Labels attached - the Real finish

A quilt is not really finished until the label is sewn. 

This week I finished David's quillow and Liam's, too.

Liam's was gifted in 2014 but I neglected to put a label on it.

Now his quillow is Really finished.

Both have a boyish transportation vibe.

Liam's was the first quillow I attempted and was started from a kit.

David's was the fifth in my quillow series. ;-)

These days I like to use width of fabric strips instead of fat quarters.

A couple of shots of them folded.

Here they are turned into pillows.

Post Script-

Hot Fingers are finished, too.

Ready to gift to my co-workers.

Off to celebrate the boys' birthdays!

Hope you have a fun week end.

Janice

Trying out a new machine with an old pattern

Dearest daughter is moving to NYC and isn't taking this sewing machine. So, I thought I would try it out. I had it serviced and now it is ready to sew!

I'm making some Hot Fingers as thank you gifts for people who have helped me this year in my new job. I love this colorful flower fabric. 

I am loving my succulent flower bed. 

Here are the flowers in the early morning.

And here they are later in the day. 

I guess opening and closing helps the flowers last longer.

Are you enjoying the blog hop over at Crazymom's? 

I am inspired to work on my scrap mountain.

Smocked Pink Bubble

Finally finished this little bubble outfit. I haven't smocked in years but thought Ava needed something smocked by Gran. I bought a finished outfit that just needed the smocking. I think it is easier to start from scratch. I had to ask a friend who smocks a lot of baby gifts to give me a refresher on how many threads to use. After that it was a quick finish-even when I took out stitches and changed thread color.

Now I hope Ava hasn't grown too big to wear this. We'll see today since we are traveling this morning to Memphis to see her and her parents.

In other news - I bought some new succulents for my doll bed garden. And the one on the lower left bloomed over night! I love happy fuschia flowers.

Checking over at Crazy Mom's to see what you have been sewing.

In-between projects

Last week I finished David's quillow and now I'm sort of between projects. Lots of things are on my to-make list. So, what did I do?

Decided to use some of the cute flannel I have collected to make ahead some baby gifts.

Two flannel receiving blankets and one giant 9 patch with a flannel back.

Okay, my selections for the 9 patch are a little odd but in my mind they go together.

The heart fabric has lady bugs. The stripe has red, lime green, and gray with a primary school alphabet. The corner fabric has most of the same colors, so why not? 

The backing has the repeated question, "How many bugs can you count?" I figure that connects to the lady bugs.

If mom doesn't like the combination on the 9 patch side, she can turn it over to the soft flannel back.

Long week end here. What are you sewing?

Finished David's Quillow

'

David's first birthday is soon. I wanted to finish his quillow.

First I pin basted the batting, back, and front. I use my dining table and a cardboard cutting board.

Batting smoothed.

Backing placed on top of batting.

Front placed right sides to backing.

Pin basted along the outer edges because I'm just going to sew around the outside, then turn.

I put a few pins in the middle to keep things from shifting.

Then I sewed around the edge and turned thru an opening left on one end.

I quilted in the ditch and a few diagonals across the yellow middle section.

Here is the front made from strips including some gray minky dots.

Here is the back with the pillow pocket sewn in place.

Fold the long sides.

Bring the top down to the bottom.

Fold again and pull into the pocket.

Voila! David's quilt/pillow is done.

The pillow back.

I'm please with this finish. I will sew a label on this and the one I made for Ava.

Now all three grands have quillows made by Gran.

At Last-Ava's Quillow Is Finished

First, a little detour by way of my favorite fabric shop...

Mr. M. gave me a gift card to the Cotton Blossom for Valentines Day-he's so thoughtful.

So I bought batting and thread. I just don't have room for any more fabric. Batting for a twin is enough for two quillows. Guess what!?! I have two quillows to make.

These are some bunny ear drawstring bags I made this week that I saw on Sew She Can. I'm going to make some more and give them to my choir kids for Easter. I put two finger puppets in each bag.

Now to the main event. I pin basted Ava's princess quillow.

It is sewn and turned, then quilted. The projecting piece is the pocket.

Here is a view of the pocket before stitching on the backing.

Here is the applique' side of the pocket. (Have I told you that I don't like applique?)

After quilting 4" straight lines down the length. I also stitched in the ditch across the width.

Some close ups of her name. Fused, blanket stitched, and straight stitched. 

Pocket is sewn in place.

Here is how it looks folded into a pillow.

The backing fabric is so cute. Hope she likes it.

Oh, opps. Didn't show you the front. I posted it here back in June of last year. I stopped sewing on it because we didn't know her name. My son and DIL wanted to keep it a secret until she was born. Now she is a big 6 month old. This may be a present for her first birthday.

Linking up with Crazy Mom. Yea! 

Uno zip bag

I'm sort of between projects. I have 3 or 4 things I need to work on but can't get motivated.

So I took at little look around the blog-o-sphere trying to find inspiration.

I found the 52 weeks of zipper bags at Little Crispy here.

I bought a new pack of Uno cards for the kids at school to play when their work is finished. The first zip bag shown on Little Crispy was perfect to hold a pack of cards. I downloaded the directions and looked through my stash for some suitable fabric.

I found a fat quarter of this homespun type fabric. I've had it forever and never found the right project. I had a red zipper in my stash, too.

The lining is some of my favorite fabric from my very first quilt.

It was a super easy bag to make. Maybe my dry spell has been broken. 

Next week is spring break and I hope to get some sewing time. 

Ever need a little push to get sewing?