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Faux cross stitch portrait pillows

Years ago I saw adorable cross stitch family portraits in Martha Stewart Magazine. I immediately knew I wanted to translate them into a quilt (I dislike cross stitching). After some thought, I decided on a sort of simple applique and made up these two pillows to test the technique.

Then I shoved the completed, but unstuffed, pillows in a pile in the shed and years went by. This week I found them, added stuffing and put them on the couch. I like them! My only complaint is that what was intended to be pink lips looks like a weird pig nose.

So these were done ages ago but, if memory serves, I cut out all the little squares, drew a chalk grid on the background fabric, sprayed the background with spray quilt basting, stuck on the squares, then sewed them down. After it was done I washed it to get the spray baste off (this caused some fraying but it doesn't bother me). I did notice that the spray discolored the fabric a bit. Whatever, done pillows.

Oh, and the pillow in the background was made from some cool sewn fabric I got in Costa Rica at a craft fair.

:: unrelated

Tonight in the car, Oscar asked me, "mom, do you have a web on your computer? Not like a spider web. A web like daddy has on his phone when he says he's going to 'look that up on the web'"

The World Wide Web is a bit hard to explain to a four year old but he seemed satisfied with my description.

Travel play mats made of felt

My cousin leads a fascinating expat life and her family recently relocated from Toronto, Canada to Kobe, Japan! For the long flight she asked if I might be willing to make some travel play mats and she sent links to A Busy Lizzie Life for inspiration. Turns out Lizzie was inspired by one of my favorite craft bloggers--Lier from Ikat Bag--whose work is so unbelievably perfect I have to be careful not to be jealous.

The first play mat was designed for cars. My favorite feature is the half size piece of fabric that flips over--railroad tracks on one side and bridge on the other. The roads don't align perfectly but I'm not a perfectionist :)

Ok, maybe the elasticized parking spots are my favorite.

And because my cousin has a son and a daughter and though we might wish children had gender neutral tastes we live in reality where boys mostly do love cars and girls mostly do love dolls. Their son got the car theme and their daughter got Hello Kitty (very appropriate for Japan!)

You can sort of see how the mats fold into thirds with a button closure and ribbon handle. And an exterior zipper pocket for the cars or Kitties.

That picnic blanket is also a pocket.

I didn't have any Hello Kitty dolls so I sure hope they fit in their little beds.

These were totally fun to think about and design and mostly fun to make (fussy little bits aren't my strong suit). Hopefully they are fun to play with as well. I have all the stuff to make one for Oscar but there isn't a deadline so it's still in the pile.

:: related: Anyone else reading Joanna's Motherhood Around the World series? I wonder if my cousin's life is like this lady's.

 

 

Quilted script pillow

On Friday I took a free motion quilting class at Sew Katie Jean, a great little quilt shop in Lincoln, CA. Yesterday I wanted to practice but realized I don't love the typical stippling patterns you see with free motion machine quilting so I wanted to try script. Biscuit helped choose a Shel Silverstein poem (Hug-o-War), I drew lines every 2 inches with a water soluble pen and got to stitching. I must say, I'm rather impressed I didn't spell anything wrong.

Looking at these photos I do realize they are all a bit out of focus but shortly after this photo shoot Oscar tore the book's dust jacket to shreds so....no reshoot.

If you're planning a project like this, don't forget to cross your t's and dot your i's as you go. And do try to avoid hyphens and apostrophes. It might also be wise to leave a bit of a margin--this is exactly 18x18" for an 18" pillow form and you can see that words are lost as they wrap around the edges. Still, for a first attempt, I'm pleased.

Crafting for camp

Biscuit leaves in the morning for Girl Scout Camp. She is very nervous. To finish off her packing list and give her a few treats, I did some late night sewing.

First we did some fabric painting this afternoon. She painted a bandana for herself and I just hemmed it.

The final result confirms that she may be nervous but doesn't seem to lack for self confidence. :)

As a surprise we got her a (very cheap but hopefully functional) digital camera. It's crazy but it's almost cheaper than buying her a disposable camera and processing the film. I whipped up a slightly-too-large fabric case with some of the fabric I painted.

And, finally, a little something to hopefully calm her nerves at nighttime. A tiny pillow made of fabric leftover from a (really ugly) dress I made when she was about three. I filled it with batting and lavender and rosemary plucked from our front yard. It actually smells amazing. The rosemary isn't dried so it may mold but probably not before Thursday when she comes home.

Fingers crossed she loves camp!

 

Want to make a bag?

I'm trying to get into the groove of teaching monthly. It sounds so easy. And yet. Months go by quick! So in a few short weeks it's time to learn to make bags! I was originally thinking wine bags but one of my star pupils is in middle school so I expanded to bags. The concepts are the same if you're making a wine bag, tote bag or gift bag. Boxed corners. Lining. Using your machine. Sewing straight. You can learn all that on a wine bag or tote bag or any bag so students get to choose what they want to make.

Do you want to make a bag? Sign up here. Space is limited to 5 and the class is a total bargain at $35 for 3 hours! And I'll even bring scraps for you to use.

<Imagine a photo here.>

It's late and I can't find the image I want. It was a picture my sister sent me of the wine bags she made after taking one of my classes. She's become a wine bag making machine :) It's so incredibly gratifying to me when I teach a class and that person goes on and continues to use that skill I helped them develop to make more things outside class. My sister also made pillows and curtains! Happy. Happy.

P.S. The word "bag" starts to look really weird if you type it too much. Bag. Bag. Bag. Looks like hag. Or snag. Really, a rather unpleasant word.

P.P.S. I just finished reading One More Thing (on recommendation from Cup of Jo). Free from 3M Library Downloads. Unexpected and not what I'd normally pick up but I really liked it. Short stories. Hmmm. And if you read on your phone/iPad and aren't using 3M Library thing you should totally check it out. If your library has it. Which it might not. But Sacramento Library does. So....

P.P.S.S. I totally made a button to link to the class registration website. It now lives in the right sidebar over there ---> right at the top. No, it isn't very pretty but it should work. Only 4 months into this monthly class thing. I'm on it!

Over and out.

Pioneer dress

This is pioneer week at Biscuit's school. She has gotten really (really) into the pioneer concept and for the past week or so we've been working away at her dress.

The sleeves were too long. Apparently pioneer ladies had long sleeves. Pioneer girls had three quarter length. In addition to the dress the bonnet is done and the apron in progress. Petticoat is up next. Beef is jerkying in a borrowed food dehydrator and bread is slow rising in the fridge. Tomorrow I'm buying cream to make butter and she'll have popcorn, nuts and raisins in her lunch (with the bread and butter and jerky). A wicker basket, cloth napkin and mason jars are at the ready for lunchtime authenticity.

Hmm, maybe she's not the only one getting into this pioneer thing.

I've gotta go finish the petticoat, pay for Oscar's swim lessons that start Friday and bake a non pioneer dessert to take to a friend tomorrow but I didn't want to let ye olde blog sit idle another day. Hope you are well.

Bryce Canyon National Park quilted birthday card

I've had this quilt design in my head since our road trip last summer which included Bryce Canyon. I knew exactly how the quilt would look but I just never found the time to put it together. Then my mother-in-law gave me a birthday card that was a mini embroidery/quilt. The enclosed note said something about it giving me ideas. And did it ever.

 

I like quilts because they are functional so wall hangings are nice but don't do much for me. Functional quilts need to be at least baby or lap size. Or you can make tableware but you only need so many placemats or table runners. But quilts as cards? Perfect.

 

 

The 'sedimentary layers' were pieced onto batting + muslin. Then I covered it with blue fabric and stitched the horizon line of the hoodoos. Cut away below the horizon line and voila. Let's all agree I was aiming for Thor's Hammer and not a giraffe head with that middle hoodoo, okay?

The feed dogs on one of my machines aren't working right (I am having the WORST sewing machine luck) but it does render the maching absolutely perfect for free motion quilting. This is something my old machines could never handle so it appears I have a dedicated free motion quilting machine. I was able to legibly write sew Happy Birthday Jan so I call it a win.

Indeed, Happy Birthday, Jan and thanks for the cool idea.

Quilt for the newlyweds

Ok, not so newlywed by the time I got them their wedding gift but so it goes sometimes. I took the fabric I used to make table cloths for my sister's bridal shower, added some muslin, and used it to make a queen size quilt for she and her husband.

I used the disappearing nine-patch pattern I learned about from the WiseCraft blog but I stupidly started sewing from a memory of the pattern. In hindsight, I should have used the muslin in the center square of each nine patch for a cool effect. But I didn't. By the time I was halfway done I decided I really didn't like this quilt at all but there wasn't any going back so I kept sewing. 

As I finished it up it started to grow on me.

I'm not ranking it among my favorite quilts ever but I love that it was made with fabric from a special event and it's a nice, soft, cuddly sort of quilt perfect for snuggling under on the couch while watching movies. So, perfect for newlyweds.

They seem to like it so that's what matters most.

Cozy quilt

It's rare but sometimes projects work out better than you'd hoped. Such was the case with this blanket.

I wanted to make a super simple quilt pattern that would be graphic and interesting with only two fabrics and could be customized by each person in the class. And it worked.

I had imagined using solid fabric but couldn't resist that reproduction floral print. It'd look awesome in solids too. If you're local to Sacramento and want to learn to make a simple quilt like this, the class is February 2. Sign up here. It's gonna be fun!

Upcoming class(es)

This year I'm hoping to teach one class per month at The Nest in Fair Oaks.

In November and December Shelley (Nest owner) and I got all excited about having classes to make handmade holiday gifts but that was ridiculous. We were stressed, potential students were crazy busy, timing was bad. So Shelley had the idea of spreading the making throughout the year. Well, throughout the year minus January.

Dates for the first 5 classes are set (first Sundays of the month) and I set up a webpage for information and registration. I'm finishing up the first class sample and it's coming out really cute. We'll be making color block lap quilts.

Sign up to join the fun!