Out to Sea Bed Quilt

I'm excited to have this quilt to share in the Blogger's Quilt Festival this fall!  I entered mine in the bed quilts group.

As soon as I saw Sarah Jane's Out to Sea fabric, I pinned a picture of the collection and knew that I wanted to make a big quilt for my daughter's bed out of it.  I loved the color way with the navy blue and hot pink because the pink worked perfectly with the princesses already on the wall and I'm trying to impart my love of navy blue to my daughter.

Before I could even get my hands on the fabric, I searched the internet for inspiration on how I would put the quilt together.  I decided on a patchwork quilt with some larger panel pieces added to it.  I love the world maps and I knew that I wanted them to be somewhat of a focus in the quilt.  (I love them so much that I have a few panels still waiting to be turned into pillows for this bed.)

So far this is the largest quilt I have made.  It comes out to about 88 x 88.  It fits perfectly on her full sized bed and if we ever upgrade to a larger bed for her I think it will still work well.

I had two ideas for the quilting.  One was diagonal lines through the blocks and the other was wavy quilting.  I actually quilted a diagonal line halfway through the quilt to see if I liked it and then a wavy line.  I think I would have liked the diagonal but it seemed like a lot more work and after finally having it all pieced, I didn't have the patience to mark my diagonal lines on such a big quilt.  So,
I quilted it with wavy lines from Bijou Lovely's tutorial.  It seemed appropriate considering the nautical theme.  It was tough going…my tension seemed to get off and I had to redo the first couple of waves.  And if there's anything that makes me procrastinate on sewing something, it's knowing that I have to pull out the seam ripper.  So the quilt sat for quite a while until I finally decided to get on with it!

The other hard part of this quilt was taking pictures!  Don't mind the carpet that I tried to roll out of the way in the picture below.  I was able to stand on the balcony in my house and take a picture looking down on it.  I tried to hang it from the balcony but I didn't have strong enough clips to hold it up.

The backing fabric is a dark grey sheet that I got from Target and the binding is a solid coral color that matched the coral blocks in the quilt.

This will probably always be one of my favorite fabric lines and I'm so glad I was able to turn it into my vision for a bed quilt and that my daughter is snug and cozy under it each night!  Now I just need to get rid of some brown curtains that don't match (not shown) and sew up those pillows.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jedi Robes

A couple of years ago, I bought some brown cotton/linen blend fabric that was on clearance.  It turned out that it wasn't as much of a deal as I thought it was since the labeled price wasn't the price for the whole remnant but per yard.  But I bought it anyway and it sat in a bin for a long time waiting to be used.

I had grand plans to make a Jedi robe with it.  I even bought a bathrobe pattern that I thought I would use.  For some reason I bought an adult size pattern thinking it would be easy to size it down.  I don't know why I thought this was a good idea since I don't know how to use a pattern very well in the first place.  So the fabric and the pattern sat around...they moved from Virginia to Tennessee with me.

For Christmas 2012, I decided I wasn't going to go crazy making any quilts as gifts but I wanted to make each of my kids something homemade.  I decided to make Casey the first thing I had ever put in my bookmark list of "Projects To Do" which was a baby doll bassinet/basket.  And I decided it was time to finally make that Jedi robe for Jack.  Poor guy has been training for 3 years to be a Jedi and didn't have a robe.

One of my favorite blogs, Diary of Quilter, made Jedi robes for her children and directed me to a tutorial to use.  I had looked at this tutorial before and I don't know why I didn't use it in the first place.  Maybe I just needed someone to tell me how quick and easy it was.

So, in an hour one December night, I finally created a Jedi robe for my little Jedi.  He was thrilled to receive it on Christmas morning and I think it has revived his Jedi spirit.  (Star Wars was on the back burner for few months.)

A few days after Christmas, we flew to visit family and the first thing he packed was his Jedi Robe and some inflatable light sabers so he could fight his Pop Pop.  We've been told Pop Pop went to Jedi training school with Master Yoda.  (I made sure he brought some regular clothes too.)  Since then, Jack has also slept in his robe and wears it for some amount of time almost every day.

In January, Jack asked if I had any extra brown fabric because Casey really needed a Jedi robe too.  I didn't have any but I told him I would get some and I would make her a Jedi robe for her birthday that could be from him.  The second robe was even easier than the first to sew.

Jedi Casey in her cowboy boots

And now I have two Jedi that roam the house fighting the dark side...or each other, as the situation demands.

Belle Dress

Before I made the Cinderella dress for Casey, I made this Belle dress.  This was supposed to be the backup in case the Cinderella dress didn't work out.  I decided to make it first because I thought it was a little less daunting than Cinderella and I could easily find the yellow knit fabric.

To make this, I used a combination of two tutorials.  At Crafterhours, I found this tutorial and got the idea to use the knit fabric for comfort, the peasant top and to give the dress its ruffles on the bottom with elastic.  I also found this tutorial at tidbits for a Belle dress and made the skirt part of the dress that way, using a front and back piece instead of several panels.

I had to remake the top once because I was also trying to use a couple different peasant top tutorials and the first one was a little too small.  I liked the way the elastic made my skirt look all ruffly but I don't think I was consistent enough in how much I stretched the elastic at different points.

I bought the chiffon to add to the top and bottom of the dress but only ended up adding it to the top.  I tried adding it to the bottom but my piece wasn't long enough to begin with and it really needed to wrap all the way around.  I always meant to add it on later, but I had to move on to making a Cinderella dress!

The torso is definitely a little long in this dress and overall the dress was a little long (but Casey's constantly growing).  Casey wore this out on our first night at Disney World.  We went to Downtown Disney, had dinner and walked around.    Even though the knit is comfy, it would have been way too warm to wear for a full day at Disney.  Also, since it was a little long, we were trying to keep it pulled up with a sweater at one point so she wouldn't trip over it.

Despite its problems, it's just a play dress, it's comfy, I learned a lot while making it and best of all, Casey loved it.  That's all that matters!

Cinderella Dress

I made Casey this Cinderella dress back in September.  She wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween and we had a Disney trip planned in October during Fall Break so I guess I killed two birds with one dress.

She once had a $20 Cinderella dress from Walmart but it had a short life.  The bottom of it quickly started unravelling.  I didn't really want to spend much more than that for a new dress and I needed it to be much better quality.  I checked a Disney Store outlet and the dresses were still way more than I wanted to spend and probably not much nicer.  So, I made it instead.

I used a great tutorial from Make It and Love It.  This is by far the most complicated item I have ever sewn.  Thankfully I started early and the tutorial was very detailed and helpful.  After finally finding the light blue stretchy fabric at an online store, the hardest part was sewing the silver fabric onto the front of the bodice.  It was not the same material as in the tutorial and it seemed like I was just making holes in it even though I used a ball point needle.  Once I put the trim over the top, it covered up the awful looking stitches underneath.  Another hard thing for me is trying to figure out the waistline.  This is probably a little long in the torso on Casey but not too bad.  But, I was most excited when the little sleeves puffed out the way they were supposed to!  

Waiting for the bus to the Magic Kingdom

Casey wore this to dinner with the princesses at Cinderella's castle in Disney World.  It was really a magical evening.  Casey looked beautiful and it was very exciting to go into the castle.  While we were eating, the princesses each came to our table and Casey had her picture taken with them and got their autographs.  She had a pretty wonderful evening!

Cinderella & Cinderella

Sailboat Pillow for Cole

Sometime before Christmas, I found this pattern for a Nautical Pillow and thought it would be a fun gift for my nephew.  I had some leftover fabric from his Going Coastal quilt and thought it would be great for this project.  Since I was trying not to stress myself out with more Christmas sewing projects and I found another gift for my newphew Cole, I didn't end up making this at Christmas.

In January, I started looking ahead at the busy month of February and planning for my daughter's birthday, which is just a week before Cole's.  I realized that I could make the pillow for Cole's birthday instead.  He just turned one so I figured he wouldn't be too upset that he didn't get a toy and it would go with his quilt so well.

The pattern was very easy to follow and it was the first time I have sewn piping onto anything.  Besides  a leftover piece of Going Coastal, the grey and white is from Lotta Jandotter's Echo line and the red fabric is Manzanita Branch from Joel Dewberry.  (I've always thought it looks like sea coral.)  For the back and sides I used a striped fabric that I think came from a Christmas collection.

I'm very happy with how this pillow came out and I even had a little help from my son who stuffed it for me.

Child's Apron - Birthday Gift

A few weeks ago, one of my daughter's best friends turned 5.  The first time she came to our house to play with Casey I was eating a grapefruit and she said, "Giada likes grapefruit."  After I processed that for a few seconds, I said, "Giada from the Food Network?"  It was indeed the same Giada.  This little girl loves the Food Network and loves to cook and pretend to cook.  For Christmas, her mom mostly got her fun cooking tools, utensils and gadgets.  As her birthday was coming up, I was keeping an eye out for fun kitchen things but I knew she already had quite a collection.  It finally dawned on me that I could make her an apron.

Casey helped me pick out the fabric and I finally found a use for one of my favorite fabrics.  I picked it up at Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago when we were on a little Hurricane Vacation.  The kids and I left our home near Virginia Beach, Virginia and headed inland to Richmond during Hurricane Irene in 2011.  It ended up being pretty stormy in Richmond too but I managed to get a little shopping done before the winds picked up.  It was my first visit to Hobby Lobby and I couldn't resist this fabric.  I currently live very close to a Hobby Lobby and I noticed that they are still selling it.

For the backing I used a Timeless Treasures fabric by Monica Lee, We re Going Places - Dot.  The pink apron strings and pocket are Kona Cotton and I think it is Cotton Candy pink.

I found this tutorial and followed it for the most part.  I think I adjusted my measurements a little bit.

About a week after the birthday girl received this, I got a picture from her mom of her wearing the apron.  She had been working hard (with her dad) to put together a nice dinner (by the fire and with candles!) for her mom and sister after they had been out all afternoon.