Sew Adorable!

Yes, I've been on a bit of a sewing kick lately.

This is the giraffe I made for my soon-to-arrive nephew

Gray and yellow!  It totally matches his nursery.

I used gray flannel I had on hand and the yellow chenille was an old bedspread, complete with pom-poms, that I found in my grandma's rag bag years ago and saved for such an occasion as this.

Baby is due any day now!!!!!!

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Meet Olivia Owl.

Owen has confiscated this.  He loves it because it is PINK!

I wanted to try my hand at making a stuffed owl as a potential baby gift.  

I searched google images and combined several of the ideas I saw there using all fabrics I had in my stash.

Let's just say this style took more time than I'm willing to put in again. 

A simpler version 2.0 coming soon.

Sew What?

Baby blankets of course!

Getting excited for my friend Kristin's baby to arrive I decided to make a blanket.

I bought a few 1/2 yds at Joann with my coupons 

and paired them with some fabrics from my stash at home.

Scoured Pinterest for ideas on block patterns.

Knew I wanted to do a subway tile pattern of some kind.

Here is my first blanket (yes, I made two) sewed into long strips

 And the strips sewn together.  Love it!

 Then I realized I had enough fabric for another blanket if I made smaller tiles.

So I cut them in half!

 Here are the blocks laid out as I decided on placement. Oh the agony.

 Finished product.

I backed it with brown and aqua floral.  With a monogram "A" for Miss Annalise of course!

I lucked out on this one I think. 

I pretty much added thin batting, sewed the edges right sides together, flipped it right sides out, pressed and sewed the edges and then sewed along 3 of the rows to quilt it.

Turned out great.  no problems.

Then I tried the same thing on the one with larger tiles.

Didn't work so much.

After ripping out 2 rows three times and abandoning the effort

I decided to cut my losses. LITERALLY.

Instead of ripping out the two rows of stitches all the way around the perimeter, I cut them off!

At that point, a blanket 1 inch smaller on all sides seemed a lot better to me than spending hours with the ripper.

Call me lazy.  I am.

(sneak peek into my inner dialog:)

But these strips looks so sweet.  All the fabrics.  and they are quite thick...

I don't want to just throw this away.

Maybe they'd make a cute hot pad?

I wonder if I could zig zag stitch them together?

Na, that will never work.

Heck, what do I got to lose?

and THIS was born!

As for the first blanket, the one with larger tiles that is 1 inch smaller all around....?

Well, it took me 3 weeks to quilt it and make a binding for it.

See?  Lazy!

But I do love it!!!

I quilted along both sides of each row.

Liam helped me figure out the perimeter was 14 feet.  So I made 14 feet of binding.

 Evie likes it!

It now resides on the quilt rack near our front door.

apparently, along with my sun hat, cardigan, and Lightning McQueen.

Maybe it will make some trips to the park.  we'll see.

Barb's Bible Cover

Barb's old Bible cover that I made several years ago had seen better days.

In her favorite color purple my fabric choice stayed.

Bible Cover version 4.3

Pen pocket, bulletin pocket, button closer—what more do you need?

the pattern even lines up on the pocket, you see.

Grandpa Beitler would be so proud of me.

blue jean baby

My kids have a remarkable ability to put holes in the knees of their jeans.

Saturday 8 pairs of previously patched 

now hole-y again kids' pants

became 8 pairs of ready for summer shorts

and a pile of formerly calf-covering denim

destined to become a patchwork blanket