March Along Progress

We are a little over halfway through the month, and since weekly check-ins for March Along have not happened, a halfway point check-in seemed like a good idea.

I did very well for the first 2 weeks, but week 3 I got very busy with life. Between kids events, job interview, church stuff, school volunteering, doctor appointments, dance lessons and then getting sick with the Flu (I think), I was just tired out! Sewing did not appeal.

I am still sick, so I think today I will just read my newest Block magazine for my 15 minutes.

Here are some of my efforts this month.

Pieces cut for making a "Farm Girl Vintage" quilt block.

First round of fabric choices for the quilt pattern test.

Squares cut for quilt pattern test. The light where I sew is not good for photographs. See the photo below for truer colors.

Scraps from the quilt pattern test. They look very different in this light. It is pretty true to the real colors.

Diaper clutch made for a neighbor of my mom's.

Shirt appliqued with a little shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day outfit with a  rosette on the headband  and an appliqued shamrock on the shirt.

2 of 6 rosettes made for St. Patrick's Day. These went to teachers to pin on their shirts.

Drawstring bag made to carry a camping sleep-mat. Later it will house my yoga mat.

Throwback - when I was a kid, I took clogging lessons. I have recently started taking them again with my sister. It is quite fun and funny. We laugh a lot!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was littlest miss's Valentine party at playgroup. She didn't have anything festive to wear, so I grabbed a shirt that she wears under tank dresses, because it has a stain and is almost too small. I traced a heart onto Pellon with a cookie cutter that I conveniently had left out, ironed it to some fabric and slapped in on the shirt. My machine was already set up for FMQ so I just scribbled some stitching around it to secure it.
 (Side note: turns out yesterday I had been FMQ-ing with the feed dogs up! No wonder it was so hard to maneuver!)

She loved it it took about 10 minutes or less and now I can pass the shirt on, since the stain is more or less hidden by the heart. (I thought I had it all covered, but nope. Not quite. :) . Oh well.)

Hope your Valentine's Day is Wonderful!

PS

My 3 year old made her own Valentines with a little cutting and folding help from me.
She did great stamping, gluing, and assembling them. They have a little candy watch or bracelet inside.

 

More sewing stuff

My sister received her Infinity scarves in the mail, so I am free to post the photos now. I say scarves, plural, because I made one for her as well, which was a surprise for her. So I had to keep it to one scarf when I talked about it/them before. :)

Her friend likes frogs and while my sister may have been thinking fun or cutesy frogs, I immediately thought of Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric. I tracked some down, emailed her a pic and got the okay to proceed. It turned out really cute and her friend liked it.
For my sister, I used Nest by Valorie Wells. (I love that line.) My sister had said she liked turquoise, although, when it came, it was pretty light for turquoise, even the darker leaves. But she still liked it even though it wasn't a true turquoise color.

I have also been working on that girl baby quilt. I finished the top and am trying to get it quilted today. I have less than a week now to finish it. I got super lucky at the quilt shop when I found a pretty pink fabric for the backing in the clearance section, 40% off, and there was just enough on the bolt for what I needed. I will show a photo of the back when I get it quilted.

I have to say that I love the fabric line, love the fabrics especially the pink tone on tone. Every time it came up on deck to sew I would get a little giddy. :)
But, I should not have used the green. I really didn't have any other options to get enough blocks using what I had on hand. My daughter and I re-arranged the blocks over and over and there really was no good way to get a balanced look. I also had trouble getting over the bulk at the places where the white met the setting triangles. They are pretty bad. Don't look too closely. Definitely an area that I need to work on. :)
The photo looks really green to me. I will take a photo of the finished quilt outdoors to get a photo with truer colors.

Have a great day!

 

FNSI results

In spite of multiple interruptions from a certain 3 year old who did not want to stay in bed, I accomplished a fair amount last night during my Friday Night Sew In time. :)
  

 For starters, I cut the infinity scarf I am making for my sister to give to her friend.
A little Prince Charming anyone? :) Her friend likes frogs and I immediately thought of this line. I was lucky enough to find some for a very good price and my sister liked it. I hope to get it stitched up today and into the mail.

The I finished quilting the last 6 squares on the Christmas Table Topper.

I trimmed it up and made the binding and attached it.

That is one UFO complete!  25 left to go. :)
 

 

A few more scarves

Here is the latest round of infinity scarves (*update* the tutorial blog is now private) that I am making for Christmas gifts. There are actually 6 - 2 of each fabric, since that is how many I can get out of 1 1/2 - 2 yards of fabric. The greenish blue is Odds and Ends by Julie Comstock of Cosmo Cricket from Moda, the stripe is Amy  Butler's Midwest Modern, and the coral pink is Silent Cinema by Jenean Morrison from Free Spirit

 These fabrics were approved by the mom of the recipients. I took photos of potential fabrics at the Fat Quarters Quilt Shop (thanks to them for their allowing me to do that) and emailed them to her. She picked ones the girls would like and that is what I bought. I am going to give the second set to my kids' teachers for Christmas. I have a couple more to make for Christmas gifts with some more Little Black Dress (in taupe) yardage I got from Burgundy Buttons during their sale. Then I think I am done with scarves.

This and that

My son requested a wallet so I made this for him tonight.
I made one of these for myself a while back and forgot that I wanted it to be just a bit wider. It is a little awkward to get coins out without just dumping them. The zipper needs to be a little longer to work well. Not much, maybe 1/2 an inch.

 I also completed 2 more infinity scarves with some Little Black Dress from Basicgrey for Moda. These will be gifts for family and teachers.










 

Again with the scarves

I told you I like them! And there are more to come since I am doing them for Christmas gifts. I spent a not small chunk of change on fabulous fabric today. No Jo-Anns this time either. This was Fat Quarters Quilt Shop all the way. I did get 4 free fat quarters out of the deal, but it didn't really ease the ouch at the register.
Anyway, those will be appearing throughout the week. For now, here are the other 3 yahoos' warm scarves for our cold (HA!) mornings in Southern California. (We really do get chilly.)

These are for the boys. I bought 2 yards of 42 wide flannel (in all 2 prints) and got 2 scarves with some fabric to spare. (I should measure how much is left.) One was cut 10" x 54" for the older boy, and the other is cut 8" x 50" for the younger one. It was both a fit solution and a "Hey that's my scarf!!", "NO it's mine!!" solution.






Here is my oldest's scarf. I also did hers 54 inches long, but cut hers to 8 inches wide, since she doesn't like too much bulk. She tried it on and wanted it shorter so it would sit right up against her neck. I will probably take this one for me and make her another 50" one or smaller.  I liked this print, but as flannel goes it is pretty flat and short on fluff and softness. It almost could pass for plain cotton.

I tried a couple of different things with the tutorial on these, one being only leaving one turning hole. The tutorial leaves 2 holes to stitch up once the scarf is turned. So on one, when I stitched the short ends together, I also stitched the side seam on one side so I would only have to close one hole at the end. I also figured out to press the seam allowance down before I turned it right side out so it would be easier to close.
My next tweak will be to sew one seam all the way from top to bottom, leaving only one turning hole from the very start.
 I can see why she would do both sides to start though. I would have been more lost I think doing the sides differently, but I don't think it is necessary for the process.
We shall see!



 

Infinity scarves in flannel

I made 2 Infinity scarves (this tutorial)(*Update* the tutorial blog is now private)  in flannel. One is going in a surprise winter care package and one is a toddler version for - you guessed it - my toddler! The toddler pieces are cut 36" x 5".

 

Infinity Scarf

Infinity scarves are so cute! I have pinned a few tutorials and the other day, took time to try one out. It turned out great!

Full length - about 30 inches

Doubled.

The tutorial was found at Kill Them With Craftiness. (*UPDATE - the blog is now private)The tutorial was well done. I had to go slow at one point and really read the directions, but over all went really smoothly.

  My scarf used 9 inch (or so) width and I pieced the 2 sides to make 60 inches, since I was using stash fabric and it was not long enough. I like the more narrow width though, since a lot of bulk sitting on my ample chest is not terribly attractive.

 My kids have now all requested flannel versions to wear to school in the chilly mornings. I spent a rather nutso amount of money yesterday buying flannel at Jo-Ann's to make them. It was painful, knowing that I could get the fabric for a third of what I paid, but I wanted them off the to-do list, so I paid the price. I will be making at least one today.

 

WIP Wednesday: Costume Complete

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Go check it out!

This week has been entirely consumed with making the Renaissance costume for my daughter. I finished the last piece, the vest, last night.



Here is the shift (Shirt). That was a huge learning curve.

The skirts with the shift.

And the whole costume.

SOOO glad to have that off my to-do list. I think it would have been a more enjoyable process with a little more time to work on it. It was a little rushed to really do it right. I was happy to be able to do something like this for my daughter though, stress aside. :)

And here is a little WIP/UFO update.

I took some time this morning to look at my old chart listing my projects and doing some updating. I think there are a few things missing, so I have some more work to do on it. I am feeling a need to get organized. Moving threw a lot of things into chaos and there are still parts of life that need to be sorted and recovered.

I want to get some work done on the Hot Wheels quilt, bind my 3 quilts that are quilted and start my Come What May. Those are at the top of the list for the next few weeks.

Project	Due	Designed	Started	Pieced	Bordered	Back	Basted	Embellished	Quilted	Bound
Bliss	N/A		Yes	Done		FP		N/A
Cherry	N/A	Yes	Yes	Done	Done	Done		N/A	Done
Spur	N/A	Yes	Yes	Done	Done	Done	Done	N/A	Done
Sherbet	N/A		Yes	Done	Done	Done		N/A	Done
Tree skirt	Mid Dec.	Yes	Yes
Advent Calendar	Nov 30	Yes	Yes
Hot wheels	N/A
Vacation 2010	N/A
Southwest	N/A
Teal and Brown	N/A		Yes	Done	Done	Done	Done	N/A
Neutral Mediterranean	N/A	Yes	Yes	In progress
Mckenzie
Lavender
Repro Wedding ring
Come What May
Supernova
T-shirt
Sliced Coins				Done		FP