Two Quilts

A new quilt for my bed---and I'm not sure I like the colors anymore. :) I finished the top some three years ago or so, when I liked blue and yellow together. Now I'm not so sure. The quilt is bright. Very sunshiny bright. I may put it up and bring it out next spring. The quilt pattern is called "The Yellow Brick Road," and I remember it was a fun pattern to piece together.



I had planned to quilt this myself, but when my neighbor and friend asked for quilt tops to "practice" on, using her new long-arm quilting machine, I gladly gave her this. (Otherwise, it would still be waiting another 3 years or more for me to quilt it). Debbie used a floral pantograph quilting design, and I love it! Her work is exceptional! I told her she doesn't need practice; she's already a pro. And she's open for business if you're in need of quilting. :-)



Debbie also quilted Emily's Vintage Sheet Quilt using a free motion floral design that I think is absolutely perfect for this quilt. I decided to put the quilt on my rarely-used dining room table for a few weeks so that I can enjoy it every time I walk by. This quilt makes me happy!

happy sewing,
Ruth

Emily's Quilt

Top 10 Advanced Machine Features

I saw this on TrueUp this morning, and thought it was really interesting.

Top 10 Advanced Machine Features

My Pfaff 1474 has 4 of the top 10 features, the needle up/down button, the needle threader, speed control button, and an advanced feed system (the duel feed, different then what they show on the Janome machine).

Oh to have some of these features though... imagine an automatic thread cutter!! That would be pretty sweet.

I'm really happy with my machine, it's a workhorse, but a girl can still dream, right?

Jessica

She's a winner!

Many congratulations to Mom...she's too embarrassed to mention it, but she won 14 blue ribbons at her county fair this week!

You can see a photo of a couple of her entries HERE.

Love you, Mom!
Jessica

Emily-na Ballerina

A few weeks ago, Emily watched an Angelina Ballerina video, and she hasn't stopped dancing ever since.

The tutu is my own pattern. No pattern, really, just 4 yards of tulle, 1 yard of sparkly organza, and 1 yard of ribbon. The top is design #5 from the 03/2008 issue of Ottobre, and it's made from stretchy crushed panne fabric. I tell you, panne is not fun to sew. It slides around, it curls up, it doesn't like my serger. This simple top should have taken less than half an hour to sew, but it took much longer. :-(

I love watching my little ballerina at work. She's so intense, but so carefree when she flitters around. Ah, the life of a child....

Ruth

Pink Hoodie for Fall

Jacket: Ottobre 04/2007 design #16 "Girls Hooded Jacket"
Pants: Ottobre 01/2008 design #19 "Jump Sweatpants"

Not much sewing has happened at my house this past month, but I finally made it up to my sewing room this week and made Emily an outfit. It is still warm here, but I want to be prepared with at least one outfit for when the weather turns cooler.

The patterns, of course, came from Ottobre, and the sweatpants are from a pattern I made last year. This time, I traced the pattern 2 sizes bigger than before. According to her measurements, Emily wears a European size 104. I made both the jacket and pants a size 110 so that she won't outgrow them before she has a chance to wear them. So, yes, the outfit is a somewhat big on Emily right now.

Now that I've started sewing again, I hope the momentum will continue. For now, I'm off to round up a few garments to enter into the county fair tomorrow.

Ruth

The jacket and pants are made from French terry,
and the hood is lined in knit jersey.

I made a casing for the elastic gathering on the jacket pockets.
Also, I added 1" elastic to the waistband of the pants.
The "drawstring" is just tacked on the front.

p.s. Thanks to Ellen, my 13 year old photographer.
She did a great job with an uncooperative 4-year-old sister.

How to make cute burpcloths...

My cousin, Bonny, asked...

"How do you make your burp cloths? I have 12 prefold diapers that I want to turn into cute burp clothes, but I'm not sure how to do it and I need some cheap ideas."

In my experience, prefold diapers make the best burp cloths for babies! They are just so absorbent and are designed to hold up in the wash time after time. After a while they can get kind of grungy looking though, so lots of people personalize or decorate them in some way with ribbon or fun fabric.


I don't have how-to photos, but the ones I make are really easy. I cut a rectangle of cute fabric (or flannel for even more softness and absorbency!) 1 to 2 inches longer then the length of the burp cloth and 1 inch or so wider then I want it to be on my burpcloth. I iron in the sides and one of the ends of the rectangle about 1/2 inch and then pin it on the cloth diaper all the around those 3 sides. I fold under and press the end that I didn't press before once I have it in place on the cloth diaper so that I get the correct length for that particular cloth diaper. Sometimes they vary slightly, so that's why I do the last end once I've already got the other end and sides pinned in place. Then I topstitch with a straight stitch all the way around, removing pins as I go.

Make sense? Ask me if you have any other questions!

Here are a bunch of links with different ideas for decorating burpcloths.

http://chickpeastudio.typepad.com/chickpea_sewing_studio/diaper-burp-cloth-tutoria.html (this first one is just like how I do mine, only she has photos!)

http://www.makeandtakes.com/baby-burp-cloth-tutorial

http://www.jcarolinecreative.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=JC&Screen=BURPCLOTH

http://sewshesews.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/burp-cloth-tutorial/

http://createstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-sided-burp-cloth-tutorial.html

Love,
Jessica

PS. Most likely you found this post though a web search...well, when you search with Swagbucks, you can actually earn points and use them to get Amazon gift cards (among other things).  I've been using all my free amazon money to buy sewing and crafty books.  =)  Check them out!

Pictures from the Dustbowl

Wow, I had so much fun at the Dustbowl Arts Market! The organizers did such a good job with the whole show, the weather was perfect, and there were lots of people out and about! The whole experience was such a great learning experience for me, and I'm so glad I took the risk to try it. I got to meet lots of other talented artists, and it was so much fun to interact with everyone who came by and it felt so good to see that some of them even loved my stuff!

I had lots of fun getting my booth together. Here it is from the front. Overall I was able to pull it together very inexpensively. I borrowed my tent from my in-laws, I bought one green sheet ($7) for a table cloth and borrowed the rest from Mom. My banners were made from the printable letters at Allsorts blog. The pink crates came from wal-Mart on sale, $2.50 each. My quilt racks were an awesome garage sale find--$0.50 each!

Mom and Katie came to hang out with me for the day...when they arrived we hung Emily's quilt up on the right side of the booth. It looked so lovely and just completed my booth!


I was really disappointed that none of my baby quilts sold, but I think that it wasn't the right market for higher pricier items. I had lots of compliments, but no serious buyers for the quilts.

Yum yum. Homemade chocolate chip cookies. Please take one!

A platter full of designer burp clothes!

I hung a line of twine from the tent poles to hang a few of baby bibs and appliqued onsies on. The rest were just placed on the table below. I put my chenille backed blankets in the pink crates.
I still have a good selection of blankets, quilts, bibs and burp clothes left. Keep an eye on my etsy shop. In the next few weeks I'll be listing lots of baby gift sets!

Blessings,
Jessica