Embroidered Bag

I've had this idea in mind for a while for an upcoming gift, but wasn't sure what bag pattern to use. I ended up finding on in one of my mom's quiting magazines that I ended up resizing to get it a little bit bigger.

I started by embroidering the little girl 2 layers of soft white canvas. The embroidery pattern is from the Pretty Maids I set by the designer of the Allsorts blog, bought on her etsy shop.

After trimming it to the size I needed I cut the rest of the bag pieces from some scraps of red Heather Bailey fabric and from a fun canvas table cloth I was given by a friend for projecting. I added a little bit of blue rick-rack as I sewed it together. If you've ever made a bag before, this is one of the simplest projects! It went together in less than an hour. This bag is about 20" tall by 15" wide.

Bright Quilt

I put this quilt top together about 3 months ago, quilted it a few weeks later, and just finally finished up the binding this week! My mom has been machine sewing her binding on, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's super easy and comes out looking decent if you're patient!

Fall Owl Quilt

My Mom gave me some of her cute fall fabrics to make a quilt with last week. She had made one from a similar pattern, so I came home and figured out some dimensions for cutting and went to work. I have now learned how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter while sitting down! It's not as easy as one would think. I decided that I wanted 30 blocks that are 8" once the quilt is assembled. I spent one day cutting, one day sewing, and 2 days basting, quilting, and binding. I think this is one of the fasted quilts I've put together! Tom and I both love the little owls in the bright fall colors.

Another Girly Dress

I used 3 fat quarters and a little bit of white lining fabric to make another one of these cute Oliver + S sun dresses! This time it took less than 2 hours from start to finish! The only change I made was to not use the piping because I thought the colors were vivid enough.

Rainy Day Thank Yous

Wow, today is a fall day! Yesterday I used my car's air conditioning and today I used its heater! I was hoping for another nice day to sit outside at some park and read in the sun, but oh well! Instead I spent a few hours making baby shower thank yous!

A Little Dress for Haly

A few months ago when my mom and I were at Pacific Fabrics looking for diaper cover supplies, I discovered that they had a cute Oliver + S pattern on their clearance rack! I had been admiring their cute little girl dress patterns on their site for a few weeks, but didn't want to pay full price. Since I've been granted some sitting-up privileges by my doctor, I've spent a few hours over a couple days cutting and sewing the Tea Party Dress together.

The pattern came with 5 sizes, so I started by tracing th pattern onto a pattern sheet so I can use other sizes as I want them. I decided to go for the 6-12 month size this time, hoping that it will fit Haly next summer. If not, then I'll put a onesie under it and call it a jumper! This was a pretty basic pattern to cut and sew. The hardest part of the instructions to understand was the part about the yellow piping I added. If you've sewed much before, you should be able to figure it out without really needing the pattern instructions. One change I made was to not use buttons or make button holes. Instead, I again used my amazing 16mm snaps from the Snap Source.

My favorite part about this project is the main fabric I used! It is a cute little Strawberry Shortcake print from 1980 left over from something my Grandmother made, most likely for a cousin. I've had it in my stash for years and loved it, but never quite knew what to do with it. I still have more that I'm trying to find some cute project to use more of it.

Halcyone's Hexagon Bib

I saw a picture of a bib someone had made with hexagons that I got my idea from. I have no idea where the picture came from, but here is what I ended up with!

I started by making hexagons. This meathod is called English Paper Piecing. This video is an excellent tutorial if you want to give it a try! Here are the steps I followed:

• Make evenly shaped hexagons out of cardstock scraps.
• Cut fabric scraps to go over the paper. I'd recommend a little more than a 1/4" allowance.
• Baste the fabric over the hexagons.
• Lay the hexagons out to make sure you have the colors set up in a way you like.
• Whip stitch the edges of the hexagons together at the edges.
• Iron once they're all sewn together
• Remove baste stitching and pull out papers. If the papers don't look too worn, you can save and use them again.

Once I had the hexagons all sewn together, I cut a piece of fabric and sewed it across the top. I used a piece of an old skirt for the back. To get the pieces to stick together for when I cut out the pattern, I very lightly spray basted the backing, a piece of warm and natural cotton batting, and the hexagon piece together. After it dried, I pinned a pattern I made (I traced a Carter's bib, making the neck space a little bigger.) to the fabric stack and cut it out. I machine quilted the layers together. For the binding I used some bias cut binding made from more scraps I had. To finish it up, I used some great 16mm snaps (no sew!) from the Snap Source. Now I can't wait to use it!

Halcyone's First Sweater!

I started this sweater for Halcyone last Tuesday and finished sewing up the seams today! I love the way it turned out! I picked up the free pattern a little over a year ago at Ben Franklin when I saw the one they had made with some of my favorite yarn. While looking through my stash of yarn last week, I re-found my yellow Lion Brand Recycled Cotton yarn and decided to give it a try. You can still get the Nature Baby Kimono pattern free at Ben Franklin in Redmond, or download it here with a free account.

This is one of the easiest non-scarf knitting patterns I've ever done. The whole thing is made with basic knit and purl stitches, a few easy "make-1" stitches (knit one in front and one in back of the same loop), and knit 2 together stitches. I made the smallest size of the 4 given in the pattern using size 8 straight needles. This took 2 skeins of yarn (didn't use much of the 2nd skein). I think if someone used a smaller size needle for a newborn size that 1 skein would be enough.

Paddington Quilt

A couple years ago I found a couple fat quarters of this cute Paddington Bear fabric. I added to the collection as I found different pieces of it on sale. My mom also had a few pieces that I was able to use to complete this quilt!

I finished sewing the pieces together and quilting through the layers about a month ago. This is the first quilt I haven't "stitched in the ditch" on. Instead I sewed about 1/8" on either side of the seams. Tom and I both like the way it turned out, and it was much easier to keep strait. After being put on bed rest I was able to hand stitch the binding down around the back side. Hopefully Halcyone likes this quilt as much as Tom and I do!

I'll try to update this blog a little more often! I've been working on lots of hand held projects over the past couple weeks. A few of them are almost finished!

Chalkboards

A few years ago I got a can of this fun spray paint, and have since been waiting for the perfect wood panels to paint. Last summer I thought I'd found some free cupboard doors in downtown Snohomish, but when I walked back to pick them up they were already gone! About a month ago as Tom and I were pulling apart our crib for the dumpster (don't worry, we were supposed to... it had a significant recall so we mailed in its hardware for a new crib) I realized that the back side had 2 very nice panels. Tom saved them for me.

A few weekends ago I a spent the day sanding them and starting to paint. Last week I finished painting the first one and finally got it hung in our dining/living room! We love it! The second one will have a light blue frame and will hang in Baby Haly's room.