This week was a blur. Each day was busy and the time flew by. Big news at our house is that Julia has a driver’s license. This is always a huge milestone for any child and parent. The contrasting experience is substantial; the freedom and independence of being able to drive vs the increased worry and anxiousness! Quite the extremes for both the kid and mom and dad. She is a good driver and a responsible person; it is all the weirdos out there that make me worry. I am sure it will be fine though. She was so excited to pass her driving test. We celebrated with frozen yogurt afterward.☺
I was making really good progress on a quilt that I will share next week when I take part in a blog hop celebrating the release of Modern Plus Sign Quilts, a fabulous new book by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander. I loaded the quilt top on a long arm belonging to a woman in our local quilt guild. This is a different machine than the one I have rented a few times in the past. Oh my gosh! It did not go well, not at all. I fought my way around for a while, continually thinking, ‘it will get better, this will smooth out.’ But it became clear that I wasn’t going to be successful. So we took it off of the frame and I have been unpicking the quilting. Ugh. Not so fun. But a learning experience, which is always valuable. For the hop next week, I will share the quilt top only. I have an appointment to quilt it at the shop (where I am more familiar with the machines) on Friday next week.
Moving on… between sessions of unpicking all of the ugly quilting, which is still not finished, I did make a cute little sleeping bag for A Doll Like Me. Remember I cut up my whole cloth panda quilt and made a smaller doll quilt with it? There were two rectangles that were too small for a doll quilt. But they worked together for a sleeping bag. I think it is really cute.
Basically I trimmed the two rectangles such that they were the same width but one was longer than the other by about six inches. I curved the top two corners (I probably wouldn’t do this again because it was hard to bind along that curve without a bias cut binding.) The top of the shorter rectangle needed binding to finish the edge. Then I stitched the top to the bottom, wrong sides together. I think I stitched them with about 1/4″ seam allowance.
Once they were stitched together, I bound the edges just like you would a quilt. As I mentioned, going around the curve was a trick because the binding wasn’t cut on the bias. So, next time I will leave a regular corner or will cut the binding on the bias so it curves appropriately.
When a doll is tucked into a sleeping bag, she needs a pillow, right? I took two rectangular scraps and cut them to the same size. Putting them wrong sides together I stitched around the perimeter, maybe 1.5 inches from the edge (I wanted to make a flange). For stuffing purposes, I left a two inch opening on one end. After stuffing it with poly-fil, I closed up that opening. Again, I finished the edge with binding (a single fold, narrow binding this time though.)
Thank you to Elena of That Fabric Feeling for the inspiration for the doll’s sleeping bag. She made an adorable set for Amy last month and when I saw it, I knew I could use these scraps and make one too!
I love the whole set and hope it will bring a smile to a child someday. Amy is cataloging quilts and sending them out to her special kiddos. I think I will hold on to this one for a bit. I am waiting for a few more doll quilts from members of our local guild. Once I have enough to fill another box, I will send them on.
See you next week for the blog hop. I absolutely love this book and I am excited to share it with you. Linking to lots of places today so be sure to take a peek at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Cool size please
Thanks for the nudge! I should have put dimensions in the post. I will update it.
Here it is for you tho:
Bottom piece is approx 14″ wide and 21″ long
Top piece is about 14″ wide and 15″ long
The pillow measures 6″ tall by 7″ wide
If I make this again, I will probably increase the width and length of the bag by an inch. For this project I was working with scraps and just made it as big as I could with what I had.
If you need more info, email me. 🙂
Empathy for your feelings about the new driver! I remember those days! And you’re right. It’s more about who might run into our “babies” than worry about their abilities. Hang in there!
What a great idea to make a sleeping bag. That scallop panda fabric is the cutest!
Thank you Janice. She is the fourth (and youngest) child so I have certainly been here before but each time, it is an anxious time to let them go off on their own!
I love the Hidden Panda fabric too. Really a cute one. Happy Monday!
Oh, that’s such a cute idea! A doll sleeping bag, who knew? Looks pretty straightforward to put it together; thanks for the tips. I’m sorry your long arming didn’t go so well, though. Sounds frustrating!
I was really surprised by the experience on the long arm — I just figured it would be no big deal. But the stitch regulator was different – the feel of the machine was very different. Oh well. Good lesson to learn. Next time I use it I will only practice on some old fabric. Always something more to figure out, right?
Oh, I remember those days of having a new licensed driver in the family. They were exciting and nerve wracking all rolled up into one! But we survived, and now my daughter does all the driving, I love it! Cute doll bag! You’re so clever! Looking forward to the hop!
There are definite bonuses to having her drive. We live rurally so her high school is 8 miles each way and my husband or I drove her morning and afternoon, five days weekly (no bus for her school). For now we are sharing my car and she drives herself a couple of days a week. This is a nice relief. Plus not having a car at home forces me to stay home and get things done around here. A win-win. Have a nice week Karen!
The sleeping bag and pillow is so cute!! And congratulations to Julia, the frozen yogurt looks like just the way to celebrate together. I’m sorry that using a friend’s longarm didn’t go as well as you would have liked. I’m really excited about the blog hop and have a lot of quilting left to do for my own… better get up and do some more!
Thank you Yvonne – she is thrilled with this independence and is even willing to run errands for me. Can’t complain about that.
I finally have all of that quilting unpicked so now I just need to clean up the quilt top and take photos. Phew!
What a cute little set! Some tiny person will love it. I’m amazed that there was such a difference between longarms. I feel bad for you picking all of that stitching out, but the fabric looks lovely. I’m sure it will be a lovely quilt and worth the effort.
Do you recognize the prints on the fabric Mari? It is the jelly roll I ‘bought’ from you when you did the charitable de-stash last year. It looks really pretty – I am happy to use it up. 🙂
i love the sleeping bag. Gonna have to make one. Just wondering – have you done the drawing yet for the fabric giveaway for the doll quilt project?
Hi Linda, I am sorry – I didn’t post on the blog about the drawing!! Yes, I pulled winners on March 1st. I put it on Facebook and Instagram but somehow didn’t think to put it on the blog.
The sleeping bag is a fun, easy project – Let me know if you make one. I want to see it. 🙂
Totally understand about the new driver and the mixed emotions! I am sorry the quilting did not go so well this time. I went to the rental longarm and quilted a quilt Tuesday. I tried a new pantograph and with some thread issues-it took me seven and a half straight hours. I hadn’t quilted since last August and had forgotten how hard it is on my back and legs. Long tiring day!
Doll sleeping bag-another adorable project!
I hear you Debbie! That is the thing about renting time on a machine. I have to drive 40 minutes each way to the shop so I try to bring projects that I can easily finish in an afternoon. But if something happens it can be a challenge to finish in that time frame. I do appreciate quilting on a long arm tho – it is less taxing on my shoulders and neck than using my home machine.
Congratulations to the new driver. And peace and calm to the parents of the new driver. Love your little doll sleeping bag. Hum, maybe that will be a possible bd present for a couple of the grands.
It is a great gift idea Bonnie – fun for pretend play with their dolls. If you have some orphan blocks it will be so quick. Or, like the one I made, just do some whole cloth quilting. Thanks for stopping by!
Unpicking is not fun. Great idea for the sleeping bag.
Unpicking is definitely not fun but at this point it is finished! Hurray!!! Have a great week Anja.
Thanks for the shout out on the sleeping bag idea. I could use a big one right now to curl up in from the time change last night.
I always worried about the other drivers when our girls starting driving too. Arg. And now there’s cell phones to worry about. hey! Love your hair grey. I wish I were brave enough to let mine go. Every summer I say I’m going to and never make it. LOL!! Someday I geuss. Inspired by all your projects lately. 🙂 🙂
Haha, I have a love/hate feeling about the gray hair. The primary reason I let myself go gray is because I was tired of coloring my hair every six weeks. Short hair means you have to do it so often (as you know). Anyway, some days I like it and other days I am tempted to go back to coloring it. 😉
How exciting about the driver’s license! Love that picture of you and Julia. I’d love to join you in the frozen yogurt – yum!! My 17 yo granddaughter is having to be almost coerced to get her license. My son and DIL already bought her a little used car – seems like that would be enough motivation, right?
Oh my gosh that panda fabric sews up so, so cute! You did a great job.
Julia wasn’t in a hurry to drive either. But now that she has her license, she is enjoying the added independence. I am more than happy to not be running to town twice a day to take her and pick her up from school. Hurray!! Adds another hour and 1/2 to my day!