Chenille

One of my favorite projects of 2011? I'd say yes. This was definitely in the top 10!

A very good friend of mine had a baby girl, and I knew I wanted to make her something special. I wanted to do something different than I've ever done, so that I could learn a new technique. I came across a great tutorial on Pinterest (here) for making 'Heirloom Cheenille Baby Blankets.' It was just the 'cool & unique' that I was looking for!Whew! It was a labor of love, but the outcome was fabulous. I honestly can't wait to make another! I was prepared, yet still shocked at how much thread it took to sew so many lines. This quilt took me as long to make (actually even a little longer) than most of my pieced infant quilts.
Once all finished and given it's first wash and dry, the texture of this blanket is DELICIOUS! No other word can describe it's yumminess!Making one of these quilts is not difficult, just time consuming. If you can sew somewhat of a straight line, than whipping one up is easy as pie. I'd give it a 'Beginner Sewer' rating, as long as said beginner can be patient and avoid going cross-eyed from sewing line after line!

Zoe Quilt

A friend commissioned me to make this quilt for her new beautiful niece. She chose the color pallet (brown, green, cream, and coral.) It's one I haven't necessarily worked with, but I LOVE it, and see myself using it again for sure.
It is quilted with an all-over meandering stitch (stippled).
I hope that it gets lots of love and use at it's new home!

ruffled edge 'quilt'

I had to put the word quit in quotations in the title, because this isn't a 'true' quilt to me, with batting and lots of quilted stitches! But no matter what we call it, it's pretty cute and sassy if you ask me!
My friend bought this material months ago, when she was just a wee bit pregnant with her third child. Back in the fall I even helped her cut out the squares and gave her a sewing lesson. Fast forward a few months. She approached me the last week in December and asked if I could just sew it for her. She ran out of time and energy. With very little guidance from her, other than she wanted a 'random' pattern and the ruffley satin edge, I came up with the quilt above.
She also didn't want batting in between the top and back minky-dot material, so really this is just a larger, glorified receiving blanket. I kept the 'quilting' very minimal and only stitched in the ditch along a few of the seams (to keep the top and back from shifting.)
I'm not going to lie. This quilt was a little bit of a challenge for me. It combined two of my least favorite types of material to sew with...Satin and Minky Dot. I'm not saying I don't LOVE both of them for their luxurious textures, they are just a pain to work with. I think I conquered them both this time though and produced a dang cute quilt.

It was a different experience sewing a quilt with material that I didn't personally choose. I probably wouldn't have put the color combination together that Jen did, but it looks great. Props to her for 'seeing' what she wanted. - I have one more quilt to do just like it. She is going to use them for her daughter's beds as soon as the 4 year old and the new baby start to share a room. I learned a few things from working with the satin and minky dot material on the first quilt, so the second should be a little easier.

First finished quilt of 2011!

Okay, so I confess that I started the quilt the last week of December, but I can still call it the first quilt of 2011, right? Afterall, it wasn't completed until just last night.

I'm not sure what to call this quilt. I was thinking 'Spots & Dots' or maybe 'Spottydots'! What ever the name, It ranks up in the top three quilts I have ever made. I think it is something about the combination of colors and the simplicity of the pattern that draw me in.
When trying to decide how to quilt this, I played with a couple different ideas from just stitching in the ditch to stippling the white space or possibly quilting in circles. Then, for some reason I decided to do something that I've never tried and straight line quilted the whole thing. I am really loving the outcome. This is one of those cases that the quilting adds a TON of personality to the quilt.

The quilt measures about 38"x38". The perfect little size for a baby. I can't wait to deliver it to it's new home!

*The fabric used is Make Life... by Moda.

New Wave Quilt

When I saw this quilt back in March, I knew I just had to make it for somebody special. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law announced on Mother's Day that she was pregnant. Fast forward seven months, and here it is...
My take on Elizabeth Hartman's New Wave Quilt. I am happy with the outcome. It was dicey there for a while though. I was in love with all the prints, but had a tough time deciding whether to sash it with yellow or white. As you can see, I decided on yellow. I didn't love it at first, but after it was quilted and bound, I think it was a success.One of my new favorite things to do is piece a small portion of the back of a quilt, to give it a little character of it's own. I used scraps left from the front of the quilt to piece the back. The crazy thing with this back is that it can almost stand on it's own as a front...It's like two totally separate quilts in one. (Which I haven't decided is good or bad, there probably should be a little more continuity, but what's done is done!)
As you can see, I stitched in the ditch along the sashing lines with one line down the middle of the solid yellow, and then I did a pretty tight stipple through the hour-glass shapes. All in all, a success!Sweet Baby Ella was born just a few days before Thanksgiving. I didn't have the quilt finished and sent off quite in time for her arrival, but it found it's way there this week. Hopefully it can provide lots of years of warmth and love for my sweet new niece!

Tye-Die and Pouff Decor!

I was lucky enough to host the baby shower for one of my dear friends. (The last two posts were gifts for her and her soon to be!) This being her first child and first baby shower, I wanted the decor to be fun and visible, but not too over the top. The final product was perfectly fun!
Not meant to be the spotlight, but turned out to be was the tye-dye clothes line. My super cute teenage crafter friend (first introduced in this post) came over one night and we had a tye-dye party! Kayleigh is a pro at doing tye-dying, so she taught me some of her skilz. I think this new little baby girl is going to be the hippest gal around. We had such a fun time creating. I can't wait to try my hand at tye-dying again.
And the other baby shower stand by decor...Martha Stewart's pouf balls! These three big ones were over the center of the food table, and then there were a bunch of smaller ones hanging from the ceiling of the family room (as seen in the first photo.)

Matching diaper changing clutch

Sheesh! I didn't mean for there to be such a delay between postings, but life happens, please forgive me. On the flip side, I guess I was just having too much fun over the Thanksgiving holiday to even get online! This diaper/wipe/changing pad clutch was a companion piece to the quilt from the previous quilt post. I made it with left-over scraps from the quilt, and a few extra scraps from my stash. It's kind of crazy, but cute, and because it matches the quilt, it's extra adorable!I love the design of this little clutch. It fits nicely inside a diaper bag, and when you have a diaper to change, all you have to take with you to the bathroom is the clutch, vs. the whole diaper bag. There is a pocket for the changing pad, and another pocket for travel wipes and a couple diapers.
I'm pretty sure that these plush covered travel wipes cases are my new favorite baby gift. They are quick to whip up, and so adorable. It's way more fun to get wipes out of something so cute rather than a plastic bag! Because I know the mommy this one is for, and because I haven't gotten do do a lot of girly accessories lately I had to girlify it a little extra with the sweet little ribbon bow. A fun touch.

Diaper/Wipe Clutch - Baby Shower Gift

I'm going to a baby shower in a couple of weeks. I LOVE baby showers! I LOVE making things for people that I actually know. (I obviously love making things for people I don't know too, or else I wouldn't have a little business.) I'm not so much in love with baby showers that request unisex gifts because the gender of the baby is unknown. It takes the fun out of fru-fru ribbons and bows for a girl, or cute dinos and trucks for a boy, you know what I mean? Anywho, I did the best I could for a unisex gift, and this is what I came up with...I wish I could claim this cute Diaper/Changing Pad Clutch, but I made it from a pattern. (pattern by All My Bags & Quilts Too) The pattern comes with directions for the clutch and a changing pad.The covered travel wipes case is my addition.
The blues and browns lean towards boy, but with the orange and paisley print, I felt thought it could easily be a girls gift too. I'm a pretty firm believer that girls can get away with just about any color, but boys can't! I may not be fashion forward enough, but I just don't think pink is a color for boys.

'm giving the soon to be mommy this clutch and a box of size 1 diapers. Hopefully she'll like it. It's not super personalized, but without knowing the sex of the baby, I did the best I could.

fun with Harley Davidson

Okay, so these fabric prints are way outside the 'norm' of what I usually work with, but perfect for what I was trying to achieve.I never knew that Harley Davidson could be 'cute', but somehow I think I managed it. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that almost anything 'little' is cute. (okay, except for bugs..yuck! and a few other exceptions ;) This gift-set is for a family that goes to my church. They had a baby boy a few weeks ago. I betcha' can't guess what daddy drives...???Hopefully it'll be some fun and unique stuff that will make them smile, if nothing else!

FYI - If you get the bug to do a little Harley Davidson sewing for yourself, save yourself the headache of searching for non-existing HD fabric (I'm thinkin' it doesn't exist?) and drive yourself right over to your nearest Wally-World. I don't usually use sheets for sewing, but that was the best I could come up with and the most affordable. Add in a few coordinating prints, and you'll be good to go! - If you want to skip the sewing yourself all together, let me know, I've got some more material and would be happy to do a private listing at our etsy shop!

Freezer Paper Art!

I have totally fallen in love with freezer paper stenciling. It is so much fun. What ever you can dream up, you can make into a stencil. Below is one of my latest creations...The story: Colby was delivered by c-section. When the doctor delivered him I could hear the doctor and nurses (my husband and mom too for that matter!) saying "he's tiny, just a little peanut." After they confirmed to me that yes, he was small, but healthy and well, I'm pretty sure that I made a comment much the same as everyone else. Needless to say, the nick-name kind of stuck. I couldn't resist making this onesie.

This is another t-shirt that I made as a birthday gift for one of my son's bestest buddies, Carson. (Carson LOVES playing RockBand on the XBOX, the gift was a success!)

I've been busy!

I've been busy...in more ways than one! Mostly with this little one -

Colby Max Pugmire
Born: May 28, 2008 - 8:52 AM
5 lbs. 7 oz.
18 1/2"

So, did you notice his weight and length? He is tiny. My sweet little doll, absolutely adorable. Thankfully he was totally healthy, just little. (Don't let him fool you, tiny size does not equal tiny voice! He's got a great set of lungs on him!)

Colby being born so little has sparked a few crafting opportunities.

Do you remember the little white blessing romper that I made a month or so ago; before Colby was born? Ummm...at least three Colbys would have fit into it. It was ginormous compared to his not ginormousness! Needless to say, it was so big that there was no way to alter it to fit him, I had to make a completely new one for his blessing last weekend.

Here is Colby in the 2nd finished product. a.k.a. mini romperTo give you a little comparison of the size difference. Here is a refrence!

So, if you know somebody who needs a white romper to fit a 'normal' size baby boy, let me know, I have no need for two! Hey, on the bright side the second one whipped up pretty quick since I'd already sewn one a few weeks ago.

I've been busy with a few other projects, but I hear a little boy calling my name in the form of a cry... it must be time to eat again! I'll post again soon, I am finally feeling like I'm back to the land of the living.

One more gift set!

Okay, so I don't want to overkill the gift set thing, but I just had to post one more! This one is actually for my little one as well (I'm having fun spoiling him already!) It's technically a gift for my husband, who is a huge Seattle Seahawks fan. I know that by making some 'manly' burp rags he won't mind carrying them around as much! The fun thing is that I didn't have to buy anything new to make any of it, it was all scraps and such that I had on hand. (I made my husband and son matching pajama pants for fun christmas gifts this year, the Seahawks material was all left-over scraps from making the pants.)
The one new thing I tried was the texture/taggie block. It was way easy and super fun to make. I definitely think I'll have to add these to my repitoire! They can be made up with scraps of material and whip up quickly. I foresee all baby gifts in the future that I give to include a taggie block! (Oh yea, I put a couple small jingle bells inside the batting too for a little fun extra noise.)

Gift Set

Isn't this a fun layette/gift set?
I've been working on it for a bit and finally finished the bib today. I've been excited to post it but wanted to wait until I had the complete set all done. It's for a very special baby boy...MINE!!

I'm always making things for other people and to sell, it is so much fun to make something for myself. My mom was concerned that the baby wasn't going to get anything his mommy made, but it's been taken care of folks, this stuff is for him! (his arrival is only 8 days away!)

I got this Michael Miller Kids Toile panel a year or two ago on sale. I bought it with the intention of making a quick top for somebody as a gift. Turns out I ran out of energy to make anything too ambitious for my own baby and came across this material. Luckily I love it. It is SUPER simple. All I did was quilt the panel, but I love the simplicity and how it turned out. I 'framed' each picture and then quilted around each of the scenes.I had half a yard or so of material left over from the quilt back, so I made a few other fun accessories to match the quilt. A sleep-sack, burp-rag, and bib. All stuff that is totally necessary...why not make it cute?Now all we need is the baby!

Project complete!

I'll be honest, I'm pretty proud and excited about this little outfit!Not more than a year ago, I had pretty much sworn off sewing clothing. PERIOD. After a nightmare experience involving a little jacket shrug for a prom dress, I was DONE. Obviously my fears have worn off a bit, which I'm sure is due to the 'nesting instinct' I'm feeling (after all, the baby is on his way in less than two weeks!!) I decided to try to tackle a little outfit for the baby to be blessed in at church. I DID IT! HOORAY! It even turned out like I had envisioned. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will fit the baby okay. I sewed the XS size, but it still looks huge to me. We'll just have to wait and see. - Honestly, either way, sewing this outfit has renewed my confidence in myself...which is very valuable indeed.