Birthday sewing

Heavy photo overload today.

I have finished two dresses, a hat, and a princess castle play set for the birthday girl.

I have one more dress cut out and should be able to finish it this week end.

First, look at the cute buttons. These are recycled from a dress.

I only bought a half yard of the mouse fabric and it was just enough.

The lining is cute print of little houses, sooo I'm calling this 'Mouse House' dress.

I think it can be worn as a summer dress or a top with leggings and knit shirt.

Next, a reversible hat that matches the bicycle dress. 

Little girl picked the fabric and the dress pattern.

I bought some sweet lace for the ruffle.

And here is the princess castle play set.

I bought the panel to make this when little girl was a baby.

The longer I waited to make it, the more I was afraid to construct it.

The photos are in scrambled order. 

Inside the castle there is a bed for the princess and a wardrobe for her clothes.

The princess and her clothes are backed with flannel.

There is a many step process to finish these items.

Below you can see some untrimmed gowns and hat.

Here is the princess, her friend the frog and her gowns next to the play set.

She has quite a selection of things to wear.

Here she is tucked into bed with her frog prince!

Showing the flannel on the back of a hat.

I used this flannel as lining in a jacket I made little girl.

Wonder if she will recognize it?

Another view.

Here is the front of the castle.

Another

The back

I signed this side in permanent ink with the date to document who made it and when.

This was a fun break from quilting.

What are you working on?

Garden Party and other finishes

Garden Party pillow sham version is finished!

After working so long on another scrappy quilt, I decided I needed a quick finish

for the Bonnie Hunter class I took a few days ago.

This will be a useful pillow sham to match another quilt made with these fabrics.

It took 12 posey blocks and 6 path blocks plus 10 half paths and 4 quarter paths.

I quilted it just like I would have if it had been a full size - stitching in the ditch 

on my sewing machine.

I love the trimming step so much.

I stitched the edge just to keep it from stretching.

Zip! The excess is gone.

Neatly trimmed and ready for a pillow back.

I made a simple envelope back.

Here is the inside quilting pattern from stitching around the blocks.

It made one continuous line and came back to the starting point.

How neat is that?

I decided to bind it just like a quilt.

Here is the binding before ironing.

Made from scraps.

TaDa... Bound and finished.

Sewed binding to the back and top-stitched down on the front.

Ready to share Monday at quilt guild.

Tueday I joined a small quilt group - Allison Wells Quilters.

They meet every week and I happened to attend their program meeting.

Each person was given a zip bag of scraps and instructions for making a block.

Here is mine.

Next project - birthday dresses for Miss Ava.

I hope to make 3 dresses before her birthday.

She liked the pink fabric and chose the blue dress on the middle pattern.

I'm using eyelet for the ruffle.

The green stripe will be the sailor dress with a white collar.

If there is enough fabric left, I will use the pink and green for a reversible top.

In other news, my sewing space got an update with the new shelves on the left. 

I love sewing here with the added light from the window.

Hope you have a great week end.

Thanks for the comments, Wendy.

I love linking up with your party.

Bonnie Hunter Class

Wednesday I took a Bonnie Hunter class at the Old Man River Quilt Fest in Vicksburg.

I decided to make a pillow sham using leftover fabric from a quilt I finished but haven't used.

Below are my blocks. I need the four corners and then will add borders to make it the correct size.

Below is the finished quilt. It was a block of the month at a local quilt shop.

The pattern is Jamestown meets Ramblin Rose - log cabin blocks and sampler blocks.

We had a black cat who liked to sleep on this bed. I didn't want to have black cat hair on this, so I didn't use the quilt.

The colors are not today's hot colors but I still like the quilt.

There were sooo many scraps leftover.

I will have enough to make two pillow shams.

I want to get the pillow sham finished before our next Jackson Quilters meeting.

Hoping for time and motivation to get it done.

Flimsy Finish

Yea!!!! My version of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery Quilt is finished.

I added two rows and changed the final border.

I like it.

I mitered the corners of the final border.

The green triangle border was a bear to sew. 

I think the borders will be wavy because of the stretchy triangles.

Another view. I think this is twin size or a very large lap quilt.

Here are the reasons I took some time off quilting.

Wish I could see them more but trying to enjoy the short time we have together.

It is hot, hot, hot.

Bonnie Hunter is coming to town.

Tomorrow I will take one of Bonnie's classes. 

After all the piecing I've been doing, I have decided to make something small

from the blocks I finish in her class.

Happy sewing!

Holding pattern

A houseful of company is not my ideal sewing environment. So this past week I enjoyed children and grandchildren and set the sewing on pause.

I added one side of the triangle border before company arrived.

The border hasn't been pressed so it wouldn't lay flat. See a big toe keeping one corner down. :-D

Can I just say I have made enough pieced bits for this quilt? 

I bought several pieces of yardage to audition for a final border for this quilt.

It came down to the paisley below...

or the blue flowered at the bottom.

The whole quilt is so orange that everyone agreed that it needed cooling off. The blue will be the final border. My daughter saw the original Good Fortune quilt on Bonnie's blog and said it really needed the pieced border. But she's not the one who will finish it. I'm going with the blue flowers.

School is starting this week. Now retirement gets real!