2 baby quilts

I've emerged from my sewing room to give you a peek at two of my latest projects - baby quilts!

I saw this one on pinterest and just had to make one too. I made my own pattern based on the photo and went with aqua-blues and yellow for a gender neutral quilt.

For this next one, I used a pattern from a book but it's a popular quilt design, often referred to as Chinese Coins. 

This was truly a lot of fun to put together and is the most girly quilt I've made to date! The top is a mix of flannels and the bottom is regular quilting cotton.

Now if you'll excuse me - all this quilting has made a real mess of my sewing room! Off to go clean!

Hot Stuff

I've been puttering around doing small sewing projects here and there lately

I realize that I haven't been posting much so this is kind of a two-for-one today.

Here are a couple of gifts I've whipped up.

I usually resist the cheesiness of giving someone a hot pad as a gift but I just couldn't resist the cuteness of this first pattern.

I made this for a friend who happens to love owls and is working on adding red accessories to her kitchen.

The pattern is called 'Hot Who' by Susie C Shore Designs and can be found here.

For my mother (who loves to cook), I made this next one to match her dining room colours:

 I created my own simple pattern for this one, and it doubles as sort of an oven mitt.

So cheesy or not, these little hot pads come together fairly quickly and make a great - last minute - 

hostess gift ........ perhaps along with a bottle of wine to go with ;)

        Thanks for reading,

Forest Friends Baby Quilt

A good friend of mine is about to become a grandmother.

Seriously she is too young to be a grandmother!!

I'm so excited for the big changes her family is about to embrace and I just 

know that this little boy is already so lucky to belong to such amazing parents to be. 

They are young parents (by today's standards anyway) and I know they will be such fun,

loving parents.

As I've said here before, I'm learning how to free motion quilt and decided 

that this would a perfect opportunity to test out my skillz.

I bought a panel of flannel fabric called 'Forest Friends' by Mint Blossom with 

coordinating leaf fabric for the binding. 

The backing isn't part of the collection but thought it matched so well.
And it's such a fun, playful print.

This is where I learned that I prefer quilting in larger, more free flowing patterns!!

But all in all, it was great practice and most importantly, I think our mom-to-be was happy to have received it. 

Congratulations Tori and Simon!

Treasure Pocket Pants

My little guy's turning 5 this month.

The only thing he asked me for his birthday was a remote control truck (check).

But I also wanted to give him something homemade. 

Ever since I saw the book Sewing for Boys, I've wanted to make the Treasure Pocket Pants.

But with the warmer weather, I decided on a pair of cotton shorts and altered the pattern...

...which meant I could get away with just using a fat quarter for the contrast panel. 

I'm kicking myself for not buying more of that Japanese moped fabric.

The top of the shorts are also a bit different from the pattern - it wasn't intentional, 

just the result of late night sewing/interpretation of instructions ;)

Thanks for stopping by,

Shiver Me Timbers! ~ A Pirate Quilt

I've been working on a little surprise for my boys.

I'm excited to finish it up but find myself with multiple projects on the go and not enough time in the day.

 This is the first quilt that I've free-motion 'quilted' so there's room for improvement. 
But I'm pretty happy with the results so far. 

I have yet to tie off my threads and bind it, but I haven't decided how to quilt the stars yet. 
Stitch in the ditch or maybe little skulls in the center of each...

I used Jaybird Quilts pattern 'Unwind' for the front,

and the back is a panel that I bordered with grey Michael Miller fabric.

I can hardly wait to see my boys snuggling up together under this quilt to watch a little TV.

a country table

I recently made this gift for our friend Susan before she moved away to the country. After many years of living in an apartment in the city, she bought a house of her own and was moving many miles away. 

I already wished we saw Susan more often than we did. But now this move means that I will see this dear friend even less. She has been so amazing to our little family over the years and we're so appreciative.

But even with this sadness, I am truly excited for her and for her new life ahead. 

Often when we spend time together it is over a big meal like Thanksgiving or Easter. So I thought it was very appropriate to make her a table runner for enjoying big country meals in her new country home. 

I didn't use a pattern for it, just sort of made it up as I went along. 
I'm happy with how it turned out - especially the binding. This was the first project where I felt like I mastered (or almost mastered) the art of binding! I wish I had done more quilting on it but time only allowed for stitch in the ditch. And if I'm going to be honest, I didn't have the courage to do free motion quilting.... just yet anyway.


 

Something from Nothing

I recently made this little mouse for a friend.

She asked me to make something for her daughter from a pillow that had belonged to her grandmother. 

This project reminded me of one of my favourite children's books by Canadian author and illustrator Phoebe Gilman, called Something from Nothing.

Image Source

 

Every little boy should own a copy of this heartwarming book. It's the story of a grandfather re-working the fabric of a favourite blanket throughout the early years of the little boy's life.

 

I thought this project would be such a sweet gift from something of generations past.

 

The pillow was made of a fabric that frayed very easily so I decided to use just a bit of it to applique the belly and ear patches of the mouse, and let it do just that - fray. For the rest of the mouse I used quilting cotton in coordinating fabrics and filled it with the stuffing from the pillow.

Mabelle the Mouse

I made a little pinwheel quilt for the mouse. The button in the center was created with that special pillow fabric. And you'll have to read the book for the significance of the blanket and button :)

To make this mouse I used a pattern found in this adorable book, Sewn Toy Tales - by Melly & Me: 

Image Source

 Thanks for reading.