Swimsuit Cover Skirt

Last night I whipped these babies out.  Fiona already had a cover skirt to wear to the pool, but Karina didn't.  I pulled out some swimsuit fabric that I had been given - free is good - and as soon as I did, Fiona said she wanted a new one as well.  The fabric was 60 inches wide, so it made it very easy to cut out two-30 inch squares, cut a circle out of the center, hem with a zigzag while stretching the fabric to give it that wave at the end, sew a casing around the center hole, thread the elastic through and voila - 2 skirts that worked wonderfully well on the trip to and from the pool today.

I asked Karina afterwards what she was doing with her hand.  She indignantly said, "It's a K!" (sign language)

Rainbow Shadow 9-Patch

So, what have I been doing?!  What's taking me so long to post some more?!  Umm, well, I must tell you that with it being at the end of the school year, things are really crazy, though not as crazy as they will be when the "lazy days of summer" start. Whoever coined that phrase didn't have 7 kids!  Last Saturday, with all the other things that had to be done, my oldest daughter, a junior in HS, asked me if she needed to bring a present to a graduation party she'd been invited to that afternoon.  We quickly whipped out a "movie blanket" as we call them - a fleece, lap blanket and embroidered it.  The embroidery took a bit longer than we figured, but she made it, only an hour later than she planned. ;-)

Well, I am working on a quilt, but it's taking a while and I will show it to you when I've finished.  I am also trying to figure out the best way to do a tutorial on the process, so please bear with me.  But until it's done, I want to show you probably the quilt that I'm the most proud of.  This is one that took me years to design, and I've spent a bajillion hours making a pdf file on it for the center section, but have not finished the instructions for the border.  I'm afraid I'll never get back around to it now. SIGH!  But here it is:

I always wanted to do a shadow quilt, and I saw a single Irish Chain done in red, orange and yellow that inspired the flow from one color to another, but I love rainbow colors and figured a flow going through the spectrum would be what I wanted to do.  I, of course, had to make it more complicated than simply having the color flow in a 45 degree angle, so each 9-patch could all have the same color in it. All in all, there's a 9-patch within a 9-patch within a 9-patch within a 9-patch.  Each little square is 1" finished.  The center portion is 81" square.  The border is a pieced chain.  The corners were tricky to make them fit together and if you look closely you can see it's not perfect. Total dimension is 108" square. 

Laura Gunn's "Grandma's Afghan"

It's DONE!!!!  Two months and a day later and probably some 70 hours of work with the cutting piecing, hand quilting and binding.  Whew!  Now I get to get it shipped, probably harder for me than making the quilt.  Luckily my husband is happy to run to the post office for me.

Bird's Eye View

Close up of the back so you can see the stitching

Close up on an area of the front

Close up of one square with view of the corner/binding

The label on the back.  When I was almost done sewing it on, I realized that I left off that I made this for Laura Gunn with 2 of her fabric lines.  I could have kicked myself.  My most abject apologies, Laura.

Table Cloth, Skirt, Cathedral Window and Pouf

I ran across a couple more photos that I can post.  The table cloth is one I just finished for probably one of the friendliest ladies I've met.  It is of course not on the size of table she is going to put it on - I just put a cake platter on a bar stool to take a picture of it.  Someday I'll need to post my trick for lining up fabric pieces so that the pattern matches up - I always end up having to re-figure it out every time.

 

 The next is a skirt I made as a demo for Fabric Nosherie more than a year ago.  The pattern is called Fina Skirt by Girlfriends Patterns.

  

 

A year or more ago someone asked me a question about Cathedral Quilts.  I began doing some research into it and wanted to make a sample of it.  However, I didn't want to used up too much fabric on a little sample, and to tell you the truth, I don't like hand sewing, so I decided to make it in miniature.  DUMB MOVE!  True it used less fabric, each tiny diamond is made out of 1" fabric scraps, and the number of hand stitches are much fewer, but it's in such a tiny area that it was ridiculously hard.  Next time I make a cathedral quilt, I will make it with much larger squares.  Live and learn.

This is the Honey Bun Pouf, pattern by Amy Butler.  I did not make this pouf, but I taught the class multiple times and can make it without a problem.  Shannon told me I should take a picture of it.

So, now we are soon going to be in the realms of digging deep into photos from my other camera and me figuring out how to post them.  *SIGH*  I wish I were more techie.

Baby Shower

I was invited to a baby shower today, and though I can't go, I'm going to send along a gift for the mother to be. (Don't tell Crystal she's getting this in 2 hours).

In my humble, but correct opinion, these Fabulous Foam Blocks are THE BEST present in the WORLD!!!  We're giving her the Black, White and Red set because those colors are so good for newborns.  But we can and have made them in purely random colors, rainbow and color themes (earth tones, pastels, brights, etc).  They are made with foam instead of stuffing them with polyfil which means they stack.  For those environmentalists, the foam is "green."  Babies love the soft, tactile, easy to hold and visually stimulating cubes.  Toddlers can stack, built, THROW without hurting anyone, learn colors, and so much more.  Even adults have fun building with them, but more importantly, they love how safe they are!  They are even great for decorating in a child's room.  My kids have built towers out of them.  When Gideon was one, he got about 20 for Christmas from Emerald and my kids (she had them help sew them up).  Sterling figured out how to build an Eiffel Tower from them.  It's pretty impressive.  If you are interested in some, e-mail me.

Some Quilts

I began looking for photos of quilts I've made to show a friend, and discovered it's a rather daunting task looking through so many photos.  I didn't even find the ones I was looking for, so that will have to come later.  Some of these are ones made professionally, some for charity and one for a wedding gift for my niece.

This is the quilt Emerald and I made for our niece, Kaylia as a wedding present.

This is the front of a baby blanket made for someone through Frabric Nosherie.  She had the name embroidered on and we chose to tie the quilt to give a more tactile experience for the child.  The back of the quilt (shown below) was pieced to have the feel of a road that the boy could drive cars around on when he was older.

Next is a quilt made for Shannon to have on display in her shop, front and then back.  I must say that this quilt shows my anal tendencies.  To give it a random look, I was extremely careful to not have matching or even like fabrics touching, to spread the colors throughout the quilt, etc.  I laid it out and swapped things around for probably more than a good hour.  Once I had it how I thought was perfect, I took pictures of each square's layout so that I could get it back in the right place.  Then as I squared each square, I made sure that the diagonal lines were going to line up properly.  The ruffled binding was a pain in the ba-tootie.  With a double ruffle, the 4 layers of fabric was so thick that ruffling the regular way wouldn't work.  I had to hand baste it to gather the ruffles, then of course sewing it all closed by hand. Shannon did not have me quilt it, though I would have liked to and think I could have done it at least as well.

This is a beautiful quilt top I made for someone through Fabric Nosherie.  Little did I realize the amount of work that would go into this.  The pattern was for a baby quilt and I don't know who told the customer how much material to order, but they did NOT figure things out very well. They doubled the amount of fabric to make a quilt 3 times as big.  Let's think about this, if the baby quilt is 5 squares by 5 squares that equals 25 squares.  Now we want to make a quilt that is 8x9. That's 72 squares, so why would they tell her to get twice as much fabric.  But, I'm pretty thrifty.  I cut out the biggest 2 pieces, then out of the centers - the part that would be covered by the fabric above, I cut out the next two sizes.  It worked.  Beautiful quilt too, but not worth the amount I was paid for it.  My son came home one night from babysitting and I realized that he made more per hour sitting at someone's house while kids slept than I was getting per hour making this.  Live and learn.

Here's a close up on a bit of the rose quilt.

Aaaah, Memories . . . Here are two ways of preserving those memories in the form of a quilt.

A sweet lady who took my beginning class and then the Houndstooth quilt class at the store undertook a project to take her recently departed dad's button down shirts (the kind he always wore) and cut them into squares to make some memory quilts for her mom and sister by her dad's birthday.  About two weeks before his birthday, she felt overwhelmed and called me for help.  I was delighted to do it.  In fact, my sister Emerald helped so we could make 3 quilts (she needed a memory quilt of her dad, too, you know) within the time frame.  At each of the squares corners are buttons, painstakingly removed from her dad's shirt.  She let me embroider her dad's initial onto the quilt.  They were finished in time for her dad's birthday.

This was made for a woman this past Christmas for her daughter from all her special t-shirts from high school, in her school colors, of course.

The next are two quilts made as demos for classes I taught.  Mazed, pattern by Kristy Daum - though I made it a quarter of the size.  Instead of each square being 2" finished, they were 1" finished.  The next was Houndstooth, pattern by V and Co.

Mazed, made and quilted by me.

Houndstooth, made by me, but quilted by someone else.

 The next quilts are ones I made last summer for a charity event at church, where we made quilts for girls rescued from human trafficking.  They wanted the quilts to have either the "Log Cabin" or "Shoo Fly" designs somewhere in the quilt to symbolically represent safety - taken from the use of quilts in the underground railroad.  However, I was trying to use fabric squares that one of my sisters had given me when cleaning out her fabric stash - squares she had bought to make baby blankets for charity, but had come to the determination to clean some stuff out.  So, know that I was trying to use up these squares and somehow put in one of those quilt designs (usually in little squares around the outside or in the corners, though one is a log cabin made out of squares).  The last of the quilts is one made by that sames sister who gave me the fabric squares.  She made it, I quilted it.

Log Cabin

Hugs and Kisses with Shoo Fly in corners

Puzzle with mini Log Cabins in the border

Diagonals with Shoo Fly in corners

Quilt Wanda made with Scripture in center square - Isaiah 40:31 NLT

"But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint."

Skirt, Shorts and Blouse for Trenna Travis

I know, I know, I didn't get these pictures up right away as I planned to, but the last two days I've been hand quilting on that quilt for Laura Gunn in hopes of getting it done right away for the quilt show it's going to.  But these are the clothes that we (my sister, Emerald and I) made from the new line of Michael Miller fabrics for Trenna's photo shoot in LA with a model that will make these look fabulous.

Michael Miller Sewing Room Photos by Trenna

Trenna Travis, a fabulous designer and friend, asks my sister, Emerald and me to make items for the photos she takes of Michael Miller Fabrics for their catalog. We whipped these accessories together - the ironing board cover, mug caddy, Square Deal Pin Cushions and Henrietta the Turtle Pin Cushion (both patterns by Heather Bailey).  I took some pictures before running them over to her house, but her lighting is way better than mine as you can see below.

Monday and Tuesday we get to make some clothes for another photo shoot in California on Wednesday.  Praying for good weather for you, Trenna. ;-)

Christmas Gifts

I'm a mean mom who, instead of having my kids buy each of their siblings (or even just one of their siblings) a present, require them to MAKE a present for the one sibling they give to.  I got this idea from a lady at church whose kids did this.  They could buy the materials, but the gift itself had to be made. We started this the next Christmas - in 2004 when there were only 3 kids old enough to participate.  Gifts vary, some are sewn, some made from wood, and one from PVC pipes.  One of the best things about this is the thrill that the children get in giving that gift to their sibling and watching them open it.  I'm glad we do this, although in reality it is a LOT of work for the adults helping them.

Anyway, these are the presents that I helped my kids sew for each other.  One child was too young to be in the rotation, two made boxes from wood for their older brothers to carry Magic the Gathering cards in, but the rest were sewn.  Here they are:

Panda Purse that Sterling made for Fiona.  As you can see from the assortment of some pandas around it, Fiona loves Pandas.  The purse pattern I made up, trying to duplicate a picture of a purse I saw on-line.  I see errors in it, but Fiona doesn't, and I guess that's what's important.

Duffle bag that Fiona made for Monica.  We made a pattern based on a bag Fiona got for Christmas one year from Santa. That bag fits perfectly under the seats of the 15-seater van.  You'd think that a van that big would have room for luggage, but it really doesn't, so a perfect fit is wonderful.

Monica made Karina a "Gum drop Pillow."  This one was easy - there was a pattern by Amy Butler.  We of course jazzed it up just a bit with an embroidered and appliqued "K" and "Karina," as well as a handle on the side for carrying around.

 

Donovan made Gideon a fleece/flannel blanket.  Gideon chose the fabrics, but I think that part of the reason he liked those particular jungle prints is that his baby blanket is an assortment of jungle prints.  It's amazing to me that sometimes out mistakes turn out to be wonderful additions.  I ordered the flannel fabrics probably 6 months before we designed the layout, and when we went to cut the fabric, there wasn't enough of the zebra stripes.  We were missing 2 squares.  One square (top left), I pieced together, but there wasn't even enough to piece another square, so we embroidered his initial and name on a red square and put it in the bottom corner, which Gideon loves.

The next two pictures are not ones my kids made, but the tool buckets that I made for Gideon and Porter who are both obsessed with tools.  Other presents they received were different "real" tools that were all wrapped individually to put in the tool buckets.  I found a "garden bucket" pattern somewhere that was made for a 5 gallon bucket.  I used that as a guide, but re-figured the dimensions for a 2 gallon bucket (which happen to cost more than a 5 gallon bucket - go figure!) which was a better size for two little helpers. 

Laura Gunn's Quilt Preview

I have had great dreams of getting a gazillion pictures up for you to see all the things I've made, or at least those that I've taken pictures of, and although my sweet hubby is very willing to show me how to resize a photo so that I can insert it, I have not yet coordinated my schedule for doing this with his.  To his credit, he has shown me several times before, but me remembering how to do something on a computer that I don't do frequently, well, it just hasn't moved into my long term memory, since up to this time it hasn't been important enough for me to retain.  I sat down just now and tried to do it without him and it worked!  ;-)

This is a quilt I am in the process of making for my friend Laura Gunn with her beautiful line of fabric "Painter's Canvas" as well as some from her new line that comes out next month, "Edges." I'm calling it "Grandma's Afghan" since it duplicates the colors and shapes, as well as we can with a different medium, an afghan her grandma made for her.  I will be finishing up, quilting and binding it in the next few weeks and hope to have it sent to her by the end of this month since she's planning on taking it to the quilt show on May 17th.