Casey’s Doll Quilt

I’ve been pretty much of a slacker in posting on my blog lately, as you may have noticed. So I need to play catch up in recording some things I’ve made in the last few months. I’ve not been up to a whole lot sewing wise but I did manage to make my niece a doll quilt and pillow for her birthday in April. I used super soft baby flannel that I had on hand from making Hannah’s quilt. I used tie quilting to quilt this little number using a stitch on the machine. I like how fluffy and soft that tie quilting ends up feeling. Not to mention its a lot faster and easier to do than “real” quilting! I used the same tie method on baby Brown’s quilt. I hope Casey is getting lots of snuggly sleepy baby doll playing in with her cute little quilt and pillow! Happy Birthday big girl, can’t believe you’re 6!

Superhero Capes

While on the subject of superhero capes, I realized that I never posted pictures of the ones I made for my nephews for Christmas this past December. They are reversible batman and superman capes. I followed this pattern to make them. The boys love them!

(look how short both of the kids hair is in this picture! Alice looks almost bald compared to her curly curls she has now)

Hannah’s Baby Presents

My niece Hannah had a baby shower at Bob’s parent’s church this past weekend in North Carolina.  My sister-in-law (Hannah’s mom) absolutely loves bunnies.  So I made Hannah a bunny quilt!  It was a lot of fun and wow those bunnies took a lot of time.  But they were worth it.  Though I might try to avoid too much applique in my future quilts!

            

               

               

                                    

Alice was sick the end of last week so we actually had to stay home and miss the baby shower.  I was pretty bummed.  But I was also feeling really tired out, so it was nice to have a quiet weekend at home.  Alice slept a ton, even more than usual, so I watched movies and just chilled.  It was great!

I also made Hannah some jingle bell blocks and a bib.  For the blocks I used a foam cushion and cut them to size (an electric meat slicer works great).  I cut a hole in the center to put a jingle bell inside.  They are so cute and I love the slight little ringing.  Can’t wait to see Hannah chomping on them and shaking them with delight!  I really like how they turned out.  The bib I made from following the pattern in this book.  It ended up little on the big side.  I guessed at the pattern a bit.  Still cute though. 
             

Annie’s Quilt

       

    

You could say I’ve been a quilt machine lately.  But with all of these wonderful friends having babies what else could I do but make cute quilts for them!?  So here’s my sweet friend Annie’s quilt.  I used all baby flannel with white cotten batting.  The quilt measures about 40 inches square.  I based it on this quilt.  I just went by the general instructions on her site, but forgot to account for seam allowances.  Big oops.  It ended up working out after doing some ripping out and resewing.  Its amazing how much I learn with each new quilt I make.  Fun, fun.  I really like having the pieced back.  It gives a little surprise that you don’t expect! 

My valentine

Ok this is a little late…but better late than never right?  Several days before valentine’s day Bob spent a couple of evenings being very mysterious.  I knew he was making me a valetine, but he totally had me stumped when he asked to use my sewing machine.  I was wondering what in the world he could be making.  So those evenings he headed back to my sewing room with his laptop and scanner.  Very strange, I thought.  But this valentine that he made me, well I just love it and want all to know that I have the best husband ever!  He used a blank board book, and sewed these papers together to create a beautiful simple valentine that made me cry.  I love you huns!

           

          

          

Baby Brown’s Quilt

Our good friends adopted their precious baby boy in December and we had a baby shower for them yesterday.  I had fun making this one, and it went really fast too, which is always nice.  This brown squirrel fabric is a super soft baby flannel I found at JoAnns.  There’s just something about those little squirrels, so cute.  This blanket is not quilted but tied instead; though, not with actual ties, since its for a baby.  I just used a machine stitch on each corner.  I forgot to measure, but its around 40 inches square.  I also used the cheat method in doing the binding.  I cut the backing fabric (squirrel fabric) big enough so that I could double fold it around to the front and then machine stitch the binding in place.  Wow that went so much faster than any other binding I’ve done before.  Its simple piecing and simple quilting for a simply beautiful little boy.  We’re so thankful for Brown!

          

                   

Sara’s Quilt

                  

My good friend Sara just had a baby boy and I made this quilt for him.  I made it out of baby flannel so its super soft.  The quilt is a little less than 40 inches square.  The fabric has little owls on it, some with mama and baby owls together.  I love it!  I found the fabric at JoAnn Fabrics in Lexington, KY over Christmas.  Oh how I wish we had a JoAnn’s close by here.  The selection is amazing compared to Hancocks. 

I wanted to try some more complicated pieceing for this quilt and I had fun doing it.  I cut out tons of little triangles, and learned a lot about piecing them together.  I used this free pattern to make it, I definitely needed to follow a pattern for a design that was this complicated.  I used Joelle Hoverson’s book and Denise Schmidt’s book a ton for tips and help in the quilting process.  I’m so glad I got these books.  I know I’ll use them a lot in the future. 

Making this quilt was a lot of fun, and made me realize that I’d really like to take a quilting class sometime in the next year.  I’ve heard of a store over by the Rave that has classes, maybe I’ll look them up.  I’ve also been thinking about making some cute things to sell.  But for now I have so many new babies to make cute things for, so esty will have to wait.  But maybe someday?

A project from the past

I lost my grandmother this past October and its still hard to accept that she’s really gone.  After her passing, my grandfather left his house of 62 years, and moved to Georgia to live with my aunt and uncle.  I didn’t get the opportunity to walk through his house after he moved, but some of my family did and they found this pillow I made for Grampy and Alice’s wedding present.  I made it my senior year of highschool.  I just cried and cried seeing it again.  Its strange when you make a gift filled with so much love for those you give it to, and then receive it back.  Alice’s passing hits me hard all over again.  The ache is difficult and deep.  I wonder sometimes if she knew just how much I really love her.   I hope she did. 

                       

              

My Little Super Why and Princess Pea

   

    

                

                      

As you probably know, I made Caleb a super why outfit and doll for Christmas.  He was so surprised and loved the super why doll the second he opened it.  But much to my pouty dissappointment, he refused to put the cape on Christmas morning, and didn’t play all that much with super why himself.  Up until this afternoon, he has continued to refuse to put on the cape and mask.  But finally today, he’s taken some interest, much to my delight.  Alice had her pink tutu on and so she was Princess Pea, while Caleb flipped back and forth between being Alpha Pig and Super Why.  They were so cute.  Caleb was scanning our bookshelves for the book they were going to fly into and then they exclaimed, “super why to the rescue!”  My mama heart was happy to see him finally enjoying this present that I love so much.  You never know what they’re going to like!  But I’m sure they’ll have lots of fun dressing up in the days to come. 

Here are two videos of them playing Super Why and Princess Pea.

And on another super hero note, Caleb is now potty training!  He really gets it and I’m so relieved.  I spent all day with him on Saturday working one on one and I think that helped it click for him.  Today we had a big celebration with a huge bowl of icecream as he did number 2 for the first time on the potty, plus he initiated that potty visit too.  If you’ve ever potty trained your child, you know what a victory this is!  I’m so proud of him.  And now Alice is way interested too.  Though I’m holding her off for now. 

For Baby Hannah

Bob’s sister Lori and her husband Joe are adopting their first baby in February.  We are SO incredibly excited for little Hannah to join our family.  Joe and Lori are committed and serious Steelers fans so we couldn’t resist making Hannah some little steelers fan clothes for Christmas this year (they are freezer paper stenciled).  Joe and Lori loved them!