line up correctly, and I didn't put enough ties on it (not wanting to spoil the overall appearance to the quilt with a lot of ties).  The result was that the batting has pulled apart and is lumpy in places, and empty in others.  However, despite the errors that I made, it was and still is, well loved, though can really no longer be used until those things are fixed.  I was so proud of this quilt!  I had drawn and painted with puff paints pushed and smoothed into the fabric all of the pictures to match the sheets.

Because Pooh was her favorite, this was the front.  The colors on the paint have faded with washing.

Tigger was on the back, with pictures of the other Hundred Acre Woods Friends