Cycles of Life

I made my little buddy, Sebastian, a quilt when he was born in 2016.  The quilt evidently was lost with his parents moving so many times during the first four years of his life. When he comes to visit me every week he always grabs one of my quilts to cuddle with, make tents, wear as superhero capes and for an occasional picnic blanket.  I decided I needed to make him a new quilt.

Being a four year old he loves his bike and rides it every opportunity he gets.  So when I came across leftover Maywood Studio's "Cycles of Life" fabric in my stash I knew he'd be thrilled with these bicycle motifs for his new quilt.  I have made two previous quilts for young boys with this fabric group so I had leftovers.  Using my leftover stash, and luckily I found a jellyroll I was able to purchase, I proceeded to make his new quilt.  Maywood Studios offered a free pattern for this fabric line which I decided that I would sort of use.  I used the pattern for the construction of the blocks, but I used my own layout, fabric selection and of course made it bigger.  The quilt is big enough for Sebastian to use for years to come - 58" by 72".

Sebastian was thrilled when I told him I was making him a quilt.  He asked if he could help me sew it.  I decided the safest way would be to construct the blocks and let him help me decide how to arrange them.   After we laid it out, I took a picture so I could remember the layout.  We gathered the blocks into a pile and I told him that I would sew the blocks together.  He was so excited that everyone who came to my house that day he'd grab those blocks and show them the quilt that I was making just for him.

Well a week has gone by and I have the quilt ready to give him.

Boy is this little guy happy.  He dragged it around with him all day.  When his mom came to pick him up he was excited to show her his new quilt and made it very clear that this was his quilt and he wasn't sharing it.  Making this quilt for Sebastian was so much fun.  I don't usually get to see how much one of my quilts is loved.  This quilt will be loved!

As I was gathering up the leftover fabric (shown below) I realized that I have quite a bit still leftover for my stash.  All together there is over five yards of fabric.  I will find an opportunity to make another quilt using this fabric in the future.

In the meantime, back to the sewing machine - I have another quilt I will be sharing with you.

Foxy baby

Our expecting mom decided that our granddaughter's nursery will be decorated in purple/lavender.  Beautiful color, but have you tried to find fabrics in lavender that are infant appropriate?  I found that it wasn't an easy task.  And to top that off when I asked my daughter-in-law if she had any theme in mind to go with lavender, she found a ready-made quilt that was adorable, but in the wrong colors.

I love challenges, so I unrolled my ream of paper and started sketching a similar quilt design.  I did add more embellishments than the original, but I think the finished design came out well.  Using my drawing I made appliqués for the quilt.

I machine appliqued the woodland animals and flowers/leaves.  Fingers crossed that when washed multiple times the fabric holds together and doesn't fray.  I usually only use machine appliqué on wall hangings and not on quilts.  Regardless, I guess it is what it is.

I quilted a daisy type flower and leaves around the animals and quilted designs in the actual animals and flowers.   It's finished - it's everything I hoped it would be and I'm loving it.

The finished size is 42" by 54"

Since it was a challenge to find lavender fabrics - I purchased a few fabrics that auditioned for this quilt that didn't work to my liking.  Now I have some lavender stash.  But to use up some of this extra fabric I sewed a cloth toy box tote.  This tote has dual uses.  First, I can fill it with gifts goodies for the newborn and I filled it up quickly.  Second, it will be useful to store and carry toys. 

This tote was a free pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics  called Pine Toy Box. It measures 10" square.  I love Art Gallery Fabrics and their Lookbooks are so inspiring.  If you're not familiar with their Lookbooks take some time and check them out - your head will spin with some great ideas.  Also, their fabric is of great quality.  I seek it out at quilt shops.

I can't wait to fill it up.  I think this is a great way to give a gift - a gift in a gift.

So January came to a close and I feel I accomplished some great projects.  Now with February starting I have a couple quilts I'm ready to tackle.  I'm thinking I'd like to make a heart quilt to hang on my front porch for the month and second, I have a quilt for my special little guy to make.  He wants to help (he's four) so I'm going to cut out the squares and let him help me arrange them around.  Gotta get busy.  I'll keep you posted.

A cuddly baby throw

As the new year kicked off I started at a snails pace.  It was hard to get motivated..but as the month dragged on the days started getting longer and the sun would peak out from the clouds.  That put wind in my sails.  I finished January flying through some projects.

Our family is expecting a new granddaughter next month so I've been busy sewing for our new arrival.  I decided to make a small cuddle/minky fabric baby throw.  I've never worked with this kind of fabric before so to get my feet wet I purchased a kit.  The kit was from Shannon Fabrics - pattern called Bunny Hunny.

 Luckily I watched a couple tutorials and got some great pointers before tackling this project.  Shannon Fabrics website has many great tutorials to help with a successful project.   Working with minky fabric has its challenges.  I love learning new techniques and this was a learning challenge.

The baby throw came our great. with a finished size of 28" by 37".  It is so soft and cuddly that I'm sure it will be a hit with our granddaughter

Working with cuddle fabric was certainly messy.  I spent more time cleaning up after cutting the fabric than actually sewing.  After cutting my rotary cutter mat was. mess.  Back to my computer for some suggestions for cleaning my mat.  I came across a technique that works like magic - using a pencil erasure.  It worked so great that I now have included an erasure with my daily sewing tools.  The erasure not only cleaned the cuddle, but it also cleaned batting that stuck to my mat.

Presto - before I knew it my mat cleaned like new.