Quilt for My Son - Finished!

I haven't blogged for quite a while but that doesn't mean that my sewing machine has been silent. I have been turning out various projects, such as more mug rugs and some other new projects like these recipe keepers:

These have been a lot of fun to make and it was also exciting to find different fabric for them. I found some fabric locally and some online on etsy.

What else have I made? I've done some bibs and burp cloths, such as these:

And I've made one fabric bookmark with a vinyl pocket (for holding a note or gift card). That's one that I've completed. I now have about a gazillion in progress. Okay maybe not literally, but it seems that way!

But what I'm most exciting about is the project that I finished today. I posted a while back about starting a quilt for my son. I got the top pieced together and the layers put together a while back. Then I started with the quilting. Since I don't have much experience with hand sewing, I decided to do the quilting on the machine. And I decided that it would be best to sew a square inside each square.

I finished one row of blocks like that. And it was one of the most miserable sewing experiences I've had. Trying to manipulate the quilt through the machine and bunching up all the extra fabric was just not fun at all. So I put it aside and decided to take a break and work on other things (see above). I finally pulled the quilt back out of the closet and stared at it. And imagined doing the squares for the rest of the quilt. And I wanted to cry because I just didn't think that I could do it.

So I decided to rip out what I had done and do something else. It felt good to take those stitches out. I decided to keep it simple and just sewed some vertical lines 1/4" on either side of the edge of each block. Understated and definitely not fancy, but it did the job. And it was something that I was able to finish without crying or cursing.

Next came the binding. I cut way more strips that needed, but that is okay. Better to have too many than not enough. I sewed the strips together and pressed it in half. Then I sewed the binding to the front of the quilt. And then I did something that I didn't think I would do at all when I started the quilt. I sewed the back of the binding on by hand. After reading through various blog instructions on finishing quilts and looking at the various techniques, I decided that hand sewing the binding really looked best overall.

And so I got started. In the past I haven't really liked hand sewing very much. My stitches are never even and the thread always gets tangled. Although that was still the case here, I actually found myself rather enjoying it and found it quite soothing. This is something that I could do more of, I thought. And so I will pursue that. I might even try my hand at hand quilting rather than machine quilting.

Sadly, I misremembered the instructions when I first started stitching. In looking back at them, I realized that I was making my stitches much too large and too noticeable. So I changed (but didn't rip back) at the point I realized it and it does look better, so I'll have to remember that in the future. Here's what I mean:

The more correct way with small stitches

My mess up with too big stitches--oops!

All in all, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I'll definitely have to do another quilt and get a bit more practice. It was a lot of fun and I'm already thinking about what I might try to do next. But until then, here are some pictures of the finished quilt:

The back

Oh, so I found myself with a problem that I remember having even when I used to cross stitch: getting knots in the thread while I was pulling it through the fabric. Very frustrating. I had planned to do a google search and try to find out if there were any tricks to keep that from happening. And surprisingly, in my Google Reader today, one of the blogs I follow posted about this exact issue and provided some tips to keep the thread from tangling. What great timing!

Star Wars Quilt and Two Rollups

This week in sewing, I tried a couple of new projects: storage for Hot Wheels cars and for crayons. Each one has little pockets to put the item into and then the whole thing rolls up and ties closed with a ribbon. The one for cars doubles as a playmat with a black ribbon stitched down the center with a yellow line to make it look like a road.

The car rollup was made using this tutorial and the crayon rollup used this tutorial. Both were easy to follow and were really quite similar in their construction. Using the models from these two tutorials, I think that I could make a rollup for any number of items, so I'm going to do some brainstorming to see what I might want to make some other ones for. Both of these are projects I'll definitely do again.

The cars do go all the way in the pockets. I just had them peeking out for the picture.

The other thing that I worked on this week was the start to a quillow, using some Star Wars fabric. By the start of the quillow, I mean that I've done the quilt part but have not yet added the little pocket that will allow it to be folded up and used as a pillow (hence the quillow name). One of the moms in my moms' group showed me the ones that that had and I thought they were pretty neat, so I looked up several tutorials online. I didn't follow just one tutorial, but just used the ideas of various ones that I looked at.

Putting together the layers was tough. Since this was going to be sewn together and then flipped rather than sewn and then put a border on, I felt that the sides needed to match up pretty well so I could keep my seams straight. And that was quite a challenge, especially with cats (Guenevere mostly) trying to get onto the fabric every time I turned my head away for a split second. I think this was the hardest part.

As for the quilting, the difficulty there was just the size. I cleared off my table completely so that I could stretch it out as I was sewing each line (I just did straight lines based upon the lines in the fabric). I'm not sure that I'm ready to tackle a project of this size (and it's really not that large: about 42" x 72") anytime soon, which is sad because I also bought some Muppet fabric to make another one. I'm also not sure when I'll add the pillow pocket. I've already been using it as it is and so I fear that it is destined to remain just a quilt and not a quillow. But it's still a cool quilt!

So that's what's been going on in my sewing world this week. I haven't had a lot of sewing time and when I have had craft time, I've been focusing a little more on knitting. But I got some really neat fabric yesterday and I'm looking forward to making more rollups and trying out some other projects that are in my queue, so I hope to find a little more time to sew this week.

Coloring Bag and Fabric Envelope

My sewing machine has stayed plugged into the wall for the past two weeks, so that I can sit down to it quickly whenever I have a free couple of minutes. Yet even so, I haven't had a ton of time to sew lately. But I have definitely been dreaming up lots of new projects. One of the moms in my moms' group showed me this thing called a quillow, which is a quilt that folds up and is tucked into a little pocket to make a pillow. How genius is that? I decided that I just had to make one (or two) so I went to Joann's to pick out fabric. So happy to see that the licensed fabrics were 50% off! So I got enough fabric to make a Star Wars quillow and a Muppets quillow. Now I just need to actually start them.

What I did do this week was make another mug rug, which apparently I completely forgot to take a picture of. What I'm enjoying about the mug rugs is that I get to try out different fabric placement choices and decisions such as which color thread to use and which color binding. For the one I made that didn't make it in front of the camera, I could have gone with a soft green or a bright teal. I actually have enough of the fabric to do both. So I did the soft green first. When I do the bright teal, I know that although the fabric may be the same, the different fabric placement and accent colors will definitely make them look like very different pieces. So I'm having fun making these. I've taken the three I've made recently to The Craft House, so I hope other people like them.

Using a tutorial, I decided to try making a mini crayon tote. I picked some monster fabrics in my children's stash. For the inside, I picked some bright colorful stripes (The tutorial says cotton twill was used for the lining. I did notice that the bag was a little flimsy so I think I might try using some of the canvas that I have leftover from another project next time.). This was a fun project and one I definitely would like to try again.

Using another tutorial, I also made a fabric envelope. This is a great project for using some fat quarters and I think I'll make more of these. The only thing I think I'll change is to add some velcro for the closure so that it will have a way to fasten. 

Today I went up to The Craft House to drop off some new inventory and I took a few pictures.

The booth as a whole. I picked this space because of this wooden structure. I liked the shelves as well as the dowel rods so I could hang stuff on them.

Much of this area contains my knitted items, but on the second shelf I have the burp cloths in a basket and the mug rugs laying down on the center of the shelf. You can see the crayon tote hanging on one of the rods.

This is where the rice therapy bags and boo boo bags are located. So far, these have been the best sellers out of my booth, so I'll definitely continue making these and plan to add some to my etsy shop soon.

Lots of Sewing and The Craft House

I've actually been doing quite a lot of sewing lately, just not very much blogging (or picture taking). I need to work on making blogging more of a balance within the crafting parts of my life.

The biggest news is that I've rented a booth at The Craft House, a shop specializing in handcrafted items. If you are in the Lafayette, Indiana area, I do hope that you will come visit the shop, which is located at 846 Main Street in downtown Lafayette (open hours are Tues-Thurs from 10am-5pm and Fri-Sat from 10am-6pm). So that means there are two downtown locations where you can find my items (the other is NPEN, which I posted about previously).

I have been spending a lot of time lately building up inventory for those locations and not as much time sewing on projects for myself. So that means that the quilt that I am making for Luke has been put aside for a little while. But I did finish piecing together the front, so I'm really happy about that and how it looks. I've been reading up on blog posts and tutorials about putting a quilt together and I think I have it figured out, at least in theory. So I do plan to actually put that theory into practice soon. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

 

Mostly I've been sewing rice therapy bags and boo boo bags. Basically, the idea is that you can either heat it in the microwave for heat therapy or put it in the freezer for cold therapy. I add a little bit of lavender both for the pleasant and relaxing scent as well as to make it not smell quite as much like rice. (I've mentioned these bags a couple of times in previous blog posts.) I feel like I've really gotten the process of making these down and I'm quite happy with the outcome. Along with the larger bags, I've been making mini bags (these are the boo boo bags) in fun kid-friendly fabric so that parents can use them to help kids with any ouchies they might experience. The boo boo bags are also a good size for breastfeeding women who have a clogged duct or mastitis because it can be heated or cooled and placed in the bra.

It seems like these are a good idea because I've had them in the shop for just a week now and I've already sold several, so I'm really happy about that (and thank you to those who have bought them!). I've been working on creating more so that I can restock them as they sell. So I have a bunch of bags in varying stages of readiness. Some have been sewn and need to be turned right side out. Some have been turned right side out (and for the bigger ones have had channels sewn) and need to be filled. Ah, filling these bags. There have been times when rice just goes everywhere! It's definitely a challenge to fill them, but I think I'm finally figuring out a good way of doing it that, while slow, doesn't end up with rice all over the couch and floor.

Ready to be turned right side out

Ready to be filled with rice and lavender

This is one of my favorite fabrics for these bags!

The picture here doesn't capture how lovely this purple fabric truly is.

 I've been trying to decide what else to work on for the booth (as well as the Etsy shop) and I've decided that I really enjoyed making the mug rugs, so I want to do more of those. And so I've gotten several charm packs and packages of binding and I'm having a good time putting the fabric together and making what are essentially mini quilts. I've already finished two more, which I'll be taking to The Craft House soon.

Front sides

Back sides

So although I may not have been doing a lot of blogging lately, my sewing machine has been busy!

Baby Quilt Update - Four Rows Joined

I finished sewing the strips for the rows together this morning (had just one left) and started on putting the rows together. I got four rows joined and have five left to go. What I'm finding most challenging is making sure that the corners line up. And although I'm trying really hard to focus on that, there are a few that are out of line. But I don't think any are too horrible so I'm going to leave them as is. If I get something too far off on any of the remaining rows, then I'll rip out that seam, but so far it is going okay as long as I keep things slow. Here's a picture of the joined rows so far:

Items for Sale at NPEN and Start of Baby Quilt

Yesterday afternoon, I took a load of items, both knitted and sewn, to a local organization -- Natural Parenting Education Network -- to make them available for sale in NPEN's boutique (while I was there I bought the cutest sewn bib from Amanda of This and That Boutique). This organization is fairly new and has been offering some wonderful outreach programs and events for the community. A portion of each purchase there goes to NPEN, so I hope that some of my items sell so that the sales can help out this awesome organization. If you are nearby, then I hope you will visit (check website for location and hours).

The knitted items: a wash cloth, two pairs of adult socks and two pairs of adult slipper socks, two baby hats, and two pairs of baby socks.

These are the rice bags, filled with a little lavender in addition to the rice.

These are burp cloths (cotton on the front and terrycloth on the back)

Sets of 2 pacifier clips with matching carrying bag.

22 Pacifier Clips; I had so much fun playing with all of these fabric choices.

In other sewing news, I got started on the baby quilt for my son (which will be my first quilt). First, I opened up the three charm packs and set out the squares so I could see what was available. I'm glad that I got three packs because some of the patterns (such as the owls) were very limited in number, so having three packs to choose from helped me to keep the variety rather than getting stuck with some of the same squares over and over. (I think I'll make some boo boo bags -- mini rice bags -- with the leftover squares.)

It took a while to get the squares in an order that I was happy with. Actually, the initial setup wasn't too difficult. But at the end, I found one hole where I couldn't figure out which square to put in. Finally I had to start rearranging some of the other squares before I could actually fill that hole (making sure that the same color or pattern was not side by side). I completely forgot to take a picture while I had the squares laid out. I thought about it when I had almost finished picking up the squares.

Over the past three days I've sewn one strip of seven squares per day. I'm going really slowly with these to make sure my seam is completely straight. I want this quilt to be the best that I can do for my first time and I know that rushing through it will leave wonky seams and an unsatisfying project. So here are the three rows that I've finished so far.

I went to Joann's the other day and found some fabric for the border. It's a stripe pattern with browns and blues that I think will look nice. I'm not sure yet what I'll use for the backing. I think I'll wait until I have the front pieced together and then I'll go browse when I have a good idea of what it all will look like.

Pacifier Clips Galore and More

I'm going to be selling some of my items (both sewn and knit) in a shop downtown--a really neat place called the Natural Parenting Education Network--so I've been working on creating more inventory. So one thing I've been doing is making a whole bunch of pacifier clips. I've been trying to get a variety of fabric so that there are a lot to choose from. I also made a few sets of the clips with a matching carrying bag. I have the rice bags and plan to make a few more (the lavender, by the way, makes it smell so wonderful!) as well as some small "boo boo sacks" for kids. And I've been knitting baby hats and have some other knitted items to take there. I'm excited to be part of the boutique and to also help out NPEN so it can continue to offer the wonderful programming and events it has been doing.

But I have to admit that I'm a little burned out on making pacifier clips! I have six more all ready to go but for the sewing up, so I think I'll finish those and then take a break from making them for a little while. After doing the extra rice bags and boo boo sacks, I'm going to work on another project--for me. Or rather, for my son.

I'm going to try my hand at making a quilt. I have no idea how successful I'll be, but I'm going to try. It's going to be simple. I bought some charm packs, so I'll just be sewing the squares together and then for the quilting I'll do simple diagonal lines. But I picked some fabric that I'm really excited about and I'm sure that I'll learn a lot from this simple (although for me perhaps not so simple since it will be my first time) project.

I looked through the various charm packs available at Fat Quarter Shop and really liked Ten Little Things, so that is the one I decided to go with (and I will definitely order from FQS again as it was shipped promptly and was easy to order). I bought three packs so that I would have plenty of each square to choose from. And any leftovers will be used to do some applique on onesies and bibs. I need to figure out how big I want to make it so that I'll know how many squares to sew for each row and then how many rows to make. But first I need to do some reading up on how to do something like this. I think the biggest question I have right now is about which way to press the seams, so that's what I'm going to focus on right now. Then I'm just going to dive right in.

I don't yet have the fabric for the back or border. I want to get the top pieced first and then make a decision for what I want to do for that.

 

I had to come back and edit this post after what I saw on Geek Crafts today: A Call to Arms

Labels and Rice Bags

Two small projects (one super small) have been all I've had time for lately. First, I made some sew-on labels by using transfer paper and ribbon. I'm rather pleased with how they turned out.

Second, I made up a couple more rice bags (and plan to make more). This time I added in some lavender to the rice to help make it smell better. And I also added in a label to each bag. I really like how it looks with the label.

I also worked on getting some packaging ideas together. The one that is pretty much finished is the packaging for the pacifier clips. Here's what I have. Very simple, but I like it.

I hope to make more rice bags, some burp cloths, some more pacifier clips and matching bags this week. We'll see how much I actually have time to do!