Holy Bat-mania Baby Quilt

There is nothing like a new baby in the family to spark your creativity. To celebrate my new Great-Nephew who arrived at the end of December, a Batman-themed quilt was the only way to go.

The darling, colorful superhero words fabric from Joann's was a great beginning, offering up many colors to include. And, of course, a bat symbol applique had to be center stage.

I like to embroider the baby's name and birth year on their quilts. The year had already been embroidered on this quilt top when he finally made an appearance a week beyond his due date on the 29th. (Tommy, come out of the bat cave!) By then I had decided if he waited until 2016, the 5 was going to be X'd out and a 6 embroidered next to it.

Welcome to the world, sweet baby boy, Thomas Maverick. Aunt Janie loves you!

Boating Potholders :: 3 Sisters Style

Playing games was a rite of passage in our home growing up. We had a great wood paneled rec room with a built-in bench full of board and card games. Scrabble, Mouse Trap, Uno -- and we always had a card table set up in the corner with an ongoing jigsaw puzzle. So it's no surprise that we all still love to play games whenever we get the chance.

A few years back, my sisters came to Arizona to visit and my middle sister brought a new-to-us game that was so much fun ... Like It or Lump It. If you can find it, definitely buy it. Basically, you try to earn points by giving another player a card with a subject on it you think they'll like (baking bread, roller coasters, Julia Roberts movies, trick-or-treating). You hope they'll like your card more than anyone else's. 

The sisters, my husband and I were playing and it was his turn to rate the cards we'd given him from Like It all the way down to Lump It. I had given him a McDonald's Egg McMuffin card and was absolutely sure that it would beat out the others for high score. One of the sisters had given him a Boating card and he rated that the highest. WHAT? I was so outraged -- and, yes, it could have been fueled by the lovely glass(es) of wine I had consumed -- that I shouted, "BOATING! BOATING? REALLY??? Right, because we go BOATING so often!" This was probably one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, but we laughed until we cried, at least one of us fell off our chair and at least one of us had to run to the bathroom from laughing so hard.

So all we have to say now is BOATING and hilarity ensues. The other family members think we're nuts and just shake their heads at us, but that never stops the hysteria from happening. The funny thing is, both sisters own or have owned boats and do go boating. Me 'n the hubs? No! No boats, no boating ... we live in the desert. Seriously, the closest he gets is bobbing a toy boat in the swimming pool.

I saw this cute Sailboat quilting block last month and just had to make the sisters some potholders that will remind them of BOATING at our house. I made the 6" block and added some borders, embroidered BOATING on one and 3 SISTERS on the other so they'd each have a pair. There is a layer of Insul-Bright batting inside to provide insulation from high temperatures. And I used my Handiworking labels for hang tags (custom-made by Lilla Lotta).

We love being "3 Sisters" so much that we we share a Pinterest board by the same name that we all pin to. It includes things we all have a fanatic love for like reading; things we know each other enjoy like teacups, photography, dogs, crafting; and, of course, many references to BOATING!

Love you my sisters. Use those potholders! They're washable, but if they get beat up, I can always make you more!!!

So many projects, never enough time!

Babies and Big Siblings

Seems like all I've done for the last few months is make bibs, burp cloths, baskets and blankies. First, a shout out to Anna at Noodlehead for her wonderful Divided Basket pattern. (Anna, your basket pattern Rocks!)

I made it in baby boy colors and prints for a family member and loaded it up with diapers and wipes …

And also made my favorite combo of personalized bib and burp cloth to include …

Couldn't leave out Logan's big sister, so I made her a doll blanket and sent a baby doll to feed, dress and bathe while mom is taking care of Logan. I quilted Madison's blanket with a layer of flannel in the middle ...

  

Our great-niece Molly that was born in August and inspired the Unsinkable Quilt, also has a big sister, Melody. Made her a doll blanket from Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric …

The day she opened her present, her outfit matched the blanket ...

Another burp cloth and bib for Addison, new daughter of Hubby's co-worker, out of the sweet heart fabric …

And a bib for another Molly who is the new granddaughter of my co-worker …

Baby projects are pretty satisfying … fast and easy and it makes me happy knowing they'll get a lot of good use.

So many projects, never enough time ...

Happy Little Sewing Project - Sewitgirl's Tea Wallet

Finding exactly the right gift for someone is total bliss for me. My middle sister is a good ol' Lipton Tea drinker who carries tea bags around in her purse. She was whipping out tea bags everywhere we went when we were visiting our baby sister in Oregon last year. So when I saw the Tea Wallet Tutorial by Zoe at Sewitgirl.com, I had to make it for her birthday gift.

Here is the dramatic unfolding of the finished tea wallet ...

Is this not the cutest thing for traveling tea drinkers? I did make some adjustments to the cutting measurements and directions after reading comments on the post and found this to be most helpful …

Great design, Zoe, and thanks so much for sharing it!

I am also very happy with the KAMsnaps pliers kit I got from Amazon. The sweet plastic orange snap was the perfect finish to this tea wallet.

So many projects, never enough time ...

Lunch Sack with Alphabet Bead Name Pin

So Hubby caught me dipping a frozen chunk of dark chocolate into the peanut butter jar. Not one of my prouder moments but the man gets me ... he laughed, grabbed a piece of chocolate and joined me! Speaking of snacks ...

Our youngest daughter had requested some lunch and snack sacks made with coated PUL fabric (polyurethane laminate). I found the PUL last year at Joann's in the baby section and had also picked up some coordinating fat quarters of cotton. For her recent birthday, I made her this little washable snack sack using a wonderful tutorial by Sew Can Do.

I pulled out fabrics and buttons and things, trying to figure out a way to make it personalized and fun. While digging through the drawers, I found a bag of alphabet beads and some pin backings and had the idea to create a name pin. The prints on my PUL fabrics featured owls or monkeys so I went with the owls plus orange and green cottons pictured on the right. {Note the brown paper lunch sack I had out for my original inspiration. Fortunately, I found the Sew Can Do tutorial, resulting in this great round lunch sack!} 

I made a couple of changes to the instructions:

• Made the bag taller by a couple of inches
• Used my serger for all seams and only used my sewing machine to topstitch
• Used wide satin ribbon that I had on hand for the drawstring rather than the grosgrain ribbon called for

For the pin, I laid out the beads for her name and cut a piece of fabric large enough to allow me to double it, wrong sides together, stitch around leaving an opening for turning, then tuck the open end in and topstitch all the way around. I hand-stitched the beads to this little piece of fabric, starting with the center bead and working my way out on each side to make sure I had it centered nicely. Then I hand-stitched the pin backing to the back side. I pinned it to the lunch sack just below the drawstring casing, but the nice thing about a pin like this is that it can be removed and pinned on anything.

Inside and out, this lunch sack turned out so cute and the Sew Can Do tutorial was easy to follow.

This would make a great little bag to carry knitting and crocheting projects around in, too.

So many projects, never enough time!

BBQin' in Style

Has your Hubby ever said something that he thinks is hilariously funny and when you give him the that's-not-funny blank stare, he gets exasperated and announces, "I need a better audience," or is that just me? *sigh*

Humor aside, my Hubby is the BBQ king. He has the slow cooking of juicy burgers, steaks and chicken down to a fine science. We also have a nephew who is a supreme BBQer and I wanted to send him something handmade for his last birthday so I dove into my bag of Hubby's nice-but-discarded shirts, added some quilting cotton and made him a BBQ apron.

I used the basic instructions from the Purl Bee's Adjustable Unisex Apron, then made adjustments to suit my shirt and add the lining.

The shirt is 100% cotton, soft and a little crinkly ...

Cut off the sleeves at the inset line ...

Sew the button placket closed down the front of the shirt ...

Cut the shirt front off in a straight line underneath the collar -- this will be the front of the apron ...

Lay the shirt piece on the lining fabric -- cut around the top and sides even with the shirt (no seam allowance needed) ...

Cut around the finished hem of the shirt with approximately 1" extra to create a hem on the lining ...

Press the lining hemline under twice to the wrong side of the fabric to match the shirt hemline as closely as possible -- this was a little wonky because of the curved hem on the shirt -- then stitch the lining hem down ...

With right sides of the shirt and lining together, sew around the sides and top (I used the serger for this), leaving the bottom (hem) open for turning. Then turn right side out and press ...

Fold each upper side of the shirt toward the lining, press and stitch to make a casing large enough for your apron strings. I did a double line of stitching here ...

I used strips of fabric cut from the back of the shirt to make the apron strings ...

Thread the strings through each side of the apron casings, making sure not to twist. The strings/neck strap are adjustable, depending on whether you like your apron to fit higher or lower. The front ...

The back ...

I personalized his apron by embroidering our nephew's name on a piece of the shirt fabric, then stitched it onto the pocket flap. Even though the shirt front placket has been stitched closed, the pockets are functional ...

Happy birthday, happy BBQ, happy sewing!

So many projects, never enough time ...

Gifts fit for a Princess

There may be a new royal baby, but he has nothing on our own little family princess who turned one recently. With some adorable Disney Princess fabric on hand for just such an occasion, several princess-y gifts were sewn.

First came a sweet little pillowcase dress made from a tutorial by Sew Like My Mom. For the ties, I made bias tape from some dark purple cotton fabric that went well with the Disney print ...

I've also had a tutu or ballerina bag on my To Make list for this little sweetie. I embroidered her name on the outside pocket and used the same fabrics, adding in a deep rose cotton to line the inside of the tote bag.

The bow on the front is attached with a pin backing so it may be removed to wear on something else or to wash the tote bag. While I used the instructions from the tutu tote project on the Embroidery Library website, I reduced the size of the bag to make it more manageable for a 1-year-old.

The inside pocket is made featuring one of the Disney princesses ...

And, last but not least, I wanted to make a mini purse just the right size for Miss Melody to carry. I printed the handbag pattern from Ellen March's Sew It All TV episode 403 at 50% size to make it tiny and embroidered the flap to personalize it ...

This mini bag finished at about 4-1/2" wide by 4-3/4" tall.

It's lined with the Disney Princess fabric ...

Check out our very own Princess Melody rockin' her purse at Buckingham Palace ...

Okay, I will admit that I had a lot of fun photoshopping her into this picture, but isn't she stylin'? Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

So many projects, never enough time ...