March notes

1 - A Doll Like Me doll quilts: I quilted the 7 I had pinned, pinned the other 6, and quilted all of them. In three days. I was on a roll. I took them to a friend who showed me how to do binding. While she did 12, I did one. In the same amount of time. Yeah. I'm a rookie and she's super experienced.

I am now handstitching on the "Made by kids for kids" labels. 4 done, 9 to go.

2 - Night Sky blocks: 2 more.

3 - six bean bags for hopscotch

4 - "thread drawing" on a skirt to "decorate" it for my I-hate-plain-clothes girls.

5 - costume pieces for JK's birthday party: no-sew fleece dragon wings for JK and TA, a big stuffed dragon tail for JK, and a glittery top with a high-low hem for JE. I used the Girl-on-the-Go pattern from Oliver+S for the top.

JK's dragon wings and tail. I didn't get a picture of TA's wings, but they were the same scallops only in orange. They were dragons from Dragons Love Tacos, and we had tacos at the party.

Vega from Star Darlings. The costumes were to dress as your favorite book character.

6 - Mending: 5

skirt "decorating"

RG does not like plain/solid colored clothing because it's "boring." Last spring, I made her a basic skirt in plain blue linen-ish-weave fabric for Colonial Day at school (in April or May, but forgot to put it in the journal notes). They didn't have calico prints in that time period, so sorry, Kiddo, your skirt is boring.

Once Colonial Day was over, she still had this perfectly good, brand-new skirt. So I've added some fun details, and NOW I will put it in the sewing journal! (I probably should have just left it alone for future Colonial Days at school, but whatever.)

I have the sewing book Stitch by Stitch from the writer of the Whip-Stitch blog (which is posted on far too infrequently for my liking), and in one of the "learn your machine" exercises, the "assignment" is to figure out thread-drawing. You drop the feed dogs on the machine - the little teeth that pull the fabric under the needle - and change the foot to a free-motion foot. Your hands are now 100% in control of how the fabric goes under the needle.

I like flowers and garden scenes, and they're easy to draw. So that's what I did. It probably looks like a little kid drew it, because it was my first attempt at anything of this sort. But I like it and I don't care what anyone else thinks about it. I don't see THEM trying to draw with thread!

February tangents

I think I would have fewer tangents if it weren't for Project Quilting.  Thankfully the season is only 6 challenges long, so I will have less distractions soon.  (But I have a way of distracting myself with other projects so I don't know if anything will actually improve.)  Anyway, here is something Bigger Than a Breadbox.  I was just going to focus on all the projects I had already started, but then I saw this while scrolling through Facebook, and thought it'd be easy enough to make a small doll quilt.  I have lots of 5" squares, picked a few and off I went.  The actual quilting isn't my best - the back is quite wrinkly - but I think it's pretty cute.  A non-pink heart for Valentine's Day (although I was tempted by some pink and purple .. that may have to happen later). 

While basting the blue heart above, I also basted this project too - I finished the top for this table runner before Christmas and now it is all done! It was made from scraps from a quilt that is .. sadly in the UFO pile.  All the blocks are done, but it hasn't turned into a top yet.  It is on the list to finish for Christmas this year, and hopefully a second Christmas quilt as well - I have a stack of fabric but haven't settled on a pattern yet.

I've kept up with my Harry Potter quilt until now.  Ron here was a little late (typical) and Luna is still in pieces.  Her glasses look quite intimidating, so it keeps getting pushed aside.  I won't let myself go too much farther without picking up the UFOs and turning them into completed projects.  This one is slated for a friend's baby due at the beginning of April so I can't wait much longer!

Speaking of Harry Potter... one of the challenges from Project Quilting this season was Pixel Play and I had been eyeing this beautiful Hedwig from the second QAL.  Even though I didn't start it until Thursday (and the deadline is always Sunday) I eeked it out just in time.  I turned the 12" block into a pillowcase for my friend's birthday and she loved it.

Not a great picture, but my Unicorn mini quilt top is complete.  I've got the backing and binding ready, but I haven't been super confident with my basting skills lately so it keeps getting set aside.  It is so pretty though, and I had a lot of fun making economy blocks.  I may have to hop onto a round of Finish-A-Long so I can be motivated to get more things completed!

Aside from quilting and sewing I've been reading and DRAWING!  Look!  Oh it feels good to be drawing again.  This is Salty, and I'm loving how he's turning out.

And finally, the longest running project on the list - the last of the Squared Away Twilt blocks were completed! (Can't call this one Squared Away because it wasn't originally included.)  I ended up doing a second blue pinwheel to bring my total block count to 48.  That is a LOT of blocks!  Trina finished hers up as well and we both got them in the mail.

All of our blocks.  I'm still playing with the layout, and leaning towards a grey sashing with cornerstones.  And that border.  Did some math - I need over 300 2.5" squares to make a double-wide border.  Good thing I've got over 400 cut then!  It's going to take a lot of time to get this finished, and with a July deadline I better not put it off for much longer.