Baby Kimono Set

I made this cute little outfit for a recent baby shower. The kimono is from the Martha Stewart website pattern, which I do not recommend. The pattern is a pain to print and tape together and is missing some crucial markings! I couldn't find a 3-6 mo (or 6-12 mo for that matter) pair of pants to use as a patterns for these so I just made them up on the spot. I think they are more 12 mo pants but... oh well. I repurposed an Old Navy T-shirt of mine for the pants fabric and added some applique to tie the outfit together. As for the baby shoes, they came out great! I need to make them in batches because they just take so damn long and would be amenable to assembly line construction. I used the Kaffe Fassett fabric from the "Dahlia Quilt" and the shoe pattern is from Michael Miller online.

Quilty Playmat for Baby Jeremy

I must have entered the creativity stage of pregnancy because I've been sewing like crazy and coming up with lots of new ideas for quilts and sewing projects. So many projects, in fact, that I'll never get to half of them in the next 4 months before this baby makes her appearance. My new sewing frenzy might also have come about from the liberating feeling I had finally finishing the baby quilt for little Benjamin. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to have my creative energy back!

This was a nice quick little sew for a baby in DC who is the fourth (!) child of a friend of Ron's and mine. It's a little too small to be considered a baby quilt, but is intended to be a playmat for Jeremy to drive his cars and trains over when he's big enough. I had hoped that the border would look more like a highway but it doesn't really. Those yellow lines are single fold bias tape, which was quite easy to sew on. I plan on making a number of similar quilts as many people seem to having boys these days. I'm going to try to piece a road border but that sounds a bit labor intensive, doesn't it!? Maybe I'll look online for some road fabric... Yeah, that's what I'll do...

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2009

Above: finished quilt

Above: Inspiration from a vintage craft book

Above: Sketch of quilt idea

Above: back of finished quilt

This is my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by parkcitygirl. I made this for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap last spring (2008) and it is a favorite of mine. I was inspired by a headboard I saw in a vintage (60's? 70's?) craft book I found. After I sketched it I drew out the shapes on freezer paper and used them as templates for the individual pieces. I then used double sided fusible web to adhere the pieces to the background (a patterned white on white fabric). I sewed it all down as raw-edge applique, machine quilted it every 1/3 inch or so in an echo design and then added some beads and buttons for fun. It was a quilt very different from anything I've done before or since!

Another quilt I thought about showcasing would be this one I just finished, so check that one out too! Thanks for visiting!

Free at last

This is THE quilt I've been alluding to for such a long time. My best friend from childhood had a baby this summer and I really wanted to make her a special quilt. I worked on this for months and months. I put it down frequently because each time I came to a new step I stressed over how to proceed. The design was stolen from April at by small means. I loved the quilt and actually emailed her to get some ideas on how to construct it. I probably would have gone about it a whole different way if I had not communicated with her first (thank you)! I used the fabric Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt. I was holding onto it for a long time and since my friend's name is Katie, it just seemed perfect. I enjoyed making the top, as I always do and then I just got STUCK. I never know how to "quilt" a quilt. So I put it off and probably didn't work on it for 6 weeks. Then I finally kicked myself in the butt and got going. Basting is my least favorite aspect of quilting and this is a bigger quilt than I'm used to so that was one of the things that kept me away. My second least favorite part of quilting is choosing a quilt design and thread color. I have no confidence when it comes to that. I ended up finally choosing an all-over zig-zag design that I used once before. I actually used a Crayola Washable Marker to mark the quilt design. I did that once before too (same quilt) and it came out in the wash but I ended up having major anxiety dreams about it last night! Once I marked the top I wanted to get it in the wash as soon as I could so it only took two days to quilt it and two days to do the binding. Into the wash last night and here is the final product. I still have to clip some threads and add a label. I know it's going to be appreciated and I'm very proud of it.

Quilt for Baby Sarita

This was a fun quilt to make. I'm stuck on another quilt (but just starting to make progress on the next step!) so it was refreshing to take a break and sew up this quick little one in the meantime. I used a charm pack of Andalucia fabric and cut them in half, sewed them into strips and made this nice coin quilt. I enjoyed it so much that I'm on the lookout for other charm packs for future baby quilts. I guess I would have liked to do some more quilting on it. I really need to start practicing more with free-motion quilting. I finally have the right sewing machine but I need some guidance. I bought a book but would like to take a class. Anyone know of any classes or local teachers in Madison? Forgive the picture-- I took it with my phone!