Toddler Survival Kits AKA Quilt-As-You-Go Pouches

When I made these quilt-as-you-go panels I wasn't sure what I would turn them in to.  Now that they are finished I've decided to make them into little "Toddler Survival Kits" for Baby Bee's teachers. I'll be stuffing them with  sunscreen, hand sanitizer, tissues, and of course, chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

I had a lot of fun making these, especially fussy cutting the little critters to peek out here and there. And as much as I was dreading the zippers, they really weren't so bad. I especially love the "zip ends" technique I found here from Sew Sweetness. The little zip ends keep things neat and tidy and give the bags a more professional look. See how cute they are?

A few notes on the specs, mostly for my own memory. These little guys started as square 8.5 inch panels, and I finished them by adding box corners to the bottom around the 1 3/4 inch mark. Why those measurements? Because they were handy on my rulers. Heh. 

I have to admit that I'm particularly in love with the red and aqua one. Like, so much so that I'm planning a larger quilted tote in the same color scheme... which conveniently doubled as an excuse to add more Aneela Hoey to my stash. I call that a win-win :)

WIP Wednesday: Teacher Appreciation Edition

I am fortunate enough to have my daughter enrolled at a fabulous preschool just a few minutes up the road. She spends her days playing *hard* under the watchful eye of four amazing teachers.

In just a few weeks we'll be moving up at school, but I wanted to give each of her teachers a token of our appreciation. So this week I'm taking a mini-break from my Summer Solstice Quilt, and starting a few "quilt as you go" panels. I haven't settled on exactly what I'll be making with them. Pencil bags? Makeup bags? Gift card holders? Yeah, something like that.

This isn't my first time using the quilt-as-you-go-technique, but I think I've improved since my first mis-adventure. I took Tara Rebman's "Quilt-As-You-Go-Bags" on Craftsy, and picked up a lot of great tips there. I just love projects like this - lots of improv fabric play, and a great excuse to visit the scrap bin. I'm excited to pull colors for the next two bags!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced :)

A Pocket Full of (mini-charm) Posies

My youngest sister is getting married in three weeks (!!!) and I haven't started her quilt. I know there are lots of amazing quilters who could throw something together in a day, but I am not SO not there yet! But I did finally sit down and plan out her quilt -- sort of a modified coin quilt with floating blocks of color. Except... the fabric won't be here until Monday. That leaves me with less than three weeks/two weekends to get this thing done. YIKES!

So, what did I spend my time on this weekend? I did what any rational person facing an impossible deadline would do! I procrastinated by making a completely unnecessary and unrelated project. 

At our last trip to my LQS Baby Bee spotted a mini-charm pack of Aneela Hoey's Posy, and asked if we could make it into a blanket for "Silly Cat." I was all too happy to oblige. Seriously, I was beaming with mommy pride in the store. I decided to keep it simple and pieced this quilt top together Friday night. Basic patchwork like this is so relaxing and wonderful -- perfect after a stressful week at the office.  The mini-charm pack wasn't quite big enough for Silly Cat, so I floated the mini-charms on a field of white and added a generous border.

Posy mini-quilt top. 

 Maybe it was the simplistic quilt top, or the glass of wine I had, but I got brave with the quilting. I decided to venture out of my stippling-comfort-zone and add some wandering clovers. Aren't they sweet? I took Leah Day's "Free Motion Quilting a Sampler Quilt" on Craftsy, and this is the first of her patterns that I'm putting to use. 

Wandering clovers

Free motion quilting does not come easy to me. I really think it's grounded in drawing, a skill that I do NOT possess in the slightest. It took me *forever* to get my stippling even remotely passable, so adding these clovers was nothing short of terrifying. There are certainly clovers in the final quilt that I'm not proud of, but I don't think Silly Cat will complain much.

Nitey-night Silly Cat

I used a large scale print I had in my stash for the backing. It was an older print from the Leanika collection by FreeSpirit that I found at the Fabric Basement for $1.99/yd (!!). It's sort of on the ugly side, but it matched the top really well. And I love the periwinkle binding! Strangely enough I forgot to engage the dual feed on my Horizon, and it was my smoothest machine binding yet. Not sure if I'm getting better, or if the dual feed was working against me, but I'll be experimenting some there.

Most importantly, Baby Bee has been spending her mornings putting Silly Cat back to bed with his new blanket, *instead* of screaming at crying for us to come get her. What started out as a procrastination tactic has certainly turned into a brilliant investment. Who knew? :)

I Finished Something Early?

Let the record show that, for once in my life, I finished something early. What was this magical something you ask?

Family stockings! I really need to get a better picture, but waiting to take a picture has already delayed this post by a week. You see it's very hard to take good pictures when you (a) the sun goes down at 4:00 and (b) you sew through the night. I definitely need to find a better solution there... and um, a real place to hang these. The baby gate will not do for Santa Claus. Edit: Updated photo is an improvement, though still far from ideal. Maybe next year?

But anyway, these stockings were tons of fun. I was inspired by my stepmother who went out of her way to embroider and quilt a stocking for each one of us. I remember how loved I felt, and wanted my little girl to have similar childhood memories.

My stocking

Each stocking is as different as its owner. The stocking on the far left is mine, inspired by this one by CluckCluckSew and done in Aneela Hoey's "Cherry Christmas" line. The tiny hour glasses were a lesson in patience and accuracy, which means it isn't perfect. :) I quilted it in an all over meander, making it the very first thing I ever quilted on my Janome Horizon (swoon!).

The middle stocking belongs to the little lady of the house. The fabric is "Santa's Workshop" by DoodleBug Design for RileyBlake. It is so super cute in person, and the colors are so happy! I wanted to let the fabric shine so I kept it really simple with 2 1/2 inch squares sewn on point. I kept the quilting simple, too, choosing a to run a single straight line alongside each seam. Straight line quilting is a personal first, and I really loved the results!

And last (and maybe least!) is my husband's stocking. He is a huge fan of the Peanuts cartoon, and I did what I could to make it less ugly. He requested a "fuzzy white top" which ended up being crazy... hard. Let's just say I used many other four-letter words to describe that whole process. Lesson learned: do not attempt super slippery bamboo velour without interfacing. No, really. Don't. :)

So glad to have these done, and really happy to ring in the holiday season with homemade quilty goodness!

Things That Started Innocently Enough

I'm still not clear on how I survived those forty weeks known as pregnancy, but I am quite sure that I was out of mind. Maybe it was the 9 months of nausea. Maybe it was the hormones. But for whatever reason, I got it in my head that I was GOING.TO.MAKE.A.BABY.QUILT.DAMMIT.

Now, understand that I had never done such a thing. Sure, I had sewn a few beanbags in a middle school Home Economics class. I even had a sewing machine that I'd gotten as a Christmas present years earlier. But a quilt? If I'd been in my right mind I  *never* would have undertaken such a thing. But, never one to give in to reason, I sat in a crappy Ikea chair for hours toiling over 12 log cabin blocks. And then I gave birth.

Fast forward 9 months... Now sleeping a whopping four hours a night I picked up the quilt top, determined to finish what I started. You know, before Baby Bee realized how bad my time management skills were).

I took a deep breath and successfully navigated some very elementary quilting. Satisfied with the quilting, I ventured out on to the internet for a binding tutorial. And that's when "it" happened. That's right, I stumbled onto Amanda Nyberg's (@crazymomquilts.com) binding tutorial. I can still remember that moment of 1) shock and awe at the beauty of modern quilts and 2) the horror at the now nearly finished traditionally-styled baby quilt that I held in my hands. I pretty much hated my first quilt before it was even finished. Um, oops?

What I did next was only logical. I quickly finished the binding and sped off to my LQS. Two days and a few charm packs of Aneela Hooey's "Walk in the Woods" later, I was well on my way to redemption with my "First Quilt, Take II".  Did I mention that I was only sleeping four hours a night? Yeah, I was clearly insane.

As I said, I pretty much hated my first quilt before it was even done. So much so that I don't really want to post a picture of it, but maybe I'll be able to look back at this someday and laugh. But, in case this never becomes funny, there is also a snapshot of my second (redemption) quilt, too.

Traditional blue/brown Beatrix Potter vs.

Redemption Quilt in progress