this week's sewing

I made some fun things this past week. Last week after finishing my scrap quilt top, I sewed up a sweatshirt for myself. I took a lovely self-portrait but the bathroom mirror was dirty so I'm not sharing it, sorry. It's a nice lightweight sweatshirt knit I got from fabric.com and I really like it. I was happy to make something that was finished so fast after working on that quilt top for so long.

Then I made this baby outfit that I had cut out and waiting:



I was trying to make the top into a dress but it's not a dress, just a cute long shirt. I like it anyway. The patterns are from Ottobre Design, 4/2004 for the pants, and 5/2006 for the top (but I changed it).

The Kansas City Star had the first Block of the Month pattern for 2009 in last Sunday's paper. I decided to sew it up in a non-traditional colorway.



If someone knows the trick for doing those tiny 9-patches without them ending up smaller than the other block components, let me know. All those seam allowances made it so the block didn't go together as well as I would have liked. It was fun to make.

I also made my donation block for Project Improv. This was a lot of fun to make; I think it came out looking pretty good and I have some more ideas for whenever I do this kind of block again.


These two blocks were both 12.5", way bigger than what I usually do.

Finally, here's a tiny glimpse of a secret project I'm working on. I need to get to the quilt shop to buy some more colors I need for this project.


Next up--I am making another pink fleece hat for my baby. She outgrew her old one. Other things on my list:
*more churn dash blocks
*maybe add a scrappy purple border to my scrap quilt, then baste and quilt it
*vintage baby dress--I got this pattern at JA when Simplicity patterns were 99 cents last week but missed out on some other patterns. Next time I need to go closer to the beginning of the sale instead of the end.
*finish knitting baby hat (I'm making the Marley hat shown here)
*Valentine's redwork stitchery--isn't that cute?
*work some more on the secret project

I looked through the patterns on the Simplicity site and found a few things I want to make for myself--I'm getting ready for the next pattern sale, whenever it is, and spring. I like the short sleeved button-up view of this top, and am hopeful that it will work out ok for me based on the reviews at patternreview.com. And they have a bunch of cute skirt patterns, too.

Oh yeah, I also wanted to share a couple of free block of the month projects I found recently. Here's a fun Noah's Ark project, and I really like the looks of this project, too. Who knows if I will get around to making them but I'll keep them in the back of my mind for now.