Latest Project

Sorry, I haven't posted anything in the past 2 weeks. My daughter's birthday was last weekend, and that consumed a lot of my time.  I had finished this project before the party, but haven't had the time to blog about it.

I wanted to make this quilt for a wonderful person that I know who is going through a rough time. I wanted her to know how much I cared and I wanted it to be very feminine.

 Here it is. This quilt required a ton of cutting.  I made 12 of the individual blocks that were made up of triangles and squares. I absolutely love the bows that they make.  The tan fabric that I used for the sashing has tiny pink specks in it.  I repeated the same white border around the blocks, and then used this quite striped fabric for the back. 

 Here is a close-up of the individual squares.

 And again, how it might look folded up on your couch or chair.

After doing quite a few quilts, I have discovered that my favorite way to bind a quilt, is to use the fabric from the back and wrap it around the front.  I used to cheat and use my sewing machine to sew down that fabric in the front, but the results I will say look like you "cheated".  Instead, I plop down in front of the tv, and hand stitch the binding down, so the stitch is almost invisible. I used to be nervous that this would come loose in the laundry, but it never has.  It looks professional and clean.  I guess we have to give it up to all those quilters back in the day that did everything by hand; none of it done with a machine.  I also many years ago figured out how to miter the corners quite well.  I should have taken a photo of those corners.  Anyway, I will remember to take more details photos in the future.

I have some curtains to sew for my daughter's classroom, and someone else to make window treatments for. I hope to get some pics of those up soon.

Modern Quilt

I made my oldest sister a quilt for Christmas last year. Her family room has a very modern artwork piece above the couch and coordinating pillows on the couch.  So I wanted to go bold and modern with the quilt.  What I loved about this design was the design that the individual blocks made as they were pieced together.

 And here is a close up of the individual pieces.  I think some people have the idea that quilts are all flowers and very grandmother like.  Those are beautiful, but quilts can also be very modern and bold.   My personal belief is that quilts look even better with age and the more they are washed.  I have also found I love flatter quilts, so I usually pick the lowest loft batting I can find to put in the middle.  My kid's quilts are perfect now that they have been laundered so much.  Maybe someday I will make a quilt just for our family to take on picnics.  That was quite a tangent, but anyway those are some of my thoughts on quilts.

I have two more projects in the works.  One project I finished and gave to my son's teacher for her classroom last Friday, but I am waiting to see it up.  Then I will take some photos and post.  The next project I am working on now and am extremely excited about.

Know someone who is having a baby. . . I have the perfect gift.

 I was given a similar gift when my daughter was born.  This is now one of my standard baby gifts.  Who doesn't love a personalized hooded towel.  My kids still use them to this day.  Maybe I will add my kids to this post.

Cute Baby Gift

My cousin just reminded me of another fun personalized gift that I have made. I made a few of these for my daughter when she was little and they stopped including bloomers with some of her dresses. These are two that I made for my cousin's daughter.

A sweet nursery

Another great friend from college had her first child a few years ago(well more than 4). She is a very sentimental person, and memories and memorabilia mean a lot to her. When she and her sister were little, her grandmother sewed their bedding sets. They had the cutest matching twin bed sets with curtains. She wanted me to use some of the twin bed sets for her daughter's nursery. Since there were two twin bed sets, she could save one, and I could cut up the other. I have to tell you, I was extremely nervous about cutting up this set. Her grandmother was a great seemstress. The sets were very well made. We bought other fabric in addition, and I simply added a border onto the valance to incorporate all of the new fabrics. I don't think I have a picture of the finished window treatments. Maybe she will be awesome and will be able to find one. She did recently move, and have a new baby. So we might have to cut her some slack.This is not her nursery, but my daughter's second room. I was just trying out the set in my daughter's crib. The crib skirt was made out of the fabric from her childhood room. I love the big pink ribbons.Sorry about the quality of these photos; not sure what happened there. On this last photo notice the eyelet detail at the top of the bumper. This was my favorite part of it all. We were in love when we found this detail to put in it. I know there was a quilt as well. Maybe we will see photos of that also. I still have squares from it, in my sewing cabinet, where I got a little too excited and cut and sewed to many.

Matching Christmas Dresses

When my oldest was born, I decided I was going to sew all of her Easter and Christmas dresses. That has only happened a few times since I have a niece who hands all of her clothes down to my daughter. I did make my daughter and doll matching Christmas(casual) dresses.

and more animal prints

One of my best friends from college was having her first child a few years ago. She asked me to sew her nursery bedding set. She has wonderful style and wanted something fun and bold. What better than animal print? This was a long distance consult, so it was mostly done over the phone. I was able to deliver the set to her in person at her baby shower though.Aren't the animal touches she did in the room great? The artwork over the crib was an extremely creative idea. For her baby shower invitations, I got a set of animal stamps. We stamped them, and used watercolor pencils to color them in. She used these stamps to blow up and create large prints of the animals. I am forgetting some of the details, but she may have painted them in some more herself. She is quite crafty and artistic herself. These basket liners were an idea we had at the end using the leftover fabric we had. She had a book theme for her shower and as it turns out her daughter LOVES to read/look at books.So these were perfect. I am sure they held baby supplies as well.There was a quilt I made for her as well. I will see if we can find a photo of that one, and add it to the post later.
I might like the valance the best. I love the brown, pink, and zebra print all mixed together. I remember most working hard to line those zebra print stripes up in the pleats in the middle.