Monthly Archives: June 2022

New Dresses for My Girls

We just had three days of summery weather! When it hit 90 degrees, Ray and I once again felt sure we have made the right decision in moving up here! Neither of us like hot weather and love the cooler weather we have in Washington. We are back to cool temps and a breeze today. Perfect!

In between working on quilts that need to be finished, I have been making two dresses for the girls. Before leaving California, my friend Stephanie was clearing out some fabrics she didn’t think she would use. Stephanie is a generous soul and she gave me so much fabric! Among the pieces were two cute prints.

These two pieces are from a line called Stitch Cats by Clothworks. They are super cute and I thought the girls would enjoy something made from them.

I made the dress for little sister first. I used the Geranium pattern by Rae Hoekstra. I have to tell you, I am so rusty at making garments. Also, I didn’t like the way the closure was done on the back of the dress.

From the Geranium pattern by Made by Rae

It seemed like there should be an extended overlap (a tab of sorts) for the buttons and buttonholes but the designer just has it overlapped without this. Does that make sense?

Since the pattern didn’t provide this and I didn’t like the way it looked, I decided to use a ribbon closure. Note: The ribbons are cut extra long for now. I want my son or DIL to trim them after deciding how long they should be to take the dress on and off of A. It turns out we only need to untie the top bow to take it on and off.

A’s dress is made with the larger print and the bodice is lined with the smaller print. It is nice and long so she should be able to wear it for a while – these girls seem to grow about 1/2 inch each day!

I added a pocket for her treasures. It was so cute when I first put the dress on her. She had a tiny bag of Skittles that big sister got from a piñata earlier in the day. She immediately put the Skittles into her pocket.

This is the dress I made for H. The Geranium pattern wasn’t a large enough size so I switched over to a free tutorial by Life Sew Savory called Tank Dress Pattern. (Note – I have used a number of her free patterns and they are pretty darn good. She has so many on her site!) This dress is much the same as little sister’s though I used more of the smaller print for the bodice and skirt. The buttons were handled the same way on this pattern, without a tab, but I just gave in and overlapped the pieces as she instructed. (I need to figure out how to fix this issue myself for next time.)

Because H is into all things pink and sparkly, I chose these heart shaped gemstone buttons I saw in JoAnn’s. In actuality, she doesn’t need functional buttons for the dress as it goes right over her head without unbuttoning the dress. I could cut the front bodice as one piece if I were to make this again.

Above is the obligatory picture of the girls in their new dresses. They gave me all of 30 seconds to take this before they ran off so it isn’t the best shot. These two had better things to do than placate Grammy with pictures.

The next morning H was trying on shoes from a box of hand me downs she received. She is in love with these sparkly green flats! I love her pose here with her legs crossed in such a lady-like fashion. (I also love that she chose to put her new dress when she got up the next day). Overall, I am happy with the dresses. Making them was enjoyable and I feel like I am getting back into the groove of garment sewing. I have some fabric for a shirt for myself and hope to work on it soon.

I am not one to write about politics on my blog. Everyone has different beliefs and that is ok with me. I don’t want to get into it. But the last couple of weeks have really been a tough time. So sharing these two pictures of my girls seemed a great way to close – with feelings of hope in our future generations of very strong, capable, powerful women.

2022 Positivity Quilt Along Link Up

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Good morning all! Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Believe it or not, it is time to link up a progress shot of your 2022 Positivity Quilt. This might mean sharing a couple of blocks with us. Or maybe you have actually stitched a few rows together. Maybe, like me, you are still in the earliest stages and have been cutting your pieces out. Wherever you might be, let us enjoy your progress so far.

I started cutting blocks for mine. Before leaving California, my friend Stephanie gave me a stack of leftover fabric from a western themed quilt she made. This line of fabric is called Dreamcatcher and was made by Whistler Studios . It is not my usual style fabric but this quilt is not for me. Being destined for Mercy Hospital, there is no way of knowing who will receive it. With Mercyful Quilts, the family of the patient chooses the quilt and oftentimes, they choose one that is meaningful to their relationship with the person they are saying goodbye to. Thus it is good to have all sorts of choices. A variety of colors, styles, and themes are advantageous. So this quilt will have a strong Native American, western vibe to it. Some of the fabric is directional and I am hoping this doesn’t create issues as I assemble the blocks. That remains to be seen.

As I was cutting the pieces and getting excited to start assembling blocks, my practical side grabbed hold and told me to finish up last year’s quilt first. Most of the top was done and it didn’t make sense to move on until I got this completed. I set the fabric aside and pulled out last year’s plus quilt. I didn’t make more blocks. Instead, I went with what I had completed. To increase the size, I added a yellow border. Then got it basted and ready for quilting. On Friday I began quilting it. It feels so much better to work in a more orderly fashion. My husband will be the first to tell you I often flit from one thing to another which is, for the most part, unproductive. Once this quilt is done, I will start sewing blocks for the next one.

So this is where I am at for now. How about you? Have you got lots of blocks assembled? Maybe your quilt top is even finished. Share it with us here. One of the best parts of a quilt along is the camaraderie of sewing together. Also, since we are making the same pattern, it is so cool to see it in any number of fabric choices. I look forward to seeing all of them. Link up is open until Saturday, July 2, 2022. Thanks for joining in and sewing for Mercyful Quilts!

Meadow Quilt is a Finish!

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Making a quilt is not a quick endeavor. At least for me it isn’t. Back in 2016 I read a tutorial by Bonjour Quilts and left a comment about how much I loved the quilt. Then in 2020, in a newsletter by Bonjour Quilts (side note – if you don’t receive her newsletter, check it out. Kirsty writes a great newsletter and I very much enjoy reading it) I was reminded of the quilt. At that time, I started cutting pieces for the background. I believe this was at the beginning of the pandemic. Fast forward to 2021, I decided to finish the quilt so I could give it to my nephew and his bride when they married in July 2021. Well, then we decided to list the house and move so all sewing came to an abrupt halt.

With my sewing room (almost) set up and my time freed up, I am sewing and quilting again! I had the Meadow quilt top finished and basted before we moved, so I started to quilt it. Before basting it, I did some FMQ over the flowers in the center. I knew I wanted to secure them tightly, even though they are fused to the base. However I didn’t want all of that to show on the back. I did a preliminary set of stitches before basting and then finished securing the flowers after it was basted.

The background is free motion quilted with whatever came to mind. There are swirls, basic stippling, some flowers, hearts, sunshines and a few words here and there. On the top I used an off-white Glide thread and the bottom is a pale green Glide thread. (I am a big fan of Glide for free motion quilting).

Every meadow has a few butterflies fluttering about, right? I fussy cut these and fused them to the top. Using Perle cotton, I did some basic stitching around the edges to help them stand out a bit.

I forgot to take a shot with the backing showing but in this one you can see a bit of the corner. It is a 60″ wide voile by Frou Frou. Grassy green with tiny white stars on it, the fabric is so soft. I think it gives a cuddly feel to the quilt. (I have had this on the shelf for a long time so don’t know that it would be available anymore?)

The pictures were all taken in our yard. Right now everything is so green. Foxglove are standing tall in the backyard, giving a meadow like feel to it.

I am so happy with this finish. It is unusual but not difficult. I actually think this is the case with many of Kirsty’s (Bonjour Quilts) patterns and tutorials. It is on the way to the bride and groom, just in time for their first anniversary!! I hope they love it.

Sharing at my favorite link ups – see the list at the top of the page for the details!

REMINDER: The first link up for 2022 Positivity QAL opens this Sunday, June 26th. Please come back (here) then to link up and show us your progress with your blocks. I am looking forward to seeing the different color combos!!

What??? An Actual Finish?

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Can it be? A quilt? Yes, I actually finished a quilt!! It was in December, 2021 that I last finished a quilt. Crazy times around our house the last six months!

A couple of weeks ago I saw this crib on Facebook Marketplace for $50. It seemed like a good deal as it transitions to a toddler bed as well. My two year old grand daughter is still in a crib but I suspect she will soon be changing over to a toddler bed. This should work for sleepovers for quite sometime.

The room that the girls sleep in is pink, like Pepto Bismol pink. If I didn’t dislike painting so much I would repaint it. But the girls like the pink and I don’t like painting so it will stay this way for a bit. I had some pink solid from Art Gallery Fabric and quickly made a fitted sheet for the mattress. This was both a super easy and fun project that I made with this tutorial by See Kate Sew.

I also had a quilt top ready to go that I made wayyy back in May of 2020. I used a pattern by Meadow Mist Designs called Pike’s Peak.

My version looks very different from the example on the pattern cover. But that is the joy of each interpretation of a pattern. The fabric choices often make it completely unique.

The quilting is very simple. Small cross hatch done on the diagonal completes the center block. Then a straight line every two inches for the open gray spaces. These lines were marked with a Hera marker and took no time at all to stitch. Easy peasy. I figured if this was to be used by a toddler, nothing fancier then that was warranted.

It is backed with a piece of Alison Glass fabric and bound with a tonal fabric from Art Gallery Fabric.

It looks great in the girls’ room. When I showed A her new bed at Grammy’s house she was quite happy and said “cozy, cozy bed”. She loves her bed at home and I think she will be happy in this one too.

We set up Julia’s old twin bed from years ago. My husband made the headboard and footboard so we stored it for the last 12 years or so. I am happy to have it set up for H now. She chose the quilt for her bed. (This quilt was gifted to me from a friend when we moved. It is a pretty quilt with all Kaffe Fassett fabrics and backed in soft minky.) When H saw it, she was taken with it and asked if it could be on her bed. So now we have beds set up for both girls!

My sewing room continues to improve. Last week Ray spent a day helping me organize it. He got the sewing desk put together for me.

He also got a bed set up in the room for guests. Of course as soon as the bed was set up, I was laying projects on it and now it is covered 1/2 way with my projects. He laughed when he saw how fast that happened! But at least we have a queen bed for guests if needed.

I am working on binding another quilt today. Hard to believe but I have another finish and will share it soon. Back soon with pictures – this one is really looking nice.

Sharing to my favorite link ups. Please take a look at the top of the page for details!

A Patriotic Finish & Giveaway!!

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Note: Giveaway now closed. I actually selected two winners because I found enough for two kits. Winners have been notified. Hope to hear from them soon so I can mail off their prize!

Good morning all! I intended to post this before Memorial Day. Somehow it didn’t happen so I am writing it this morning. No worries though. While patriotic projects are good at any time of year; May, June and July usually put people in the mood for red, white and blue with Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day during these months.

Doesn’t this look nice? Here is the backstory of this little wall hanging.

My sister recently sold (actually practically gave) me a Bernina sewing machine and a Juki serger. I have not sewn with a Bernina before so I have been watching YouTube and practicing on simple projects. Leftover from the shop, I have a couple of these panels and some of the coordinates from the Home Of the Free line that I had carried.

This shows most of the panel. It has the welcome portion and lots of little sayings as well. I took the stripe at the bottom and added it to the welcome portion to balance things out. Then I basted it together and did some basic quilting to hold everything together.

It measures 15″ x 24″. For the binding I used one of the coordinates. It is super simple but I think it makes a cute welcome sign.

For the backing, I chose this paisley print. The reds are the same tone so it looks wonderful together. I love paisleys. Even if this is on the back side and no one will really see it., I know it is there!

Now I have a cute welcome sign on the front porch to takes us through summer months.

How about you? Would you like to make one? Or maybe a quilt with these fabrics? I still have enough fabric to gift a kit for your project! It includes a star print instead of the paisley but you’ll have enough to play with to make whatever you’d like. I would love to see what you do with this!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED.

Please leave a comment for me if you are interested in this kit. No pattern included so you’ll have to be creative and work something out. Since this is a patriotic, American fabric, the giveaway is limited to US residents. I will choose a winner on Sunday afternoon. Good luck and have a great weekend!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties and TGIFF over at Anja Quilts.

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Reminder!! The Positivity 2022 QAL has begun. We are choosing fabrics and cutting pieces. At least that is where I am. Hoping to start putting blocks together soon though. Check out fabric and cutting instructions at Sew Preeti Quilts. Hope you will join us!