Little Presents for Little People

Alistair has made many friends at his day-home.  Several of them are turning 5 this week, so I wanted to do a little something special.  Since my friend who runs the day-home is an amazing baker, I can't measure up on that front.  Jennifer is always so thoughtful sending baking treats home with the kids on special days so I wanted to return the kindness.

 

 

I sew better than I bake, so I whipped up some tissue holders.  With my 'icing' I added their names on it with home-made labels. I sewed up a couple fat-quarters from Periwinkle Quilting and busted a few stash pieces.  My sewing pantry is far from empty, but its looking less like a hoarder!

 

 

To make these tissue holders, I cut a piece 6" x 16" then sew it into loop.  If the scrap wasn't big enough, then I cut 6" x 8.5" and stitched two seams to form the loop.  Then fold into tissue holder, overlapping edges and stitch ends.  Turn right-side out.  Add your tissues.

Sparkle Top | Sil 312

This was the fastest, funest, cutest top to make.  It took less than an hour!  And I get to wear my birthday gift - Stella & Dot - necklace with it.

Using Silhouette Patterns  312 Giorgio's Top and some wonderful lightweight rayon jersey from Unique Textiles, this top is so comfortable and fun to wear.  Here is a close-up photo.  Makes it look sparklier than it really is.  It's totally wearable during the day.

 

There is a slight different between 'traditional' consruction and this pattern that makes it super quick to sew and fit.  You stitch all the vertical seams then at the end you stitch the shoulder-seam.  I basted mine and I thought I'd need to make adjustments, but I didn't.  Hurrah!

  

 

 

Pattern Tester | E & E Ruffle Top

Yep, it's official - I'm a pattern tester! A wonderful blog - Elegance & Elephants - who I've been following for a while decided to launch a children's pattern. She put a call out for testers, about a 100 replied...and 15 of us accepted the opportunity.  You can see from my version, I'm longing for Spring!

I was honoured to make the tunic in size 6. It's so sweet!  You can check out the post from Elegance & Elephants of all the tops and dresses, including images of Imogen wearing her top.  The pattern will be launched March 11th.

 

The fabric is "Luca" from the Alexander Henry Fabric Collection that I found at Unique Textiles. I found a Kona Cotton fat quarter in the perfect shade of coral from Periwinkle Quilting...just perfect to highlight the ruffles on the top.

Pattern was really great for all sewing levels as there are step-by-step photos accompanying the written instructions.  This will be a downloadable pattern - the wave of today in sewing.

 

 

I also got to use this beautiful vintage looking button - the only one of its kind in my stash. It was a perfect match!

 

Birthday Blouse | Sil 450

Note - birthday blouse, not birthday suit! 

 

While travelling this summer down to the states, we got to stay with my good friend in Minneapolis.  I had been following the blog Patty the Snugbug for a while and she worked at this cool little shop Sewtropolis. 

So on my birthday, after some fun water sliding, we found this adorable shop - it was so much fun!

 

The blouse is made form a Michael Miller coordinating quilting cottons.  Then I got the contract pink fabric (fat quarter) here at Periwinkle Quilting.  It needed something...or it was going to die from the blahs.

I did make it up and wore it a few times...and something wasn't quite right.  It fit but looked funny.  Then I realized - it was too short.  So I found more of the 'solid' blue print and added to the bottom, following the shirt-tail hemline.  Love it now.

This is from Silhouette Patterns - 450 Nancy's Blouse.

 

Yellow Swirl Top | NL6871

This is one of my favourite tops as it suits my body shape...and if you make the sleeveless version you can make it from 1m of fabric.  1m like Periwinkle Quilting sells when they cut and bundle the end of the bolts (remnants really).  They didn't have any more of this fabric, so I gambled on it.  I won.

I love that the fabric works so well with my pink cardi - really fun outfit!

The yolks were cut opposite grain on the edge beside the front and back.  The bias strips for the armholes were pieced from what little scraps there were.  In fact I don't think I had even 2" square of scraps.  Pretty efficient!

Quilt | The Big One

This quilt has been a LONG time coming.  I bought the fabric almost two years ago (blush) at Prairie Chicks in Hague when I saw it hanging in the store.  I bought the last kit...but a bit more of some of the fabrics as I wanted to make it larger. 

I used some of my own stash and ended up with two quilt tops.  Rather than doing two quilts, I decided in my practical mind-set to do a reversible quilt. 

Our New Quilt
Our room had an old duvet that I made the year we were married (10+ years ago) and we really needed a refresh!  So thought I'd better make us something.  Didn't want to be the shoemaker without shoes, after all.

Side One

 

 

Side Two

 

      

 

And just a few more close-ups of side two as the pattern is more diverse in terms of fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

The Pillows

Pillows finish the bed, right?  Well, I did some up to match with the left overs. 

 

 

 

I added a strip of the turquoise blue fabric (folded in half and inserted like a piping) between two fabrics to add a bit more interest. I am very pleased how they turned out.

 

 

The Quilting of the Quilt - Get Someone Else to do it!
I decided it would be a good idea to use my embroidery machine to 'quilt' the quilt as it took so long to finish the kids' twin-size quilts when doing free-motion quilting.  I was also proud that I was putting my embroidery machine to good use.  I found a stippling (free-motion-style) pattern online and purchased it.  Couldn't be easier...until I started to actually do it. 

It takes forever.  F-O-R-E-V-E-R to do a queen-sized quilt.  It took me three weeks to get the quilting done.  While slick to do, it still takes time to hoop the area, put it in the machine, ensure there is enough thread left to do the 5-minute design, and ensure the quilt's weight doesn't pull while embroidering.

 

I know it would have taken longer to do free-motion-quilting but I think I will be farming out the 'quilting' part to one of those fine ladies with a long-arm machine next time.  Worth the $100 or whatever.  I am always up for a new experiences, but that doesn't mean I will EVER do that again!

Quilt | Imogen

So how can my son have a lovely quilt and not my daughter?  So shortly after finishing Alistair's quilt, I started on Imogen's quilt.  All the fabrics were from Prairie Chicks, using the same quilt pattern design.

Finished September 2010 when Imogen was 4 years old.

 

It looks a bit longer on my daughter's bed as her bed is actually shorter than average.  It was a former hospital bed that I received from my grandmother when she passed.  It was the bed I slept in when visiting her as a child.

Here is what it looks like without all the pillows.

 

And the pillows are all leftovers, with the exception of the non-ruffled ones.  I bought a yard of fabric from a vendor at a quilt show.  Don't recall the name of the shop, but they were from Regina.

 

 

Here you can see the quilt block a bit better...and all the free-motion quilting.  Again, it took a quite a while to complete.  Now it's so soft from use and washing.

I was trying to be 'crafty' and used up the left over cuttings from the quilt top.  A bit more miss-matched than Alistair's quilt.  But I like the quirkiness of it.