Perfection Not Included

Zipper pouch

2011-09-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

It's her first zipper. I pieced in the vinyl, otherwise she did it herself. It's a zippered pouch for school.

Sewing together this summer has been fun and frustrating at the same time. She's very hard on herself. If she doesn't get something right the first time, she has an "I can't" attitude.

A quilt 4 years in the making

2010-11-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

(Oops! Problems with the linky!)

The quilt I am choosing to display for the Blogger's Fall Quilt Festival is one that has been 4+ years in the making. This is the second quilt top I ever made. It was made to match my daughter's room and large enough for a twin sized bed. Once the top was finished, it sat. And sat. And sat. Oh, I found the original picture I took of the top.

The main reason that it sat so long is I was debating between making it a duvet cover or and actual quilt. We have duvet on our bed and I figured, eventually our daughter would get one also. So it sat until spring of this year. I was determined to finish up my UFOs and this was in the pile. One Sat we were over at my MIL's and I took that time to patch the holes in it and baste it. Then it sat for a while longer. I waffled a bit on how to quilt it. I finally decided to do straight lines (only my second time!) on either side of the seams. I am not great with straight lines and it took forever!

I was at a monthly meeting for the PMQG and Violet showed us a quilt she had just finished. It had a ruffled boarder. I quized her after the meeting about how she did it. I knew my girly daughter would love the ruffle! Thankfully I had not bound it yet. The quilting was about 75% finished at that point.

I dug though my stash and found about 1.5 yds of the perfect fabric for the ruffle. Once the ruffle was attached I think I took another month or hand sew it closed. I had hand sewing and am extremely slow at it! Last night I stayed up until midnight and sewed the last stitches! Woo-hoo!

A picture before washing:

My tired quilt holder and recipient:

After a washing We do not have a great place inside to display such a large quilt!:

Patched with some Mendocino:

The backing is a brand new vintage sheet. I collect them and this one was still in it's packaging when I bought it. (Love!)

I am so glad that this is off the UFO pile and on my daughter's bed. She is sleeping under it tonight for the first time. She adores it and I am very pleased with the finished result.

You should go check out the other entires, there are so many that are amazing!

(You can click on any of the photos to make them larger.)

Also linking up with amylouwho's sew n' tell.

Amy Butler Extravaganza!

2010-09-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Amylouwho is hosting a Amy Butler Sew n Tell link party today. She announced it a few weeks ago and there are prizes! It just so happens that I had been planning on making a few Amy Butler items for some Craftster swaps I am in. I waited to post these on the blog until my partners had received just to make sure I didn't ruin any surprises!
Everything I am posting today is from a pattern found in Amy's Little Stitches book. I have borrowed this book multiple times from the library and made the boy a hat from it a year or so ago. I love the finished products that Amy Butler's patterns produce, but I have to admit, getting there can be a headache!

First up, is the Everything Bag pattern. This was a fairly straight forward pattern. It has a lot of inside pockets and a divider. Originally when I saw this bag in the book I really wanted one. After making it though, I don't know that it will fit my needs too well.

I used a baby wale cord on the outside. It's super soft! The inside is a toile which my partner is a huge fan of. Inside shot:

I love the amount of pockets on here. I think that is what makes this bag worth making. There are four on the inside and two on the outside. So handy for moms!

Next are the super cute baby pants in the book. I have made a lot of kid's pants over my sewing history. This is a straight forward pattern with the cute added bonus of a accent cuff. I alternated the main and accent fabrics to suit my partner's tastes . I used Amy Butler's Full Moon Dot and Sandi Henderson's Apple Dot, they complimented each other really well.

Once I finished them I showed it to my husband and he commented that the apple fabric was upside down. Which, if you look closely, you can see that it's actually not. However the darker apples "read" as the main print and they are upside down. Bummer! I didn't have enough fabric to redo it and since it's not technically a mistake, I decided to let it go. I definitely want to make a pair of these for our bebbit that's due in a few months.

The last project is the Modern Diaper Bag. If you have seen this pattern in the book, you know how huge it is. Like unusably huge. I saw a modified version of this bag on Craftster and she used the measurements found on The Ogden's blog. I was so excited to see Jenny's modifications. It makes this bag a whole lot more useable.

Now this pattern was a pain. I had a hard time matching up the lining and the exterior. Also there were so many layers of interfacing that I was skipping stitches in a few places. But, like the Weekender, the finished product is worth the frustration. It creates such a polished looking bag. The exterior is a alova suede in a moss color. I lined it with a quilter's cotton.

The amount of pockets on here is awesome as well. You get six interior pockets. Like others have mentioned, how to attach the pockets is not clear in the pattern. So I just sort of winged it.

Both of my partner's seemed very happy with their bags so I am glad I made them. I might tackle the Modern Diaper bag again, but I am not too sure. I just picked up Style Stitches and there is a bag in there that I am in love with. I might have to make that one instead...

I am linking this up to Amy's party today. I cannot wait to go and check out what everyone else has been making!!

Giveaway: The Reversible Zippy Hoodie

2010-09-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

Amnda's hosting a giveaway for the hoodie pattern I tested. See all the other lovely test hoodies and enter here:

Giveaway: The Reversible Zippy Hoodie

Dragon Hoodie

2010-09-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Last week, I chosen got to test out another pattern for Kitschy Coo! This time it was a reversible hoodie pattern. How fun! I finished the hoodie this weekend. This was a pretty intricate pattern but her instructions were easy to follow.

She suggests using two similar fabrics, either two wovens or two knits for compatibility purposes. Of course I decided to make it hard on myself, and used flannel for a lining and sweatshirt knit for the outside. It makes for exciting sewing! I really wanted to make the boy something warm so he could wear it the next few months. The flannel I had purchased a year or so ago to make a hoodie but never got around to it. For the sweatshirt fabric, I cut up an old sweatshirt of mine that never quite fit right. Yay for cheap projects!

The fit was spot on and the the boy really liked it. I love the dragon flannel, I think I am going to get some more to make some lounge pants for him. So this is the "inside":

The necessary cheese smile:

And the exterior (isn't he so stinkin' cute?):

Monster face (which is also necessary as a 2 year old):

I am really pleased with the finished product. Plus I am glad to have made the boy something. He tends to get the shaft when it comes to being sewn for.

Thanks again for choosing me as a test sewer Kitschy Coo!

I am linking this up with Sew N Tell!

Madyson Marilee's Cotton Candy quilt

2010-09-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

I made this baby quilt earlier this year. My cousin was having his first baby, a girl! He and his wife named their little girl after our Gran and I am so excited about that. (I miss my Gran!) I used a pattern on this quilt. It's the Yellow Brick Road pattern, I love that pattern. I have used it 4 times now. It works up really quickly and the directions are super easy to follow.

Here is the top as a flimsy:

I chose pink and green because those were the colors they had for bedding on their registry. I chose an all over stippling pattern because it's quick! Here is the finished quilt:

A close up of the quilting, the binding reminded me of a candy cane:

Just a fun shot:

Underpants! Tee-Hee

2010-06-04T00:15:00.000-07:00

I got a tiny bit of sewing done this week. I volunteered to be a test sewer for kitschycoo's newest pattern. Which just so happened to be kid's underwear. This is convenient timing as my daughter is constantly running out of clean chones.

I dug through my stash of knits and and bag of t-shirts to re-con. I found this super cute pear knit and a paw print knit to use. The pattern works up really quickly and only takes about 15 min to sew up! Here are the three pairs I made (two for the girl and one for the boy):

My daughter adored the pear pair and insisted on wearing them right away. The paw prints however were not her favorite because "they have black on them and I do not like black." (She is super girly and thinks black is a "boy" color.) I like the fuller coverage on these. They are more like boy shorts and are age appropriate for a 6 year old. Perfect for under skirts!

The boy was not as impressed with his. He is still not really potty trained and I think he found it odd to not be wearing a diaper. I do like the fit of these so I will probably be making more as we start to get him fully potty trained.

I just had to make them a matching pair, it was too cute not to!

As we were finishing up the pictures, my husband walks in from work and gives us the oddest look. He then pretends to dial (I hope!) child services, and I hear him say, "No, this time, the pants are completely off." :D

I am linking this up to Amy's Sew N Tell.

Spring Quilt Festival

2010-05-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

If you are a quilt or crafty blogger you know about the awesomeness that is Amy's Quilt Festival. If you don't than you should. Go here and find out about it. Go ahead, I'll wait....
Done? Good!

This time around I am showing another baby quilt. That's the majority of what I make. (I work better on a deadline and a smaller scale.) Some friend's were having a baby girl earlier this year. They had a brown and green nature scheme for the nursery. I try to make the quilt match room colors when possible. It gives me a place to go from. I have found that if I do not have something to start with I become paralyzed with indecision.

I had been wanting to try a coin quilt for awhile so I hopped over to the Moda Bake Shop. I love AmandaJean's tutorial and used most of her fabric requirements and measurements as a guideline and went from there. I did not start with charm squares. Here are the fabrics laid out after digging through my stash.

I loved making this quilt. It went together very quickly. I think it took me a few days from start to finish. Which is great because I waited until the week of the shower to make it. (Click on the picture to see it larger. I can only fit small pics on my layout.)

I quilted it in waves from one corner to another. I really didn't want to use free motion stippling allover. The straight lines seem to need something else. I also didn't want just straight line quilting. I needed something a bit faster... I had seen something similar to this on Flickr somewhere. Oh, I found it here. I love that quilt!
(Click on it to make it larger)

Everything except the brown sashing was from stash which I loved even more! I used some of my vintage fabrics that I got from my Gran's and Great Gran's stash. (My Aunt gifted me 2 rubbermaid totes of their fabrics last year.) They are both passed away so I loved being able to use it. Two of the greens below are from them. This is a close up of the front.

A close up of the back.

The binding fabric was cut on the bias specifically so I would get the "candy cane" stripe look. I really like that on bindings.

Funny side note: I added a label because the parent's were sure of the baby's name before she was born. So three weeks later, she's born and they named her something else! I keep trying to get the quilt back from them to replace the label but they do not want to give it up. I suppose that's a good thing, right?

Okay so now that you are done here go visit Amy's Creative side and check out the other hundreds(!) of quilts posted.

Mega Mushrooms!

2010-02-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

So this week, I got quite a bit of sewing in. I finished up the last little bits on some totes I was making for a swap on Craftster. I also decided to make Lila Tueller's mushroom pincushions for the same swap.

Man, these guys are big! It's hard to tell from the pictures but the portobellos's are aprox 5.5 inches across and 5 inches tall. The other thing I forgot to think about is how I plan to ship them to my swap partners! I don't want to get boxes because that would be expensive. I am hoping they will bounce back from being so crushed in padded envelopes.

This little guy? He's mine. I love how he turned out and I couldn't bear to send him away. Sorry swap partners!

What did you sew up this week? I am linking this up to Amylouwho's Sew n Tell. Go check out the other fun stuff being linked up.

Giveaway for me...

2010-02-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, I admit it, I am a giveaway whore. There, I have said it. :) I enter them like crazy. Here's the thing though, I never win. Well, except the ones where everyone wins. You know, like the crane game where you keep playing until you win?
There is a point to this. Heather over at ALa Mode Fabrics is having her one year blogiversary. She's having a fabulous giveaway of all these great Heather Ross fabrics. I really would love to win it and am taking up every chance I can get.
So go here and check out Heather's great quilting/fabric/ crafty goodness and you can also enter to win.
(See all the pretties?!?)

pic from ala mode fabrics

Weekender in, oh, about 3 months

2010-01-14T21:35:00.000-08:00

On the off chance you were wondering how the Amy Butler Weekender turned out that I posted about here, I am finally uploading some pictures.

And then the interior. I purposefully overexposed this one so that you could see the inside a bit better.

This bag was a beast to make and I am glad that it's finished. I procrastinated way too much on this. My poor swap partner ended up waiting about a month longer that she had probably planned to get this.

I do love how it turned out. My swap partner picked out the fabrics for the outside and the interior. We are both aware that the interior does not go with the exterior. However, she loved the interior fabric a lot and wanted to use it anyhow. I really love that I was able to find a corduroy that matched almost perfectly for the handles and the piping. Normally this bag uses only two different fabrics but I ended up with four on here. I bought five but replaced my original choice for the piping with the corduroy fabric.

So what do you think? Do you like it? I have made two more of these bags that I will probably post on here some time also.

Vintage Linen Love

2010-01-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun fact about me. I am a huge fan of vintage linens. (ie. bedsheets, pillowcases, etc.) I made my easter dress last year out of a vintage sheet. It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. ;) Please ignore the goofy face in the picture below.

I bring this up because Jennifer over at Rosey Little Things is hosting another Vintage FQ Swap! Yippy! I participated last time and I got some lovely goodies back. If you are also a fan of vintage linens, you should head over here or over there ---> and sign up. Maybe you'll get one of my FQs and I will get one of yours.

Here we are again.

2009-11-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

So I am there. The horrid part that I have been dreading ever since I started this project. The part that made me say, "I will never again make this pattern" after finishing the last one. Yet here I am again. If you have made this pattern before, you will know what I am talking about. If not, consider yourself lucky. And that is all I have to say about that. Got to go force myself to finish it up. I am supposed to be shipping this thing out Monday...

Princess for a Day

2009-10-31T13:42:00.001-07:00

So Amy is host her weekly Sew N Tell. Technically it was due yesterday but I just finished up my project and I am posting today. :) So my finish for this week was my daughter's Halloween costume. She wanted to be a princess this year. I planned ahead(ha!) and grabbed McCall's M5731 when it was on sale back in Aug. She picked out the colors, and I think after everything we spent $20 on materials. This wasn't a super cheap costume but I think it's nicer than the store bought ones you get for $20.

I hemmed it this morning so it is all ready for trick or treating tonight.

I did a test fit last weekend and had to take up the shoulders about an inch. Since I want her to wear this for awhile (for dress up), I just folded it over and did a quick hand stitch. You can kind of see that and how messy my sewing is here.

And the final fitting, we couldn't find her crown this morning. Hopefully it will turn up for tonight.

She loves it and so I am happy. So what did you finish up this week?

Commenting problem

2009-10-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

A huge thank you to Kit from Diva Quilts for her e-mail, letting me know that there was a problem with my comment form. I had been wondering why I hand't gotten any comments on my Quilt Festival post. I was starting to feel a bit bummed...
Anyhow it should be all fixed up now. Thanks for stopping by!

Penny Jane's Quilt Fall Quilt Festival

2009-10-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

vPark City Girl is hosting another Blogger Quilt Festival. She did one in spring that I browsed through a bit. I decided that it would be fun to participate this time around. This time she wanted us to post our favorite quilt. So I pulled out the pictures of a baby quilt I made earlier this year.

I modified Valori Well's Urban Baby pattern for this quilt. I love how it looks completely random but isn't. :) It was so much fun picking out the fabric for this quilt. I started with that really loud one and went from there.

This was a gift for a close friend's daughter who was born in May. I was a bit bummed when I heard the name they chose for her since it is one of my two favorite baby girls names. (In fact I had a flash/premonition as she was getting ready to tell me. I wanted to cover my ears and go," Don't say it, don't say it!" I just knew in my heart she was going to say Penelope. I'm not sure how I knew, but I just did.) I was heartbroken for about two weeks. My husband thought I was being weird. Trying to make me feel better, he said he never would have agreed to name our next one Penelope anyhow. (Men!) Once I got over it I figured the girl with my favorite name should be the owner of my favorite quilt and I set out to "make it so".

The cupcake fabric was something I bought on clearance over a year ago. I think I originally bought it to make myself PJ pants but never got around to it. I am glad I didn't. It makes for such a fun backing.

Now go visit some of the other sites that are in the Festival! :)

Gone a bit applique happy...

2009-08-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

So I am finally getting around to posting some recent applique projects. (Recent meaning in the last year or so. ) Most of these were for Craftster swaps. My favorite was the owl. It was based off my partners wist, but it was on an apron.

an owl on an unintentionally tie-dyed onesie

A little blue pick-up truck

A dragon, it's a bit hard to see.

Reverse applique Sock Monkeys

a tree

VW style car

Handwritten with fabric markers then appliqued on

an "M" (duh!)

An elephant and an octopus

Vroom-Vroom! Car themed baby quilt

2009-08-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

I made this last year for a close friend. Her baby was born in Aug '08 and I finished it a few weeks after he was born.
I used this block pattern to make the entire quilt top:
http://happythings.typepad.com/happythings/2007/05/scrap_strips_sq.html
(I love her blog, you should totally check it out!)
When it was done I found it kinda plain so I appliqued a car in the corner.
I actually had the whole thing pinned and ready to quilt about a week before he was due but could not decide how to quilt the thing. I am usually just a free motion quilter but the layout of the quilt top just didn't "say" free motion to me. So I thought and thought. I finally decided to attempt quilting each panel in free motion, with a car shape also. I drew out the car shapes with a disappearing marker and got to it.
I then pieced the binding out of leftover fabric. I love the different colors in the binding, I might do that again. I gifted it to her and she seemed to like it. Plus, I was over there a few weeks ago and had to run and get something from the baby's room. The quilt was lying on the rocking chair in his room.
(Who knows, she could have done that just before I got there. But at least she cared enough to make the effort. )

So here is the finished quilt:

Close-ups of the car stitching:

The car applique:

You can see the backing flannel fabric here:

And here is is after pinning but before quilting:

Wintery Snowman Quilt

2009-08-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

I participated in the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=254966.0 last Summer/Fall. I was gifted a ton of gorgeous Christmas fabrics by an aunt who decided she was not going to use it. So I sent out some lovely blue and white fabrics and received 11 lovely squares in return. I made 2 of my own and then pieced this top. (I made the top middle and bottom left squares.)

I did a pieced back because my backing fabric was not wide enough plus I had an extra square. Also I had been wanting to try one out, I had been seeing them and really liked the look.

I was unsure about the white binding because I normally do a darker binding. But I love how it turned out. Thank you (!!!) to my swap partners: athenamat, audrey1999, flashleyashley, 1boy1girl1kitty2, MissDisney, j_q_adams, Glittergirl94, ritapizza, SewHelpMe, Jenicat
I love everything you gals and guy made for me!

Super Girly Cape

2009-08-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

A close friend's daughter turned 2 this past weekend. Of course I wanted to make her something fun. She loves her big brother's cape so I decided to make her a girly one of her own. I used the tutorial at Puking Pastilles:http://pukingpastilles.com/?p=57 It's super easy to follow and I highly recommend it. This is the second time that I have used her tute to make a cape.

Close up and the backing fabric:

I think she'll like it...

2009-06-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

Isn't this the most fabulous bike?? I could so see myself using this all around Gladstone. For library trips and even grocery trips. You can enter to win one by following the link below.

Poppiful Wrap Skirt

2009-05-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

Fun spin shot:

I have been dying to get my hands on a copy of Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. I had it on hold at the library for months. It finally came in the the Sat before Mother's Day and I raced to the library to pick it up. I really wanted to make the wrap skirt pattern. I had seen a few versions of it on Flickr and thought it would be perfect for some poppy fabric (sale $3/yd!!) I had been hoarding for the perfect dress or skirt pattern. So I traced the pattern, ironed and cut out my fabric, sewed and about 6 hours later (with interruptions) I had this skirt. I stayed up till 3am to finish it and wear it the next day to church. So worth it.

If you decide to make this, check her website for corrections. I am a size 10, used 5 panels and 3 yds of fabric. (The original pattern has a sz L using only 3 panels. That would have barely wrapped around me...) I had to cut the waistband not on the bias because I didn't have enough fabric to do so. I think the next one I make I might put a large button hole in the waist so that I can thread one of the ties through when wrapping. I was unsure of the proper wrapping technique so a buttonhole would make that easier. Plus that would help the waist lie flatter, not so much fabric bunched up.
Close up of the waist:

Closer pic of the skirt:

I am in love with this book and I might use the Amazon gift certificate I received for my birthday to actually buy a copy. Which is saying a lot for me. I very rarely buy myself books.

Sewing for the Girl, by the Girl

2009-03-22T00:18:00.000-07:00

This is an outfit that was made by my daughter today. I think it took us about 1 1/2 hours to make the whole thing. This is the first time she has really made anything even close to wearable. She started cutting out some fabric that I had given her, wanting to make a dress for her best friend. So after cutting for a bit, I took a look at what she had so far. It was way too short for a dress but it looked very close to a dolman sleeved top. So I drew a line for her to cut out. Then I let her run the pedal for the serger. It was the first time that she had done it and she did a really great job. With the leftover fabric, we created a circle skirt. I drew another two lines and she cut them out. Again I let her run the serger pedal. Here is the finished project:

She was very proud of her outfit, and wore it all day. (And to bed tonight.) She decided to keep it and not pass it onto her friend. It's a bit tight in the tummy, but I suppose that happens when nothing gets measured before cutting. And just for fun:

I think you can figure out why I passed the fabric onto her. ;) It came to me when my great Gran passed. Oh, and she's 4.

Valentines for the preschool set

2009-02-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

My daughter needed 41(!) Valentines to hand out this year. So I looked through a few catalogs and really liked those felt lollypop covers they had. However I was not going to pay $1 per Valentine. Plus I didn't want to make anything too labor intensive because I knew my daughter would get tired of them after about a dozen. (I am sure you know how that goes.) So we cut out 82 felt hearts (felt was from stash, woo-hoo!) and paired them up. I sewed them together, leaving a tiny hole at the bottom and a larger one at the top.

Here's what they looked like after chain piecing them all:

(Who knew they'd make such a cute garland...)

We wrote quick note using a sharpie and stuffed them with Tootsie Pops and here is the finished result:

All 41 of them:

Yes they are mismatched. My daughter likes them and we are done 3 days before having to bring them to school.

Patchwork Bucket

2009-01-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

I really needed a larger basket for the kitchen to replace the small one that was holding my son's sippy cups. It was overflowing to the point of things falling out. I couldn't find anything I liked at a price point I could afford. So I dug into my stash and busted out this tute: http://foofanagle.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/bagsket-tutorial/ I didn't follow the tute exactly. Originally I made the 12 inch one but it was a lot bigger than I had anticipated. So I ripped out out the seams and cut it down to the 8 inch size. (sort of. I mis-measured my top part and had to fudge it a [s]bit[/s] lot.) I made up my own handles to fit the amount of fabric I had on hand. I also left out the bag part because I didn't really need it. Since I wanted to use up stash & I didn't have any pellon 70, I used the lightweight interfacing I had on hand and some leftover quilt batting to help it stand up. I free motion quilted the bottom and stitched in the ditch on the top. My binding was leftover from another baby quilt so it's two different fabrics. All in all I love how it turned out. :)
bottom:
inside:
all full up!:

Happiness on Your Wrist

2008-12-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

I made this for a swap partner. She loves buttons and rainbows, so... I used some vintage buttons that were from my Grandmother's stash. (My aunt found them when cleaning out her condo this summer and gifted them to me.) The rest are from my stash.

I really loved how it turned out. It was pretty easy to make, now my girl wants one in pink.

Perfection Not Included

Zipper pouch

A quilt 4 years in the making

Amy Butler Extravaganza!

Giveaway: The Reversible Zippy Hoodie

Dragon Hoodie

Madyson Marilee's Cotton Candy quilt

Underpants! Tee-Hee

Spring Quilt Festival

Mega Mushrooms!

Giveaway for me...

Weekender in, oh, about 3 months

Vintage Linen Love

Here we are again.

Princess for a Day

Commenting problem

Penny Jane's Quilt *Fall Quilt Festival*

Gone a bit applique happy...

Vroom-Vroom! Car themed baby quilt

Wintery Snowman Quilt

Super Girly Cape

Poppiful Wrap Skirt

Sewing for the Girl, by the Girl

Valentines for the preschool set

Patchwork Bucket

Happiness on Your Wrist

Penny Jane's Quilt Fall Quilt Festival