WIP for the 17 year old

I have joined a group called:  2013 the year of the finished project over at a blog called "Never too hot to stitch"  Once a month you pull out a project that has been languishing in your WIP bin or your UFO bin (in my case, I have lots in both!!) and give a little detail about it.  Then you try to finish it in that month and post again at the end.  I think this is a GREAT idea!!  It's kind of giving everyone a hand up to get those WIPs accomplished.

 Here is my first one.  This is my oldest daughter's favorite CapriSun flavor.  She will not drink any other flavor.  As you know, if you have been reading this blog for awhile, I make little tote bags out of these used pouches.  Oldest daughter is a little picky and doesn't like a lot of things.  If I make her something, it is always something she has picked - design, color, fiber, etc.

 After I had made quite a few of the little totes, she asked if I could make her a larger tote bag with handles and a zipper.  I said, "YES!!".  Then she asked if it could be made out of the Lemonade flavor only.  I said, "Sure."  Now you would think that in a house filled with kids this would not be a problem, but we don't drink juice very much.  I keep a case of Capri Sun from Costco in the back cabinet for Friday nights when the kids have gobs of friends over.  And, because usually on Fridays we do have gobs of friends over, I thought, "Oh, it's going to take no time at all to collect enough Lemonade Capri Suns to make her bag".

Not so.  You would think that with all the attention to detail that I have to pay to do cross stitch, weaving and lace knitting, that I would have realized that the big cases of Capri Sun from Costco do not, in fact, have the flavor Lemonade in them.  And it took me quite awhile to realize this.  I don't think I would have ever noticed if my daughter hadn't pointed it out to me.

I had to actually go to the grocery store to buy them.  Well, since we don't usually drink juice (and even when friends are over, my kids have to have their glass of milk first), I kept forgetting to get them.  So this poor little front (or back) panel of T's tote bag just lay on the top of my sewing machine - it's been there for months.  It gets moved when I need the machine for something else and then gets put back.  I even now have all the pouches that I need to complete the tote, but still it sits.

This will be my first WIP for the new group!  After all, T will be going away in a few short months and she should have a tote bag she likes!!  Wish me luck - it really shouldn't take all that long!

I just had to include a picture of the 11 year old at her cello recital.  Doesn't she look serious?  This was not her first recital, but her pieces were quite challenging and she had worked so hard on them.  She was very  nervous that she would make a mistake (of course she did - most of them do :o), but she did great and we are so proud of her!

Check out the sidebar for the links to Tami's, Ginni's, Sara's, and my new group 2013 the year of the finished project!!  Great things happening out in blogland!

Baby blanket

Another baby in the family, another baby blanket!

 This fabric is just so cute!!

 I fell in love with these elephants.  I hope the baby likes them!

 Could you get any cuter with this backing fabric - and it's made of flannel so it will be soft and warm.

 This time I hand embroidered the name and date - last time I used my machine and really didn't like the outcome.  Handwork is so much better!  Obviously it has taken me a little while to make this blanket.  I need to get it in the mail soon!

 Can't gift without a label :o)

Edging detail.  I love making these blankets for people, especially with the embroidery on them.

Take a look over at Tami's for more eye candy.

Blanket for a new little cousin

We had a new little boy born to our family late last year and I made this for him.

 We saw him in December and he is sooo cute.  He lives in Canada so we haven't seen him since, but I have seen pictures and he is growing like a weed!

 I just love this fabric-so perfect for a little boy!

 Usually I do the embroidery by hand, but my machine can do it also.  I programmed the name and date in and went to town.

 I also added all our names :o)  This embroidery is just ok.  The next one I do will be done by hand.  I like that MUCH better.

After sewing the front to the back and turning it.  I added this specialty stitch all the way around.  I love variegated threads - they are so fun!

Check out Tami's for more finished objects.

1st Grade Class Quilt-FINISHED!!

I can't believe that this one is done also!! I finished around 12:30 this morning and dropped it off at school at 8:30. I am so pleased with how it turned out and I think the kids were too. They were all trying to find their own squares!! It was pretty cute.

This is the front. I had so much trouble getting those white squares to lay flat and be even, but it was worth it!!

I pieced the binding and hand sewed it down on the back.

This is the back. I don't think it shows off the quilting all that well, but I had sewn around each square - all four sides - with not too much puckering this time. I think this shot also shows the binding a bit better.

My label - I just wrote on the back in permanent marker just like the kids did on their squares :o)

Such a sweet little quilt! I'll let you know what it goes for at the auction.

See more finished objects at Tami's.

1st grade class quilt

Almost finished with the first grade class quilt for the auction! The border is on and here it is being pinned to be quilted.

I measured each white square to be exactly in the center of a colored square - 1" border on all sides - then I used safety pins to pin in the center of the square and on each corner. Then I put pins on the seams between each colored square and also in the corners. where four squares meet. It took more than 3 hours and boy was it back breaking work!! I had to pin it while it was on the floor!!
It turned out that all those pins were not enough. The white squares that the kids had decorated were still slipping - sometimes as much as 1/4" as I was sewing down the side. I fixed this "little" problem by using straight pins every 1/2"-3/4" as you can see in this photo. I pinned these as they were going through the machine. Each time I came to a pin, I took it out and placed it in the square below.
Quilting this on my little machine, was not easy, but it is done now. The binding has been attached and is being sewn down by hand now. Should be complete soon :o) It will be great to be done with this!!

See more WIPS at Tami's.

Finished!!!

Well, here it is in all it's glory! The 4th grade class quilt finished last night. It will be auctioned off on March 3rd and the proceeds will benefit our elementary school.

Each child in the class made a square, as well as our teacher (his is the bottom right as we are looking at this picture). It worked out perfectly with 5 rows of 5 squares.
This is the back. The binding is the same fabric as the sashing and borders and I hand sewed it down. The quilt has a very nice weight to it.
My little sweetie's square! The opening bid for this quilt has been set at $75 - I hope someone bids on it.

There are a few errors on this quilt, but overall I think it's pretty good. As I mentioned before, this is the second quilt that I have made and I just kind of made it up as I went along. I'll let you know how it fares :o)

More finishes at Tami's and other fabulous fiber arts here.

4th grade class quilt

This quilt is moving right along. It is my second quilt - the first one was made in a class using a pattern from a book. This quilt is just a simple one that I put together on the fly.

It is pieced and now the quilting is done. I can honestly say I have done my best, but I am not all that pleased with how it looks. Overall, I think it's "O.K.", but as you can see there are quite a few wrinkles/pulls in the fabric.
Here is a closeup. I unpicked and re-sewed those areas where I thought I could do better, but left those areas where I knew I couldn't fix them.
I matched the bobbin thread to the fabric on the back, but chose a variegated thread for the front.
All that's left now is to hand sew down the binding which I started doing last night. I hope to have both quilts completed by next Tuesday so that they can hang in their respective classrooms for a few days before the auction. Wish me luck!!

See Tami's for more WIPs.

4th Grade Class Quilt

I finally got all the squares designed by the kids. As you can see, there is a wide variety of styles and tastes.

I tried many different ways to put them together. I wanted to balance the very colorful with the less colorful - the tanks and guns with the rainbows and peace signs - the minimalist with the total coverage squares. I came up with a layout that seemed to accomplish all these things.

This is the top 5 squares sewn together. It will be the top of the quilt.

The next 5 with sashing in between the rows.

Third row. I am not sure now why I took these pictures at each row, but I really like the progression of the quilt. This is my second quilt - the first one I made in a class.

All the squares sewn together with the sashing.

At last.....with a border. I really like the dark sashing and border - I feel like it frames the students' work quite nicely.

Next is putting all the layers together, then quilting it, and finally putting on the binding. Whew!! Quite a bit left. Then there is the quilt for the first grade class :o)

Cheetah's clothes

This weeks FO is not my own.

My sweet 6 year old son has been wanting to make clothes for "cheetah" so we decided to get out some fabric and make some. He was very adamant that he make them all by himself (but wanted me near to help). First he traced an outline around cheetah on the cloth. I let him know that he needed to give a very wide margin so that there would be room for the seams and so that cheetah could actually fit in there. He thought not so he cut out right on the lines and sewed up a shirt. I think you know where this is going......the shirt was WAY too small - he couldn't get cheetah in it. Here comes the great part. He looks up at me and says, "Is this why you rip things out so much, mom? You make mistakes?" I said, "Yes, I make mistakes on almost everything I make and have to redo at least part if not all of each project." He said, "Oh." Slight pause. "Well, let me start over." And he did.

This is the second shirt. He carefully traced around cheetah and then asked me what I thought would be the right amount of extra. We decided together and then he was off sewing.
I drew the stitching line to help him stay on track. I even asked him if he wanted to use the sewing machine. He said no - he wanted to do this all himself. He has a hard time standing and working the pedal of the sewing machine and also feeding the fabric. So hand sewing it was.

Starting to turn the shirt. I love the anticipation on his face!

Almost turned!

It worked!! Cheetah had a shirt!

Of course no self-respecting cheetah can go around with out pants so pants needed to be made.
They were whipped up in short order. I did some of the stitching on the shorts - he was getting tired and had lost a little bit of his focus by this point, but he is so proud!!

By the way, yes his favorite stuffy is indeed a jaguar. When he was one, this was his brother's favorite stuffy. Big brother gave this to little brother on little brother's first birthday. We tried to tell him is was a jaguar, but he was convinced it was a cheetah. Now, jaguar's name is "Cheetah". It's so cute :o)

Take a look at other finished objects over at Tami's.

Class Quilt WIPs

I have two new, big WIPs. Class Quilts! One for my son who is in the first grade and another for my daughter who is in the fourth grade. These will be auctioned off at our school auction to raise money.

I decided on a fairly easy juvenile quilt for the first graders. I chose four fairly bright fabrics and cut out pieces that are 10 1/2" X 10 1/2".
I chose this white fabric for the kids to design and cut squares that are 8" X 8". Each student drew a picture on a square. These are sooooo cute!! You can see some of them in the photo above. We have 23 students and so far I have 12 squares - I go back after school on Thursday and again on Friday at lunch to have the rest of the students design their squares. The quilt is 5 squares by 5 squares and we have two teachers so it works out perfectly for the teachers to each design a square as well!

Yesterday, I pieced the big colorful squares.

This shows what my idea is. Next I will sandwich the quilt top with the batting and the backing. Then I will sew the students' squares to the top as shown, through all layers, creating a semi "rag quilt". I hope it turns out cute!! I think I will use up the leftover fabric from the colorful squares for the binding. I will keep posting as things move along.

The fourth grade quilt will be a more traditional quilt. I already have 16 squares made and will go in to their class on Thursday at lunch to get the rest. This quilt will have sashing between the squares and a border.

Wish me luck!! These have to be completed before March 3rd. YIKES!!

For more WIPs, check out Tami's blog.

Reverse Appliqued Pillow

I had been wanting to make one of these pillows for a VERY long time, but had just never done it. I kept putting this idea at the bottom of the stack and just kept thinking about the possibilities. Well.....my 13 year old nephew needed a gift and he is very hard to get things for. He is very logical, super brainy, and very science/math oriented but not into regular kinds of toys - he likes really expensive electronic stuff. Preferably that he can take apart, figure out and put back together again - and he is good!!

When I was racking my brain for a gift, this idea just popped into my head and I thought, "This is perfect!!". I cut one piece of knit jersey into a 36" X 18" rectangle (the grey) and I cut the dark blue jersey into an 18"X18" square.

Pinned the dark blue to the grey and freehand wrote his name on the fabric.

Then I pinned around it with WAY, WAY too many pins and sewed on the lines!! I had to stop pretty much every other stitch or so to take them out, but I was worried about slippage and I didn't want to have to unpick and start over.
The I cut away the dark blue inside the stitching and presto!! A fun pillow for my nephew. I put a 16" pillow form inside and it worked out pretty well. My nephew LOVED it - he carried it around all the time while he was here visiting.

The tutorial I used is here.

For more finished objects, take a look at the wonderful things posted at Tami's.