Blogger's Quilt Festival--Matching Quilt

Hi everyone! I wish I had been able to finish a new quilt for this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival, but with our recent move and the fact that we are living in temporary housing (just for 2 more weeks!), that just hasn't been possible.

So for my entry, I ended up deciding on a quilt I made for my oldest son back in 2004. I had just had my second baby and wanted to make him a baby quilt, and I also decided my then 4-year-old needed a bigger quilt as well. There weren't really sewing blogs back then, but I found an online quilting message board where I participated in a 4.5" I-spy charm swap. The fabrics were swapped in pairs, and I made my boys each a "matching quilt." So each square has a match and it's kind of fun to try to find the matching pairs of kitty, or cow, or ghost, or whatever fabric.

 

I decided to sash this one with 1" strips of black fabric, and I love how it turned out. It's quilted with variegated brightly colored thread, but I don't have any other pictures of this quilt at the moment.

Don't miss out on the rest of Blogger's Quilt Festival! Check out all the great quilts at Amy's Creative Side.

Three years old

Today I have a 3-year-old girl for the first time! I'm so happy that she's been a part of our family.
She was born over 6 weeks premature--it was quite the dramatic fall season that year. I love this picture of her; she was 2 days old.

 

Here she is around her first birthday:

(If you want to make a charm pack dress like this one, I have a free tutorial here.)

And age 2:

And last night, while she was opening presents:

And just to keep this a little bit sewing related, here's the progress on this year's Halloween costume, so far:

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

Progress (& my take on copyright)

I fixed my daughter's skirt, what do you think?

 

A couple of people suggested that I just add to the length or let her wear leggings underneath...and that could have worked, but it was so short it didn't really cover her tushie very well anyway, (it did but it flipped up very easily) and also when I was putting the elastic in the first time it was clear how short that yoke section was going to be and I stitched really close to the edge of the casing fabric when I was putting the elastic in (I sew the elastic into a circle first and then sew the fabric down around it. No threading the elastic through here!) Anyway I was worried that it might not last through being washed. So. I cut the new yoke 6" wide and made sure I sewed a good 1/4" from the edge when I put the casing in this time. The skirt looks really good on my girl and will be less likely to flip up and show her bum (which will be wearing tights or leggings, but still). 

I've also made good progress on my hexagon project this week.

 

I am pretty much copying the layout from Alex's solids hexagon pillow. It won't take too much time to finish sewing this together, and then I'll need to decide if I need to make some partial flowers to go on the ends of the shorter rows. 

On a different note, this week Angela wrote a couple of blog posts about copyright as it pertains to quilt/craft designers. Very interesting. What she's saying, and I agree, is that pattern/tutorial writers don't have any legal right to dictate what can be done with finished products made from their patterns or tutorials. This is something that has been covered a lot on Sewing Mamas (where I used to spend a lot of my sewing-related internet time :) ) over the years, and the general consensus there (admittedly referring mainly to clothing designs) is that selling a pattern tracing or copy of a pattern is illegal, and selling items made from someone else's pattern is not against copyright law in the U.S.

Anyway, it's a big topic that can be expanded into the shady practice of cottage licensing, digitizing licensed characters, the use of licensed fabrics, and more. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Skirt for my girl

 

I made this little skirt for my girl over the weekend. Sadly, I think it's a little too short and I'm going to need to unpick the yoke, cut out the elastic, and add length by making the yoke a couple inches longer. The worst part? Well, besides black thread + black fabric? I topstitched the yoke. Oh well, I will be much happier with the project if I redo it, even though it won't be the most fun.

It has been a little chilly here lately and from what the locals say, it's going to be this way until March (at least). So I decided to make a scarf and found some cute patterns over on ravelry. I am trying to hold myself back from going and buying yarn to make this or this, at least until I make a little more progress on my hexagons or finish up the skirt re-do.

We are coming really close to making a decision on where we will live for the next year. (We're going to rent for a year while we get to know the area better, and then buy a house.) Looking forward to hopefully having a place with more light! Here's a picture of the view out our living room window:

 

It's pretty, but also makes things quite dark inside. Even when it's sunny out. We have a similar view from all of the windows here, by the way. (Also, they have been replacing/repairing the wooden deck railing out there and it's not painted yet, if you were wondering.)

So this week my project goals are to work some more on my hexagons, redo the skirt, and finish a quilt back. What are you going to make?

Sewing Pretty

My new little backup sewing machine arrived on Friday. I decided to get the Janome Hello Kitty machine, and so far it's working great. It's a very basic machine, and I can't use my quarter inch foot from my other Janome on it, but I think I'll be able to figure out a solution to that.

I also wanted to share a little sneak peek of what I've been working on. I'm probably not going to share the whole thing until it's been given to its owner.

In moving news, we are working on getting adjusted to our new place and climate. My little girl keeps asking if various friends from back in Kansas are moving, too. It is a little sad to have to keep telling her that no, they are not moving too. We are working on adjusting everyone's wardrobes to fit the wet and cool climate--I am still looking for a rain jacket for myself; it needs to be cute. We are looking for a home to rent for a year and hoping our Kansas house will sell soon. I don't have a great internet connection or as much time to sew...I can't wait until I can sew more and share about it here on the old blogge. :)