April finishes

- the doll quilt project was finished up with the last of the labels being attached, and shipped out to Wisconsin.

- JE's birthday dress

- a pair of knit shorts for pajamas. The Kid Shorts pattern from Made only goes up to a size 10, and three of my five have outgrown that largest size in the past few months. So I attempted to scale it up to a 12-ish size, and this was my test run. I need to make a slight adjustment on the height of the rise to the waistband, but mostly it turned out fine.

- I gave myself a deadline to finish the Night Sky quilt: SM's birthday in 8 days. I made 7 more blocks and got the second section of three done. I was trying to entirely finish the pieced top today, but got sidetracked by an emergency visit to the orthodontist. It will be done by this weekend, and then I'll have Mon/Tues/Wed next week to quilt it. The binding will be easy - the backing is HUGE because I bought super-wide flannel (120 inches instead of 60), so I'm going to flip it around to the front and enclose the edges with it. 

crazy cat girl

I'm not sure if she's a crazy cat girl, or a cat crazy girl ...

This is the child who, about a year ago, wanted to get rid of all of her clothes, and get all new clothes ... with cats on them. I saw this print online and figured what the heck. So I bought the fabric to make this dress for her, and happy birthday to our newly-minted 9-year-old!

I hadn't worked much with knit before, so I went for it and bought some higher end, more expensive knit for this. SO cute! SO soft! SO annoying to work with! The edges curled like nobody's business. I had to pin the crap out of it, seriously like every inch. I could steam it flat with the iron, but as soon as the heat went out of it, it curled up again. Now that it's done, it's a fabulous dress, but making it took awhile because of having to go so excruciatingly slow.

The pattern is the Girl on the Go dress from Oliver+S. The fabric is Cat Nap Pink by Dana Willard in the Blush collection.

And because this is the 500th POST!!!!! - I actually have an unopened copy of the Girl on the Go pattern that I will give away on April 29 (because that's the next 9 day, for my 9-year-old). US/Canada only. Comment what your hints are for working with knit fabrics because whoa, that was less than fun.

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

2019 To-Do / 2018 Ta-Da!

I know this sort of post isn't required, but I really like to see my to-do list become a Ta-Da! List.  2018 was full of fabric and sewing.  It was wonderful!  My posting dropped off those last few months (my personal blog is at least six months behind!), but I was still very busy - my sister got married and I made four dresses for the flower girls!  And the twin quilts (or Twilts and I've started to call them) that I talk about below...

QUILTING

• Maple Mission: My own design!  My parents love it.
• 2 Doll Quilts: Made for and donated to A Doll Like Me.
• String Bean: My first Project Quilting challenge, and the string piecing I wanted to do.
• Mini Pink: Little doesn't always mean faster. 
• 2 Narwhal Quilts: Started and finished in time for two new nieces!
• Christmas Cake Quilt: All the blocks finished. Hoping to finish in 2019.  I also started a table runner with the scraps!
• Block of the Month Twilts: This is probably where I put in my most sewing hours, and yet I haven't posted about it at all.  Trina suggested we do the Squared Away Block of the Month on Academic Quilter and then share blocks with each other.  I've made 44 10" blocks - two identical sets of 22, half for me and half for her.  So much work!!  We haven't gotten the last of the blocks sorted out so I can't finish it yet, but I've been cutting even MORE little squares to make a scrappy border for it.  Countless hours of work, but I love it!

As for my non-quilty sewing, I actually accomplished most of what I had hoped to.  My color challenge fizzled out, since I didn't give myself any rules.  And I never made jackets - which I should do soon before Cupcake grows out of the pattern!

• two sets of pajamas and a sleep sack
• six towel baby bibs
• two Mckenzies
• 
• two baby peasant dresses
• four baby crinkle toys
• two Ishi dresses for Easter
• four Alder skirts for me
• Maggie Mae sheepy top
• matching My Little Pony outfits for me and my daughters
• MLP purple top
• Strawberry top x4 (two for my girls, two for a friend - they wore them for family photos!)
• 
• four TMNT drawstring bags, plus four Christmas ones
• six eye patches
• 
• Quilt-As-You-Go placemat for a church activity (and helped with many others)
• Sailor Mercury costume pieces
• six Garden Party dresses (two for Christmas)
• 
• four Everyday Necktie (two for Christmas)
• and mended 49 items.

This year I hope to work on Christmas projects (including at least one [maybe three!] quilts) throughout the year, so I can give more homemade, meaningful gifts. (I'm so over the commercial aspect of the holidays it isn't even funny.)  I've got ideas for ornaments and a few other surprises, so I hope the week after Christmas is full of project posts.  I want another skirt and I've already got some Ravenclaw flannel set aside.  Cupcake will be needing more pajamas.  For quilting: paper piecing and hexagons are still on my list, and I've added economy blocks (unicorn fabric?), perhaps as a pin cushion.  Lots of ideas but I also want to be flexible enough to join in on Sew Alongs as I am inspired (I've already got my eye on a few blocks from this Harry Potter one).  Happy sewing to you!

school skirt

SM came across some glitter-infused denim about a year ago in the fabric piles, and there was just enough to make her a skirt. I used this tutorial on how to make a skirt pattern, but didn't bother with making a pattern - I just drew it straight onto the fabric.

There are no directions on making the skirt itself, so that got ... interesting ... I'm glad I already knew the basic idea of adding darts - there are four, two in the front and two in the back. I had to wing it on adding the facing. This was so I didn't lose 2 inches of fabric on the top from folding over to add a waistband, and also because that fabric would itch if the glitter side was against her skin. I just lost the teeniest seam allowance.

This is only the 2nd zipper I've added in clothing - the first time I put it on, it was twisted so I had to remove the whole thing and do it again. It still isn't as "invisible" as it should be because I didn't put the seams in tight enough, so there is a slash of mint down her hip ... it's a design feature, not a mistake. And I barely did a hem, also to maintain as much skirt length as possible - bias tape beneath.

Makes me laugh that the inside is all colored and detailed more than the outside. I wasn't aiming for a mini-skirt but it is a couple of inches above her knee. Siiiiiigh. She's getting too tall. I made her put on cut-off leggings underneath, because it went halfway up her thigh when she sat down.

And here she is, ready for 7th grade! 

The Creativity Project - my entry

I came across The Creativity Project on the Leland Ave Studios website recently - 52 interviews with quilters around the world, one per week this year. I went back to the first one and have been reading through everything to get caught up. They're really interesting, but now that I'm up to number 20, it's starting to get repetitive. They all are with the modern/improvisational aesthetic. No precise piecing here! All solid-colored fabrics - not a print to be found. If there is one, it certainly would not be random scrappage from 20-40 years ago, as inhabits my fabric boxes, from other people giving me their old fabric when they clean out their sewing rooms. All have won competitions or been been featured at QuiltCon, some after quilting for only a couple of years.

So for fun, here's my "entry" into the Creativity Project. Maybe I'll actually submit it to that website - HA! Because I am SO not like that! Let me know what you think ...


BIO SKETCH:
Trina is a stay-at-home-mom who started sewing because she wanted pretty things in her house that she couldn't afford, but a couple of bloggers convinced her it was possible to make them herself. She grew up actually hating even the idea of sewing, because it was a girl thing and she wanted to do cool things at Scouts with her brothers ... too bad BSA didn't let girls join until Jan. 2019. Her bachelor's degree from Western Oregon University was the generic "Social Sciences" - it was a composite of history, government and journalism. Nothing to do with art. She has entered no quilt shows or competitions, she teaches no sewing classes, and she has received no recognition for her work beyond the Likes she got on Facebook from personal friends when she finished her first (and only, so far) quilt.

red sand on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, June 2018.

How would you describe your quilting style/aesthetic?
Mostly scrappy, because that's what I have. I have lots of fabric from other people cleaning out their sewing rooms and giving me their leftovers. Some was big enough to make into clothes, and some is just scraps. The fabric I've purchased myself has mostly been to make clothes for my kids, and the leftovers have been shifted into starting quilts.

All the pink I could find in my sewing boxes, including scraps from various dresses, into this rail-fence twin-sized quilt. Title: The Pink Babies. Started summer 2014, finished Dec. 2016.

How would you describe the creative environment in your home as a child?
Creativity at my house as kids was focused on music, story telling, and writing. Some of my siblings got into drawing, but not me. Textiles as an art medium is a totally new thing for me.

What artists and makers do you most admire or have an influence on your work?
Dana at Made Everyday gets full, 100% credit in helping me believe that sewing was something that I could even do in the first place. I did not set out to find her sewing blog. I wasn't looking for/at sewing blogs at all. I was doing online searches for home decorating ideas, and somehow managed to stumble across her website. She was posting tutorials of adorable clothes she was making for her daughter who was 3 or 4 - I have a daughter the same age. I didn't necessarily want to SEW, but I did want those clothes for my kid. So I started sewing clothes. A lot of the clothes-sewing bloggers I followed also made quilts, and that also looked like something I wanted to have in my home ... it was a natural evolution that I can't really pinpoint something specific that expanded my horizons. Now I follow primarily quilt blogs, and I've got it in my head to start making bags as well. Again, natural flow of the thought process and not anything I've specifically sought out.

The first article of clothing I ever made: a skirt attached to a store-bought shirt, fall 2011.

I could list a lot of bloggers who have given me ideas and inspiration, both clothes and quilt sewing, but the list has changed over the years. I still follow Made Everyday, and I also like Noodlehead and Stitched in Color right now. I'm also doing this year's Block of the Month with Academic Quilter.

Do you consider yourself a quilter, an artist, or some combination of both?
Probably more a quilter than an artist because I'm still very much at the beginning of my quilting/learning process. I knew when I started that I was either making zero quilts, or six. No in between, because I have 5 kids and a husband. I've finished one so far, two more started, and the other three planned. But I do believe that quilts can be art. Mine aren't necessarily "art" because they're meant to be on someone's bed. There are some out there that definitely are art!

How do you define "making with intention"? 
I define it as a pretentious phrase to make people feel better about themselves regarding their sewing. Is it possible to make without intention? If you're going to create something, even if it's just experimenting with your materials to see what happens, there's a certain amount of intention just to get off your couch and do something.

Do you think that having a craft makes us more compassionate? If so, then how?
I don't think compassion is inherent in craft. I'm sure people can get pretty arrogant about things they've made, which is an opposite of compassion. But if you're making something for someone, or to provide a service, yes. Craft can absolutely help one develop compassion.

How does creating feed your soul/spiritual purpose?
As a Mormon, I believe that creating IS our spiritual purpose. We get to share creating with God as we grow and develop. It is very cool to take random things - fabric and notions, in this case - and manipulate and organize them into something that's beautiful. That was what got me started in sewing - the motivation to get to the end result. I didn't want to sew, but I wanted the clothes and the quilts, and I was willing to do the work to get them.

Are there any rituals that you perform to prepare/ground yourself in your work?
I need a clean sewing table. My "sewing room" is a table stuck in the middle of an open storage room in my basement, so I'm surrounded by all kinds of random things. Camping gear, food storage, the laundry, all the coats and shoes, etc ... I need my physical environment to be at least a little bit tidy so I can focus, so the table itself has to be clean for me to work.

What is the support system you have in place for creating work?
My husband is so encouraging and supportive, he could carry this all on his own. Fortunately, he doesn't have to. My sister Mindy, who shares this blog, also started sewing around the same time I did and we've had a great time learning together. I've loved our joint projects - we made a quilt for our sister Tawnia, and another one for our parents.

They're also an awesome support - they travel between our two homes more than we can, and have always been willing to haul packages back and forth of fabric, patterns, and projects so we don't have to pay international shipping. The funniest was a couple of years ago - Tawnia was driving from Alberta to Connecticut with two huge garbage bags of fabric in her car, from Mindy to me ... and got quizzed at Customs when crossing Canada-US border. "What's with all the material?"

How do you deal with comparison to/envy of others? Can you describe a time when you used comparison/envy/admiration to push yourself in your own work and self-discovery?
My entire sewing hobby is based on admiration of others! Hard to narrow it down to just one or two specific moments. I read blogs and get ideas - my quilt list of things I want to make is 20-30 different things, so I'd better get busy. I don't really have an envious component to it, because I still consider myself a total beginner. And they are not. I am fine seeking inspiration and guidance.

The only envy-point, I guess, would be that they seem to be able to buy all the fabric under the sun - there's a lot that I want. I don't want to say that I "can't afford" it. I could buy it - my husband does have a good job and we are financially secure. But our income is not infinite and we have higher priorities for our money rather than more fabric.

What was the most challenging thing you ever made?
A dress, actually. The Fairy Tale dress from Oliver+S. The lining being attached to the dress was hard, and it was the first time I installed a zipper. It looks like a simple dress, but boy howdy, it was not! Easily the most complicated thing I've ever made, before or since.

June 2016

What does it mean to you to work in a traditionally domestic medium that historically has been regarded as predominantly female (aka "women's work")?
I find it hilarious, because I always avoided sewing for that very reason. I still shake my head about it on a regular basis. The first time my husband came home from work and saw me at a sewing machine, he stopped, turned around, and came back 5 seconds later with a camera.

The very first picture - the first thing I ever sewed was a Christmas tree skirt, that my friend cut out and pinned for me, and then loaned me her machine to sew it. Jan 2011.

How do you see your current work in the context of quilting history?
I don't. I see it in the context of my family's history. The Pink Babies quilt has a story with the title, and in the pieces in the quilt. I can tell you every single dress I made from those fabrics - who it was for, and why. The quilts I'm making for my other daughters also have meaning and significance to our family, but not really anyone else. If my quilts are only for my children and their descendants, and no one else ever hears my name, I'm good with that. As long as my family knows I love them and made these things for them, that's enough.

the Grandma Nancy's Heritage quilt - my husband's mother made the top, and we found it in her house after she passed away. I finished it and gave it to my daughters, May 2016.

Y is for youth camp

One of these days, I will get back to my original Y plan and actually execute it!! But first ... youth camp. At our church, there's day camp for ages 8 to 11, and when you turn 12, you can go to sleep-away camp. SM turned 12 this spring, so it is time for Girls Camp! Our area always goes the third week of August.

I weaseled my way into being one of the adult leaders because I just wanted to go to camp myself - I LOVE CAMP!!!! - and I want to experience this with my daughters. There's also the fact that she has ADHD limitations and I felt like I should be there to help her navigate this new thing. (Second daughter is on the autism spectrum, so this will not be my only year as an adult leader at camp.)

Because it's GIRLS Camp, we decorate. My contribution was this pennant garland that kept going and going and going ... it ended up being put together in three different sections that were each 20 feet long.

It turned out to be a good thing that it was in sections. I had planned to put it around our central pavilion ... which we didn't have. The tents were in an oval grouping with just some picnic tables in the center but no covered area, not even a pop-up canopy or tarp. So I strung it between the tents.

I also made myself a small cross-body bag for my phone. The kids were banned from even bringing their phones to camp. The adults, on the other hand, were required to have them on their person at all times. I had a backpack, but I wanted my phone more accessible. Plus it will be handy to have going forward when I want to carry my phone and just a couple of small things instead of an entire purse.

I used the same zip pouch tutorial that I've used all the other times, so this is number 14, I think. But I resized it to 6x9 inches to start, and put the zipper across the short end rather than the long side. That made for a really small opening to flip it right side out after sewing, but it worked. Eventually. That was some tight maneuvering. I couldn't figure out how to insert the strap (which was just 5 feet of 2-inch grosgrain ribbon) between the outer and lining fabrics with the zipper there, so I just attached it to the outside.

And now I have a small cross-body bag for my phone! Camp or no camp. Yay!

July journal

Just two projects this month: the seven mermaid tails for Peter Pan ...

... and continuing work on a decorative pennant garland (May journal #5) that I'm making for youth camp in 2 weeks.

The garland pieces will all be attached across the top by a (really, really long) strip of dark blue with stars on it. So far I have 60 triangles of various sizes, depending on the size of scrap fabric I was working with, and 40 circle flowers done. I'm using every piece of blue in my scrap bin that won't be added to a quilt because it's too scratchy, too flimsy, or I just don't really like the print. It's going to be outside at camp, so I'm using the less-loved fabric that I don't care about it getting trashed. (And for that matter, it's all scraps that were given to me when people were cleaning out their sewing - someone else's rejects!)

still insane

Two years ago, I went a little insane with making ten togas for the community theater's summer production of The Music Man (which I was in with 3 of my girls). We weren't able to do summer theater last year because it was the same week as our family reunion (it was Annie, which we were very sad to miss) but we are back at it this year! Peter Pan!

I am still insane, because this year, I declined taking an on-stage role and instead, I was backstage as the costume manager. I figured I needed to be backstage to help take care of my own kids - JK is technically too young to be in the production (the rule is 6/entering 1st grade - she's 5 and entering Kindergarten), but she was going to be dragged along to all the rehearsals anyway. As for me, well, I can sew or figure out costume planning, as already demonstrated with the togas, so that's where I ended up even before the end of the auditions.

JK arrived at the audition and marched straight up to the executive producer, Jane ...

JK, very firmly: I want to be the pink mermaid!
Jane: Oh? Is pink your favorite color?
JK: No. My favorite color is purple.
Jane: Don't you want to be the purple mermaid?
JK derisively: There aren't any purple mermaids. I want to be the pink mermaid.

Her role was pretty much cast in stone at that point. And since I'd already agreed to take care of costumes, I needed to figure out mermaid tails ... seven of them.

This is a small community theater that's all volunteers, so there's no big costume shop. Everyone is pretty much on their own, unless it's a specialty piece. My job was basically to decide (with Jane, and some consulting with the director) what the costume guidelines would be for the various groups - pirates, lost boys, islanders - and everyone was on their own to get a costume. The theater organization was able to rent an outfit for Captain Hook and a few of other pieces. We also raided the high school costume room (where we perform) for some more items. Lucky for us, the girl playing Peter Pan is a major cosplay fan, and had multiple Peter Pan costumes of her own - the director chose the one he liked best. And I'm traffic control for all of it.

Back to the mermaids ... specialty piece, so I made all the mermaid tails. Most was fabric pulled from my own boxes, but I did go buy PINK.

I looked up a couple of tutorials, but basically they were all made totally freehand and based on each girl's measurements. The body part goes all the way to their feet, with the fin separate. The fins have stiff interfacing between two pieces of fabric. I couldn't figure out how to enclose the seams and still be able to turn them on the curves, so I left them raw edge and finished them on the machine with a wide blanket stitch. I also sprayed everything really thoroughly with starch to cut down on fraying and unraveling, and used glitter glue on the edges. They're holding up pretty well.

Some of the girls did their own decorating with tulle, pearl beads, shells, and flowers. I worked on the ones for my own kids and a couple of the younger girls. Lots of glitter paint. Another mom covered them all in a glitter spray. They seriously look really awesome.

The mermaid scene is that they help Peter play a trick on Hook, when he "disguises" himself as a woman and covers his head with a lace shawl/veil. There's a duet between Peter and Hook that's really funny, "Oh My Mysterious Lady." My two littles are bottom right, and you can see that JK is indeed The Pink Mermaid.

Another costume I'm proud of is Tiger Lily - this one was all me. I decided that she'd wear a Polynesian sarong, and I made her flower crown.

(When TA and JK were not being mermaids, they were also islanders so they could run around and not have to sit the entire time.) 

So this is what we've done nonstop in the three weeks since getting back from vacation. And probably what we'll end up doing most summers for as long as we live here. It's long and tiring, but it's FUN. Theater is AWESOME.

P.S. Because I've been asked - yes, all 5 of my girls were in the play. SM was one of the Lost Boys. RG and JE were islanders. TA and JK were islanders and got the extra of the mermaids.

We match!

My Little Pony - Alder Skirt for Mommy?  Check.

My Little Pony - Maggie Mae for Cupcake?  Check. (Finish-A-Long #4)

My Little Pony - Baby Butterfly for Snowflake?  Check!

Check it out!  We all match!

Y is for yellow

I was not going to do a Y post with yellow - Mindy already did that. But for the second Thursday night in a row, I found myself with a sewing project that needed to be done RIGHT NOW.

Found out yesterday morning that Field Day was today at school, and the 2nd graders needed to wear yellow shirts. After some looking around, I figured out that the only yellow shirts for children that we own are all pajamas. But ... there's some yellow knit fabric ... and I did just get the Girl on the Go dress/shirt pattern from Oliver+S ... so at 10 pm last night, I made one.

Size 8, with the length at a size 10 because I like shirts to go a little further onto the hip. It took about 2 hours, because the knit was thin and kept rolling up on me, and I went reeeeeeally slow because I didn't want to warp it while it went through the machine.

Here's our fearless warrior girl ready to go to Field Day this morning!

I did a decorative stitch for binding the facing down, just for fun.

another way to use a quilt block

JK's friend BR is really into snails, which utterly confuses her parents. It's really hilarious. But they humored her at her birthday last week (she turned 5). They had a garden themed birthday party on Saturday and even gave her live snails as a pet for her gift.

A couple of nights before her party, I was randomly surfing quilting blogs and came across a snail quilt block. Stop. The. Presses. I am making this quilt block for BR and putting it on a tote bag for her gift. Now. I didn't buy the pattern, but eye-balled it, and this is how it ended up:

The snail itself is 6x8 inches. If I were to make this again, I would start with an 8-inch colored square instead of 6 to give more room for the seam allowances. The body started at 3 inches wide. The corner squares started at 2 inches, and then were sewn on the diagonal and the excess trimmed off. The smaller size worked great this time because BR is a tiny girl.

   

The block isn't quilted at all, but there is interfacing behind it. I used this tutorial from Simply Notable for the bag itself. It's a good sized bag for a small child for library books and carrying random toys around. I also experimented a little bit with the handles - I originally cut the strips at 2 1/2 inches wide like usual, and then folded them shut like bias tape. My addition was that I tucked a 1-inch wide strip of low-loft quilt batting into the fold before I sewed the strip shut. I like how that turned out - makes it softer to put over your shoulder! Planning to use that again with future bags.

Maggie Experiment

What I really wanted was another Mckenzie, since it is my favorite.  My little girl is NOT little, and she has grown out of that pattern. *sad face*  I was going to grade it up but to make it easier, since she still fits in the Maggie Mae just fine, I used this idea to make the Maggie look at bit more like the Mckenzie.  I even squared off the neckline a bit (sorry you can't see it very well!).

See that fuzzy lump in the upper left corner?

No, behind the bush. 

That's what we've seen of our new pandas so far!

I gave Cupcake a variety of fabric to choose from, and she chose the light pink/orange to go with the fabulous My Little Pony fabric that we got from Trina (picked out by JK and TA).  The pattern came together easily, but even though I used a size 10 it came out a little more snug than I expected.  She likes it though, and I've still got a 1/2 yard of MLP fabric to play with!  Woohoo!

New statues AND a new bridge at the zoo too!

My kid has a fabulous sense of style, yes?

This finishes #5 on this quarter's Finish-A-Long, not quite as planned, again.

Maggie Remix

Last spring I made Cupcake an Easter dress with the special lavender lamb fabric - because my kid loves sheep.  I chose my coordinating fabric poorly, and a few months later it ripped right across the bodice.  The precious sheep were untouched though so I set it aside to remake later.

It only took me nine months to get around to it so I'm glad that it still fits!  I was going to make it a shirt, but overestimated the length of the third fabric so when she tried it on she insisted it be a dress.  I scrambled to find a fourth coordinating fabric, but Cupcake couldn't be happier. And I think it is pretty stinkin' adorable too.

I think the reason I held off remaking this dress was finding the right fabric to pair with the lambs.  I wasn't going to go out of my way to find coordinating fabric because I generally avoid going to the fabric store and try not to buy fabric at all.  But I did recently bring home a fat quarter bundle of cute sheepy fabric (because sheep) that had just what I was looking for.  That grey fabric?  It says "baaaa" on it over and over!  And the bottom band used exactly one fat quarter of pink daisies.  And the main skirt (with tiny blue and purple flowers) came with lots of other yardage from a sweet old lady at church who doesn't sew anymore.  I love the gift of fabric!

I've loved Shwin Designs for a long time, and have made the Mckenzie pattern many many times.  But Cupcake has grown out of it (since at 5 she wears at least a 10, and it only goes to an 8) so I was happy to rediscover this pattern, the Maggie Mae,  Not only does this size 8 still fit (shocking since I made it last summer) it also goes up to a size 10! Yay!

And for the Finish-A-Long, turns out I didn't have enough of the pictured fabric to make into the skirt piece (even at a shirt length).  Those flowers became the pockets instead!

W is for WIP

WIP is "work in progress" and I am working really hard that this quilt does not stall out and become a UFO!

Here's the story so far of the Night Sky quilt, which has now been in process for 16 months. It's going slooooooow.

When I was making The Pink Babies quilt and said that JE would get it, SM told me what she wanted for her own quilt - blues and purples with stars, like the night sky, because she would be sleeping under it. Makes sense. My brainchild was to do star blocks in white with blue backgrounds, rather than colored stars on lighter backgrounds as is common. We named it Night Sky before I even started.

Then I went a little crazy. I did online searches for star blocks because I wanted a variety - this is totally a sampler quilt. I've made maybe a couple of duplicates, but in different sizes. Mostly everything is different, but mostly also half-square triangles. I guess that's the easier part.

This was block 1. I found it in a Google image search (no source), and mapped it out on graph paper. It's huge - 20 inches across. I call it a Woven Starburst.

I made the next 4 large blocks veeeerrrry slowly over time last spring. We were busy at the time with house projects - remodeling the kitchen and a lot of painting. Adam had his Summer of the Mental Health Crisis. But by September 2017, this is what I had:

P.S. This is NOT a "design wall." It's just some random space between the doorway and coat rack on the left, and the water heater on the right. I pinned up my blocks because I didn't want them getting lost or messed up. Plus, they're pretty! I like to look at them!

The three 8-inch stars on the left were Mindy's contribution, that she wanted to add when she saw the big blocks during our family reunion. The little teeny bear claw was randomly pieced together of trimmings from the big blocks. At this point, I diagrammed the whole thing out on graph paper to figure out how to set in the large blocks and where I needed to add filler of smaller blocks.

January 2018, a year after I started cutting fabric: the first of five sections was done! Working on my Christmas log cabin quilt was going pretty fast, because that's the same block over and over. But I purposefully set that aside to focus on Night Sky. This is still going slow because I keep finding more star blocks online! But section one (top left on the graph paper) is finally done!

I set a baseline target this year to sew at least 2 1/2 hours every week. I did pretty well in January and February, but this quilt has to share my time with a lot of other things, as you can see from my monthly journal reports. During those 2 months, I made four 4-inch blocks and three 10-inch blocks. Then in March, as soon as I finished SM's costume for the school play - seriously, 15 minutes later - I gashed my finger with my rotary cutter. There went over a week of no sewing time at all. Dang it! Night Sky was entirely neglected in March.

In April, I got myself sewing again with little projects of zip bags and the pillow, and I had to make JE's baptism dress. Now we're starting May, so I'm regrouping on the quilts. I'm shooting for at least one block per week/four per month on THIS quilt - any other quilt blocks (like the Squared Away block of the month, which I'm now behind on) are extra.