Baby outfit and other finishes

September means Spider Lilies and MY birthday.

These are blooming at my parents' house.

My brother was in town this past week working on their yard.

One day we will be selling the place but right now we are just 

maintaining it. There is an overwhelming amount to be done.

Next week end my DIL's friends are throwing a baby 'sprinkle'.

I guess that is what is done now for a second baby.

Because of Covid 19 the party will be shared online.

I opted to Zoom in for health reasons.

I made this little cotton knit outfit for him.

The top has velcro dots for closure but I thought 

buttons were needed to cover the stitching.

Below are soccer ball buttons, choice #1.

The photos uploaded randomly, so here is the whole outfit.

Pants, top, and bandana bib.

The plain white buttons were choice #2.

Below is a look at the velcro dots on the top.

Here are all the items I sent for the 'sprinkle'.

The MSU bibs were made last week end.

The books are some family favorites.

Another view of the top and velcro dots.

Three bibs from a free pattern.

This is a view of the top without buttons.

The stitching doesn't show here but is visible and kind of messy.

Flannel receiving blankets.

This is my usual baby gift and my grandson (due in 3 weeks)

needs one made just for him.

What are you working on?

 

Bits and Pieces

Teaching one college class is taking more time than I thought it would.

I did manage to make two bandana bibs for Baby Boy who will be here mid October.

I found a free pattern online and quickly made these two bibs.

I bought new collegiate fabric at my local fabric shop.

Both bibs are reversible.

One has Minky on the reverse side.

I used some leftover Minky scraps.

I am working on a cotton knit top and pants in 6 month size.

Will share when I get them finished. 

There was just enough knit fabric left to make a bib.

I'm still learning to sew on knit fabric.

Crossed fingers.

Have a good week!

 

Sunday Picnic for Ava

I saw the fabric panel for Sunday Picnic in a fabric catalog and had to buy it for Ava.

I worked on it this past week.

There are two frogs that are part of the panel but I'm saving those for another occasion.

Two plates, two napkins, and a tablecloth.

Easy and quick to finish.

A couple of chicken legs.

Strawberries

Sandwich fixings - bread, tomato slices, cheese, lettuce, ham.

Watermelon for dessert

The basket was a little tricky.

I used double sided fuse stiff interfacing.

I didn't want to sew through the thicknesses of interfacing, so

I made the basket and inserted the bottom. Fused it in place,

them inserted the sides.

After all four sides were in place I fused them.

Very pleased with the finish.

Two milk cartons didn't get in this post but have been shared on Instagram.

Ava's birthday is next week.

Hope she will like going on a picnic with her stuffed animal friends.

 

Small finishes

Just some photos of small finishes since last posting.

Two soft books with cute bunny ears.

I love how the ears work on each page. See photos above.

Series of photos below are new origami masks using T-shirt fabric for ear loops.

The origami mask pattern is free from See Kate Sew, I think.

The ear loops are made from one inch strips of cotton knit cut about 8 inches long.

After threading the knit through the side fold I zigzagged the ends together.

The knit has enough stretch to work like elastic but is so much softer.

Next up - Sunday Picnic soft toys for Ava's birthday.

Look for photos next time.

Have a great week. Stay safe.

 

Summer Garden 2020

A couple of weeks ago I started three small embroidery kits from DMC.com. The designed were based on children's books illustrated by Tamar Nahir-Vanai. 1) Home Sweet Home 2)Nature Girl 3)Shy Fairy.

Last week I auditioned fabric for sashing the pieces into a wall hanging. Summer Garden Butterflies was the winner.

Each embroidery square was backed with a square of white cotton. Three inch sashing was sewn to the sides, then each top. Finally sashing was sewn on the bottom.Below is the flimsy finished.

Quilted and bound. It needs another press but I'm happy with the finish.

Triangles were sewn on the top corners for hanging. The quilting was simply stitching in the ditch around the embroidery squares. I might add hand quilting in the sashing later.The label is ready for documentation. I sewed the label and hanging triangles when I did the binding.The binding was sewn back first then wrapped around to the front.

One more shot of the finished wall hanging.

I don't know how to get rid of the underlining on parts of this post. Getting ready to drive to see grandsons, so I will have to leave for now.

Have a great week!

Embroidery finishes

Last week I posted about buying 3 kits from DMC.com.

I finished them!

Two were embroidery kits and one was a cross stitch kit. 

All three were designs by the same artist.

There were only 3 stitches used in the embroidery kits - running stitch, back stitch, and lazy daisy.

Most of the rest of this post shows the different fabric I auditioned to sew them into a wall hanging.

I bought the fabric above in Rome, Italy, on a trip in 2014.

The fabric below was left over from a window treatment finished a few years ago.

Some of my Liberty of London from Italy and London.

More Liberty 

and more liberty

We shopped at the Liberty store on a trip to London in 2005.

I have been looking for the right project for these precious pieces.

This was the last kit finished -Shy Fairy.

I asked my artistic hubby to help me choose the fabric for the wall hanging.\

He chose this butterfly print from my stash.

I was leaning toward this one, too.

Here are the three pieces with the sashing fabric.

I plan to sew white fabric behind the embroidery pieces for stability.

The cream fabric on the left will be the backing for the hanging.

Look for a finish next week.

One last photo...

A friend is going to be a grandmother soon.

I made a little flannel receiving blanket for the new baby and I always give a book with a blanket.

Hope you have a great week!

Detour sewing

My sewing took a detour this week. I thought I would get back to My Small World quilt but instead I went in a couple of different directions.

First I made some doll clothes for granddaughter Ava.

She asked for Barbie clothes on her last visit, so I made these three.

She also wanted a new dress for her baby doll and picked out the fabric from my stash.

I made a dress and diaper and used some decorative stitches instead of lace.

The stitches are barely visible on the hem of the dress.

I was motivated to delve into some storage totes that haven't been touched in years. In one tote of fabric I found the doll dress below. It needed a closure so I used some of my velcro stash. Another quick finish.

While I explored my stash I found some pillow covers that I had put away.

And there were two bags of batting scraps that I had collected from the leftovers of finished quilts.

Then I found two strange pillowcases that would never be used.

So I took the scraps and pillowcases and re-sized them into the two floor pillows shown above.

So proud of finding a new use for these and not adding to a landfill somewhere.

The last detour was an online buying trip to DMC.com.

I bought three embroidery kits to work on while I watch TV.

Each kit contains the fabric, pattern, thread, and needle.

I mistakenly thought the kits would have embroidery hoops, too.

I gave my medium size hoop to my daughter. I found that hoops are in short supply in my area but I did find one and have started the kit on the right.

Here you can see the contents of the kit.

The thread tin was included for free. I have filled it with my pearl cotton balls.

The kit on the left is cross-stitch. I will find out if my eyesight is better for embroidery or cross-stitch.

This last photo shows three needlepoint kits for kids. I'm hoping to interest Liam, David, and Ava in trying this. The yarn is included and already cut to the correct length. All they will have to do is match the color yarn to the color on the fabric. Lots of kids love doing 'sewing cards'. I think these will be much more satisfying. We will see.

How was your week?