Disappearing 9-patch

When we had our local quilt retreat back in February we asked everyone to bring two 7" 9-patch blocks, done in blues, greens, and white/cream. When Suzanne and I got to the piecing, we weren't sure how to give it a cohesive look. Suzanne came up with the idea of a disappearing 9-patch - new idea for me! Basically you cut all the blocks in quarters and rearrange them. The only "rule" we used for the layout was alternating light and dark corners on the blocks. Worked out pretty nicely!

The blocks before:

Finished quilt:

She cut them all, and then we did assembly-line style piecing - I stitched and she passed and pressed and laid them out. The backing was pieced from some donated fabrcis, and Suzanne quilted with a large meander. I just finished the binding yesterday! Dimensions: 27" x 40".

Ready to add to the stack of things for the Pregnancy Care Centre!

Flannel Rail Fence Quilt

Another finish!

This one was so super quick I could barely believe it myself. Ingrid from QuiltEssentials in St. Albert very generously gave me some beautiful quilters' flannel pieces for the Pregnancy Care Centre Sew-Along. Several of the pieces just happened to coordinate well and there was just enough to do the rail fence blocks for this quilt! In the space of one evening I planned (with Suzanne's help), cut, and sewed together all the blocks. The tone-on-tone orange border is from Fabricland and the binding is the trimmings of the backing for my Wonky Stars. Dimensions: 28" x 40".

I also love the back of this one. I had a few strips leftover from the top, so I made some extra rail fence blocks and pieced them together with the leftover stripes from another donation! Even the batting was leftovers that I pieced together. I meandered this one also - getting lots of practice!

A Curious Benjamin Party

Benjamin turned 4 today!  Last year I found Curious George party hats/plates/napkins for really cheap so Curious George was the theme.

The cake and cupcakes from the ideas here. Thanks to my mom for rescuing my near-fail icing attempts on the cake! I used mini Chips Ahoy cookies instead of mini Nilla wafers for ears - yummy change-up.

The monkey face expressions were so fun to do!

The backdrop is a yellow party tablecloth with red duct tape in stripes (idea here). A few yellow and red balloons, a card string, and two circle buntings completed the decorations. I printed some of the beautiful free papers by MelStampz here, cut them in two sizes of circles and layered them, with letters printed to size in a fun font for the top bunting, then the leftover papers for the longer one. I strung them through slits in the edges on a long length of curling ribbon - nice and sturdy, so we can use it again.

Benjamin helped me cut out monkeys from a google image search result to decorate the treat bags, as well as a bookmark for each bag (a pbs printable).

Lots of fun!

I-Spy Quilt for PCC

Yay!! First quilt done for the Pregnancy Care Centre sew-along!

FatQuarterShop very generously sent us a box of fabrics to use for this sew-along - these are a lot of random boyish prints from that box! This I-Spy quilt went together very fast. I bought a 5" square ruler which made it super easy to cut out the 90 squares, and then it was just piecing. I threw in a few scraps of my own to round it out. Also got to try meandering on a larger quilt - with great success!! Only had my thread break four times and no bobbin snarls at all. So happy it worked out! Dimensions: 39"x43".

The back is cute too - part of the same panel as the little trucks and trains on the top, pieced with a length of black kindly provided by QuiltEssentials here in St. Albert!

Oink-a-Doodle-Moo Farmer Boy

A boy set for the Pregnancy Care Centre. Have to say, I wish I'd come across this fabric when my boys were babies!

Details
Fabric: Oink-a-Doodle-Moo and Case IH tractors
Patterns: Made By Rae's Basic Newborn Pant and Me Sew Crazy's Baby Boy Button-up
Size: 3-6 months

Mods: Added a cuff to the pants and an inch to the elastic waistband to make it a larger size. For the shirt, I changed the pocket a bit (was not symmetrical), added a contrasting loop over the pleat at the back yoke, used a contrast strip for the inside of the collar. Also had to fiddle with the shoulder seams as the pieces did not match up well, and then had to cut out the armscye a bit to fit the sleeve nicely. I would add a collar stand next time - the collar does not lie the nicest. Aside from that - it's great to have free patterns out there to work from!

Bubble Pocket Shorts

LOVE this one! I'm so pleased with how these turned out. I hemmed and hawed for a very long time (months!) over whether to buy the Bubble Pocket Shorts pattern from Elegance & Elephants - Saturday I finally did!  And very happy I did - I sewed these up during naptime yesterday.

Details
Pattern: Bubble Pocket Shorts by Elegance & Elephants
Fabric: scraps of blue twill leftover from FIL's clown costume! Inner waistband is a scrap from a skirt of mine.
Size: 6m-12m
Mods: The only thing I did different from the pattern was to bind the legs with the cuff pieces, instead of sewing the cuffs on doubled and flipping the raw edges inside. I like the finish much better that way.

Not the best photo, but she adores the "pottets".

The lilacs are so pretty right now! Every time I step outside into a cloud of soft scent I just wish there were a way to make my house smell like that - but every "canned" scent I've smelled gives me a headache... I'll just have to enjoy it outdoors!

Sewing for Pregnancy Care Centre

So the first things for Fenna's sew-along for Pregnancy Care Centres are done!

Details

Pattern: Sweet Little Dress by Leila & Ben
Fabrics: cotton coordinates
Size: 3-6 month

Details

Pattern: Sweet Little Dress by Leila & Ben
Fabrics: cotton prints from my friend Shannon (thanks, Shan, they are all getting good use!)
Size: 3-6 month

Details
Pattern: Free Little Geranium Dress by Made by Rae
Fabric: Daisy Kingdom coordinates leftover from this project
Size: 0-3 month
Mods: Added a simple bow belt to the waist, left off the pockets.

Details
Pattern: Free Timmy & Mary Sunsuit by Mommy's Apron Strings
Fabric: dotted swiss coordinates
Size: 6 months
Mods: Added cased elastic to the leg holes as they seemed a little gapey. I cut two lengths of elastic a few inches shorter than the leg opening, tacked them to the seam allowance at the crotch opening of each leg, then when I flipped it right side out, I sewed a casing for each elastic.

Details
Pattern: Inside or Out Pocket Pants by Fishsticks Designs
Fabrics: flames seersucker, cotton screen-print for trim
Size: 6 months



Next up:  Planning what to sew from this lovely stack FatQuarterShop generously sent our way for this sew-along! Couple of quilts, some dresses, a few baby button-up shirts...