Dresses and a birthday bag

 It's that time of year for making back to school dresses. Again, I used a pattern from Little Lizard King. It uses ruffle fabric and was SO easy. I decided to use some of the scraps to make a matching one for Ashlyn's doll. I didn't have a pattern for that one, so it isn't quite as nice. Ashlyn loves it, though. 

I also made a new bag for my sister's birthday. She loved the one that I made for her last year, so I decided to make another one. This time, I used fabric that our brother had brought back from Africa. I used this pattern. I was very happy with the pattern and will probably make another one for me.

Another Seuss Quilt

My cousin had a baby boy in AUGUST, and I am just now completing a baby quilt for him. Within the first year is acceptable, right? The Dr. Seuss fabric is from a set of sheets that I bought a couple of years ago for another quilt. Second quilt that has used a large amount of the fabric.

Enough fabric for the whole back.

90th Birthday Quilt

My grandfather turned 90 at the end of last month. I decided I needed to make him a quilt, a quilt with a family tree. I didn't get the greatest photo, but I also didn't finish the quilt until about 1 am the day of the birthday party. If you click on the photo to enlarge you can sort of see the quilting.

Originally, I had planned to make a whole cloth quilt, but then decided that I would just make it very simple. I like the simple quilt design. I then used photos of my grandparents, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for the quilting design. These all became the main parts of the tree. I defined the tree around the faces, then used straightish lines in the background to distinguish it from the tree.

I think it turned out nicely, but there are many things that I would change if I were to do this again. First, I would start with a completely different top, not sure what type of piecing goes with a tree quilt. I also would use different thread. I wanted the quilting to show, but not too much. After I was finished, I decided that the quilting was the big deal here, so I should have used thread that created more of a contrast. I also used variegated thread and it looks kind of weird on some of the faces. 

And this is my cute grandparents with the quilt. My grandma turned 85, so it was a double birthday party!

Oh, yes!

The Ryan Gosling memes crack me up! Had to share!

Finally, progress!

This may not seem like much progress to anyone but me, considering that I had 4 rings together back in April. However, I took those 4 all apart, reassembled 4 of them, and I've had 3 sitting together for months. My sewing time has been fairly limited, especially since August. I was not enjoying piecing all of those arcs. I seem to have gotten past that after spending some quality time with my sewing machine this past week. I finished putting this part together, then completed all of the arcs. I'm enjoying this quilt again. My frustration was probably the biggest obstacle to overcome.  I have double the number of  rings to assemble, then I will be adding a border. More assembly to come, soon, I hope!

HST quilt

 I started this quilt at the TMQG "rapture" retreat in May. I finished last month, but waited to share until after I had gifted it. I loved the idea of small half square triangles with large areas of solid. Two inch half square triangles are actually VERY small, so it ended up being more work just to make those triangles.

 Of course, silly me, I made too many HSTs, so I had plenty left over from the back. I think I also have enough left for a doll quilt, so that might be happening soon.

I had planned to quilt fully in straight line quilting. I created the first bit of straight line quilting, then tried adding straight lines in between. It was a MESS. I redid it and pulled at things and tried again. Tons of mistakes, bubbles, overlapped lines, etc. I decided that stippling was much more forgiving. After I added the stippling, I actually decided that I liked it better than I would have with all of the straight lines. The straight lines I used really popped in between the stippling.

And, here's a close-up.

I believe the finished size was about 50x70, a couch sized quilt.

Recent Sewing

I have been working on a couple of quilts. One is a gift that I will wait to share, and the other is making me want to stab my own eyes, though I have been plugging away at it. It is making me remember why I don't make many queen size quilts-I get bored LONG before they are finished. Baby or couch sized quilts are perfect for me. So, I wanted to do some other projects, just to avoid the work that I should be doing :) I made the above bag using this tutorial from Made by Rae. It came together really cute, but it was the first bag I've ever made, and I didn't use the right interfacing with my quilting cotton. It is far too floppy, so I will probably leave it hanging in my art room. I will use the tutorial again, though. It's really cute and only uses two fat quarters (seriously.)

I wanted to make a bag for my sister's birthday, so this time I bought a pattern from Made by Rae. I used light interfacing on both fabrics, and like the weight of it much more than the first one. I would recommend this pattern as well.

I've been wanting to make a pillowcase dress for Ashlyn for awhile. I used this tutorial with fabric from my stash. The dress is REALLY big, but, of course, I didn't try it on her until I was totally finished. I could make it shorter easily, but would have to make major adjustments to make it smaller around. At first, Ashlyn liked it, but she then decided that it wasn't made from enough fabrics. Basically, she wanted a dress pretty much like the one I made her last year.

I had already planned on using a peasant dress pattern from Little Lizard King. This was the same place I bought the pdf pattern for the apron knot dress. They were both very easy to follow. I had planned on using different fabrics, but when Ashlyn talked about wanting more than two fabrics, I headed to my stash for the rest of this Mendocino fabric. I plan to add a sash to it (and maybe a pocket,) but she wanted to wear it as soon as I made it (highest compliment.)

And, is it just me or does my little girl look awfully grown up in this photo? 

TMQG sewing day tomorrow. Now to decide if I should work on my queen sized quilt, start a baby quilt, or make myself one of the two skirts I want to have before school starts.