vintage baby book quilt

Here's a blast from the past! This is the vintage baby book quilt I made for Frances before she was born. I don't know if I put much stock in that old story that you wait to go into labor until you finish the last thing for the baby, but Frances was born less than 24 hours after I finished binding this quilt!

The blocks are from a fabric baby book that my grandmother Granny Lou gave my mom when she was born. If you look closely you can see her name Rebecca Mary written above the title. She gave me the idea for the quilt for my baby Frances Rebecca.

I love the primary colors and old school illustrations. I don't think you can see in the pictures but I hand quilted around the animals and children.

The whole thing is hand quilted on the diagonal. It hung in Frances's room when she was little. I was thrilled when we repainted her room a few years ago and she asked to have it up again!

9-patch mini-quilt

Last time I showed off my inheritance of blue boxes full of 2x2 inch squares. Here's the quick, cool project I made with some of them.

I chose my favorite blues to make something that could become a Hanukkah decoration and I used the quick piecing method of fusing the squares to interfacing...

and then stitching the long perpendicular seams. (Just Google it--somebody else has already explained it better than I could.) These 9-patch squares go together lickety-split. No kidding, I pieced all 23 of them for this quilt in just a couple of hours.

Details of the blocks and the binding--it looks black but it's really a very deep blue.

A pretty Kona gray on the back (Can I still be allowed to be a real quilter/blogger if I don't remember which one?) and one extra 9-patch. I quilted a simple straight-line pattern with my walking foot. Fun to make, and it was done before I grew to hate the sight of it! Maybe I will use more of those eensy-weensy little squares!

blue boxes

Another treasure from Nana's fabric stash. But not just matching blue boxes (incidentally, there are three more out in the garage).

 Matching blue boxes chock-full of color-sorted already-cut 2x2 inch squares.

Boxes and boxes of them. I can't begin to imagine how much time went into measuring and cutting these squares. 

Check this: the red and white 2x2 inch square is pieced. Those Depression-era quilters really learned to use every last bit. Makes me feel like a real spendthrift.

Nana really liked patterns with these teensy little pieces. Me not so much. But I did learn the nifty trick of quick piecing with fusible interfacing. Magic. I have a cool project to show off later!

zipper bag trio

Aren't these fabrics great? I had a great time planning this set of bags for Gregg's Christmas present. I went straight to M&L for this graphic leaf print I had seen when I bought the christmas pillowcase fabric. I couldn't remember exactly what it looked like but I remembered that I loved it and I remembered exactly where it was in the store. Well they rearranged that section! But after some searching, I found it (along with another collection to be made into more bags, but that's another project, another post).

I'm so pleased with the way they turned out. It's such a great pattern from Noodlehead and I love the way the fabrics came together.

I was determined to have that stripe on the lining fabric go up-and-down even though it was printed side-to-side. Yeah, that would have been fine if I had bought more than a plain-old-non-fat-quarter of it. As it turned out, you can hardly even see the 7-piece Franken-lining on the smallest bag. Though when I talk to Gregg on Christmas morning, I'll probably point it out to her. She will understand what I went through.

And I'm still so infatuated with the look of those labels! They spiff everything up!

a smaller version of my stuff

Ironing Board Workshop: a tiny little subsidiary of Kitchen Table Workshop.

christmas pillowcases

I had a "Pinspiration" to make Christmas pillowcases for some of our kid friends and relatives this year. I used these directions and a pile of super cute Christmas fabrics I found at M & L.

I made four combinations:

Two for the girls

And two for the boys. (Personally I am for non-gender specific color choices, but I wasn't sure some of my uber-masculine nephews would really appreciate the pink.)

I tucked in a gift card (for the older kids) or a book (for the toddlers) and sent them off. It was a quick and fun project and a great excuse to use some adorable holiday fabric.

they're here!

My labels are here!

I ordered them from World Wide Label through Etsy and I just love them!

They look so professional in my finished work. I was excited they arrived in time to be sewn into some Christmas presents before I shipped them.

Now I feel very official.

flower tote for Diwali

My friend and yoga teacher Dolly invited me to her annual Diwali party. I had a great time eating and dancing, and I was so grateful to another friend Candice for her help getting ready. Candice's inlaws are from India, so she was able to fill me in on what the party would be like and she generously loaned me this pretty outfit--with coordinating jewelry too, no less!

She also told me where in Artesia to go for the best Diwali sweets to bring along for the hosts.

To thank her I made up this flowered tote. I like the weight of the home dec fabrics for a bag, but they tend to pull and shift out of square while you are working with them. Arrgh!

Here's a peek inside. More lining fabric from my grandmother's stash. Thank you, Nana.

little zipper bags

I often want to put together an last-minute gift. (Sometimes because I want to surprise someone for an occasion I just found out about, sometimes because I have procrastinated so long that what should have been "planned" became "last-minute." Don't be like me.) My go-to project right now is a little zipper bag.

This first one I just made up. It was for a cheer friend of Frances's whose cheer uniform didn't arrive with all the others and I wanted to surprise her with something when everyone else had gotten their new uniforms.

I printed out letters and traced them onto the toile fabric and fused them with Steam a Seam. I added some random stitching as an accent. I kind of like how that turned out--I'll have to remember that for later.

This one was so last-minute that I didn't have time to get out the background and take a proper picture.

Then I decided to dive into the big pile of ideas I've saved from my favorite blogs--I got this pattern from Anna at Noodlehead. It was for my friend Leala for her birthday. She's Japanese American so I picked out my favorite Japanese Hawaiian scraps from my Postcards from Hawaii quilt.

I love the way this bag opens up all the way, and I love the little fabric tab at the end of the zipper.

This one was for another of Frances's friends for her birthday. It was a holder for a PacSun gift card.

Franny picked out the country-ish fabrics to suit her friend's personality. She is always so good at putting colors and patterns together. Luckily I have a little stash of zippers so I can whip up one of these bags without a trip to the fabric store. I think this zip came from a Laura Ashley maternity dress. The fabric went to make a little jumper for Frances when she was a toddler. I think I still have a handful of covered buttons--I wonder where they'll end up!

fabric store run

I made a run to M&L Fabrics today and came away with a big bag of fun fabrics (and a little lighter in the wallet).

These are going to be Christmas presents for all the cousins and friends' children--they don't know about the blog, so I can get away with showing the fabric here.

These are going to be pajamas for me. My first attempt with knits. Wish me luck.

For a cute apron. I'm feeling very hip, having seen these fabrics on one of the fabric fashionista blogs I like. Well, hip and then not so much, since I'm sure they were using them a few years ago.

Another apron. It doesn't seem like I should need so many aprons, but I'm a really messy cook.

The beginnings of another Christmas quilt. It's good to see these all together--I can really see the colors I want to add to the mix.

Now I just have to finish the costume sewing for the high school ... and the house painting ... and the Hawaii quilt ...

the best kind of thank you

I was just skimming through Facebook and saw a post from my friend Tana, who is setting off on the "Vino Train" to celebrate her friend's 50th birthday. In the background of the photo of the ladies in their feather boas enjoying their wine, I can see the Happy Birthday bunting I gave Tana for her birthday last summer! What better thank you could I get than seeing that she wanted to share her gift with someone else! 

postcards from hawaii

So we went on this awesome vacation to Hawaii this summer. We spent several days in Honolulu and took a 7-day cruise around the islands on the Pride of America. We did the whole thing with our dear friends Gregg, Steve, William and Thomas--hopefully the first of many future trips together.

I was alerted by my sewing friend Tana before we left that Hawaii is a fabric shopper's paradise--she was not kidding! I went to fabric stores in several different places and piled up 27 different Hawaiian fabrics! What a great souvenir--they packed well and I knew I'd be able to make lots of keepsakes when I got home. Bill got the first one--the Hawaiian-style shirt I blogged about earlier.

When we were visiting Kauai, I went into a quilt shop and indulged myself with a nice little pile of fat quarters. Hanging in the window I saw my inspiration--a quilt called Postcards From Hawaii! I googled it when I got home and made up a pattern.

I had enough different fabrics that I only had to repeat each fabric three times. I even splurged on the fancy Kona cotton for the sashing that the original quilt had. (A 40%-off Joann's coupon helped to ease the pain.)

It went together really quickly and easily and I'm thrilled about how it's turning out so far.

Cincy got interested while I was taking the photos.

Now I'm starting to thinking about what to do on the back and binding and how to quilt it. I wish I could just work on this and not do anything else!