For My Sweetie!

I made this travel tote for my hubby's toiletries. He LOVES the 70's colors, so I chose the mustard moons by Heather Ross from my stash. It's from her Far Far Away series. Oh, yes, and the pattern is also hers. You can find it in her Weekend Sewing book. The book itself is a collection of patterns and is presented in a most eye-pleasing manner. I love perusing it's pages. My qualm, which as it turns out, is shared by many, is that while it is presented as a basic and fairly simple collection of patterns to be enjoyed by the more novice weekend sewer, the patterns are actually not written clearly enough for said casual crafters. None the less, I have decided that I like this book enough to someday buy it when I find it at the right price. Until then I will continue to borrow it from the library. I have enough knowledge and patience to get through it's patterns without too much @#%*&!

Heads up! "Bottom Weight" fabric means upholstery weight, more or less. I had never heard of this term. Now, I have been sewing since I was 5, and now at 40 I messed up and chose a heavy linen. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! So after sewing it up, which I opted to do by hand (more on that, later), I took most of it apart again, affixed a medium weight interfacing to the wrong side of the liner fabric just inside all of the seams, and then sewed it all back together, AGAIN! I was hoping that my husband would consider that as 2 gifts. But, alas.....

So here it is inside out so that you can see the inside pockets and the oh so cute Alexander Henry mushroom fabric. I didn't smock the upper edge of the pockets because with the folded hem edges, the fabric was just too thick. But with the firmer sides the pockets are supported enough not to sag.

To finish off the bag, instead of sewing it on the machine which would have created seems and a smaller bag, I used an invisible ladder stitch. I first stitched up the outer layer, and then to reinforce the seam I stitched up the liner layer in the same way. In the end my finger was very sore, but it was worth it. My hubby loves it!

By the way, I had just enough fabric with a fat quarter of the moons by piecing together the top pieces.

Quiltin' for my Honey

560 blocks! This is a big deal for me because as of yet I have yet to make a quilt bigger than a crib. But my babies are all grown up now, and I am inspired to dote on my Sweetie. And so in honor of him, it will be all guy. It is nothing frilly. It is all 4 1/2 " squares of guy stuff. Forks, spoons, lawn mowers, trailers, boots, dogs, roosters, camping scenes, coffee pots, coffee beans, owls, and mushrooms. My guy's kind of stuff. I even added the fabric from the 4, count 'em 4 button-down shirts he owned when I met him. All solids, all very worn, stained and sun faded. And yes, he knows I cut them up.

So we chose a plain and random square patch design. After I had cut out all of the many squares, I made little piles, each with only one of each fabric (more or less) to make sure I kept them all spread out evenly over the quilt top.

I so love Cassie's quilted pillow at yougogirl.typpad.com/you_go_girl/doodle_stitching/, so I added some doodle stitching, guy style on 8 1/2 " squares. I decided to personalize my sweetie's quilt with little sayings and images. Nothing frilly, mind you. Here's the first one:
Good words for any father of 3 girls.

The next one honors his culinary tastes, and the way in which he wants all of his birthdays and fathers' days celebrated:
I have 4 more to go before I can tackle this:

Daunting, yes. Impossible, no.

Eventually, his quilt will begin to look like this:
Here's a closer look at some of the fabrics:

(Yes there are flowers and some little hearts. Not too many, though.)

Hopefully it won't be long before I post again with tons of progress to show! By for now.

Pretty Pink Princess Pillow

This pillow finished up a little over the top as far as cutesy goes! The buttons put it over the edge in my opinion. I am getting used to it and even fond of it as it sits on my bed. I was determined to not buy any more supplies for it after the initial breakdown of clearance yarn purchase. I could not pass up my two favorite colors of Cotton Fleece. After all, there was only one skein left of each color, tea rose and provincial rose. I took my new stash home, and feeling rather guilty, pondered over what to make. My logic is as follows. If it never actually reaches my stash, then it was truly needed and not just spending and stashing! Right?
So I started a ripple stitch crochet pillow, only to find that I had nowhere near enough yarn! There must be some shamefully appropriate Murphy's law I could reference here in hindsight. But persistence paid off, I think. I now have a super girly pink pillow that luckily matches my room, because I'm a little too shy to put in on the couch!
My husband should at least not have to tolerate pink princesses in the living room. He has, after all been so kind about the pink curtains. Thank you, Sweetie.

Happy 40th Birthday to Me!

Wow! What a vacation! In one week's time, I survived a nasty chest and head cold, a nasty crampy visit, and turning 40! Not that I mind turning 40, it was just a huge mile marker to be approaching, hitting and then passing. Now that it's over and I am getting over the other two simultaneous events I am feeling SO much better. In fact it could have been rather fortunate to have been sick and crampy to boot, because I feel incredibly happy and healthy now that I'm 40.

So while I haven't gotten my Hoola Hoop quilt pattern up, I did just take a lovely little quiz that let me know which Jane Austen character I most resemble.

Take the Quiz here!

And now, since I don't really remember anything about her, I will just have to take a moment (a very long moment) to reacquaint myself. Who knows, I might just get to know myself a little better. On the other hand, I might just decide that I need to take the quiz again and to take it a bit more seriously. Like maybe I shouldn't assume since I only recognize one or two actresses to choose to play me one day that that is because I only remember those that I really connected with. Or, I may just have to accept my newfound persona. Also, why can't our husbands be our best friends? Seeing as I don't have a sister, and I'm not that fond of passing strangers. This last bit will only make sense if you have taken the quiz. On the other hand, it may perk your interest enough to have a look-see!

Happy Valentine's Day!

These are for my sweetie, so that we may share many more tea times together. Four mini quilt coasters.

I started making these as a way to practice machine quilting before I dive into a wall quilt I need to quilt. As is typical of me, I didn't want to just practice and then throw away perfectly good fabric and thread. And we have been in need of coasters. I found a lovely tutorial on the blog flossieteacakes for making fabric coasters. As is also typical of me, I altered the pattern a wee bit. I made them four inches square ( so a little bit smaller), and I free-motion quilted them.
I chose these rosey prints. And then later added some leaf green fabric to make a solid 4. (It was becoming apparent to me that these were to be a Valentine's day gift.) It was a really good way to practice quilting. Thank you, Flossie.
I finished the binding by hand, wrapped them up for my hubbie. . .
I put them with a box of his favorite cookies. . .
Later we shared tea and cookies, and each other's company. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day, too.

P.S. Check out the blog Lily's Quilts (lilysquilts.blogspot.com/). She has made an amazing hexagon quilt out of Sherbert Pips. And she is having a give away.

Some Cush for My Tush!

As though I needed any encouragement, I can sit forever it seems on my new and improved sewing room chair. It can definitely be called over-stuffed with 2 1/2 inches of foam and a few more of fiberfill. When I found this chair at an estate sale years ago it was upholstered in white vinyl. About a year ago that began to split across its top and now I am finally getting around to doing something about it.
I had some old red fine-whale corduroy from my grandmother's stash. I don't have many things of her's, but I charish all that I do have. I also used some of it to make a Christmas tree skirt which I decorated with some of her old shell buttons, and to make my girls their stockings with some more of her buttons.

To make the cushion, I cut out a piece of the fabric as big around as the plywood that I had salveged from the old seat and added 1" for the seam, by as tall as I wanted my cushion plus the amount that would curve around its top, the inch to staple it to the base, and the inch to create a drawstring closure at its top. In the spirit of my Granma I reinforced all raw edges with a zigzag stitch. I sewed this into a loop and stapled it onto the particle board which resisted those staples like the dickens (to use one of my Granma's old phrases).
At a certain point I decided that they would just have to do (nobody would see them anyway), and I turned to stuffing the form.
I began with the salvedged foam and then stuffed it firmly with fiberfill.
Next I cinched up the top with some cord. Because the fabric was so thick, I was left with a hole the size of a quarter right front and center. So, I created a patch out of some of my daughter's old velvet pants and some cardboard-like interfacing. I used the turned-edge applique method (which can be found on Purlsoho.com's blog, The Purl Bee) that uses another type of fabric to create a nice, even edge.
Then I sewed it over the hole using the ladder stitch. I also stuck one more piece of interfacing between the two to help the patch hold its shape.
I went around twice for good measure and because it wasn't easy to catch all of those folds of fabric with the first go-around.
And YAY! I love it to look at and to sit on.
I kind of feel like Little Miss Muffet or something whenever I sit upon it.
It's kind of tuffet-y, don't you think?

Best Loved Doll Layette

When I was a little girl I had an old doll that my mother had had when she was a little girl. I LOVED this doll, just as she had, but this doll was UGLY! It had been given a permanent look of agony. It was meant to look as though she were crying and in great need of her mommy. What I loved about this doll was that it looked very realistic. This, indeed, was the effect it had on me, as it had on my mother. Others, though, found it downright frightful. The story told me by my mother's mother was that one day at the zoo, my mother had lost this doll. A man eventually stepped on it, and upon hearing the thing give out a "mama" looked down and got a bit of a fright by the look on the baby doll's face. This story always made my Gramma giggle. She must have loved this doll, too, because she kept her for almost 30 years, until I came along and was ready for her. She replaced her cloth body, and I kept her until my little girls were old enough. The problem by this time, however, was that whatever kind of plastic she had been made with was beginning to decompose. She was no longer soft and rubbery. She had become kind of sticky. I took one last long and loving look at her and chucked her in the garbage. Sad, but true. She just wasn't the kind of doll you display in a glass cabinet.

One of my favorite stories when I was little was The Best-Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill which is about a girl who just loves her old worn doll enough to take her to a fancy tea party eventhough she has other more "presentable" dolls. So when my friend showed me her little girl's "best loved doll," and asked me to make a little doll sling for it, I was inspired. I took it straight home and gave it a good soaking by hand, so as not to hurt it in any way. Then, to make sure it dried out in time and didn't mildew, I put her in my supper-dupper washer on spin. Oops! She came out looking like she had just been reborn. Her head was smooshed in! Aargh! Lucky for me, and everyone involved, I was able to coax that head round again. And the best part is that I must have set her in there just right so that her winkin', blinkin', and nod eyes had popped right back into place. They don't look perfect, just a little less sunken in.

It didn't take long, and Aquamarine had a sling (made from an old dress), two new diapers, and a super-soft cotton velour gown. I added the pink heart and edged the diapers in pink, because that is the little girls favorite color.
And I do want her to be tickled pink with her new baby things. I'm just hoping that I didn't wash away that certain scent....
P.S. The link for the free doll sling how-to is http://crafts.sleepingbaby.net/kidsling.html