Zachary's Bucket Hat

I recently bought (mostly with swagbucks) a copy of Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson. It has several items in it that I'd like to try.



First project was the Bucket Hat. It was an easy and fun project. The explanations were great and illustrations helpful.

Yes, he's trying to eat a rock. And yes, he's outside with a t-shirt, diaper and boots. We're getting pretty casual with our 5th.

And yes, that's blue felt on his mouth. The rock he was trying to eat was coloured by his sisters.

Love the detail on the brim of the hat. It looks more professional and it makes the brim sturdier.

I love that it's double sided.

Zachary likes it too. He says "at" for "hat." I love the learning to talk age.

Cute bibs

These are all given away now except for one but I thought I'd share them with you. A friend and I got together a couple of times to make them using Alisa's pattern. It was a lot of fun. Digging around in our fabric drawers/piles and making little quilts - sound good doesn't it!

The one thing we changed after making a few was to cut the bias binding at 2" instead of 2.5".  We just liked the binding a bit narrower.

I hope you're all having a good week!

Burda 9545

I like to go back and forth between quilting and sewing. Right now I'm onto sewing again.



This was a pretty easy pattern to follow. I find the sizing a little small. I made a size 8 for Deanna who is 6 1/2 years old. It's a bit tight. I lengthened the dress a bit by adding the ruffle on the outer layer and the lace on the under layer.



I also find the sleeves a little odd looking. Maybe because it's on the small side?



Deanna loves the dress though.



I'd like to make it again, this time View A.



Thanks for all the comments on my kids birthday. We had a good day. Their shirts are both appliqued.

2 + 4

Two years ago on Carolin's birthday, Zachary was born. So yesterday they turned 2 + 4. At this age it's kind of handy. We have a 2 for 1 birthday party. When they get to school it could become kind of tricky.

I didn't have a lot of time to make things for their birthday. (I had big plans.) I did manage to get their shirts finished. Super easy and so fun!

I also make a pillowcase for Carolin but I didn't get a photo. She loves it!

A two-sided cake. As I mentioned on a Food Friday post a while back, I am not much of a cake decorator. This is about as fancy as I get.

And, just in case you are curious about it, their due dates were 20 days apart. Carolin was 11 days late and Zachary was 9 days early. Carolin was 9 lbs, 8 oz, Zachary was 6 lbs 9 oz. Night and day difference!

Saturday's Accomplishments

It's may not sound like much but we got all our cutting done on Saturday and an itty bitty bit of sewing :)  We had no idea how many hours it would take to cut the fabrics for twin quilts!!  All 567 of my pieces took 6 or 7 hours and then Annette's (816 pieces - all different widths and lengths) took another 5 - with both of us cutting at the end.  It was a great day despite having to lower our expectations.

Here are some pictures of the day:

 All my pieces cut - very satisfying!

Pretty salvages

 Annette's organization (good thing there were no little people around!)

 And the yummy coffee that kept us going :)

Food Friday

There are many chocolate chip recipes out there so this is for those who are still searching for the best one. In all honesty, I'm not super picky about chocolate chip cookies. Cookie + Chocolate = Yummy!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 F. Mix sugars, butter/margarine and egg. I like to mix mine for a long time. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. I flatten mine just a bit. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies. Unless you have 'helpers'. Then it's about 3 dozen.

Eat and enjoy!

Did you bake this week?

Planning...

I'm very excited for an all day "quilt-a-thon" on Saturday!!  I'm going to a friends house for the day, without kids, and I get to quilt all day - what a novelty!  Her husband will take their kids out of the house for the day too so we'll have uninterrupted sew time!  Yes...I'm really looking forward to it :)

So, I'm planning to start, and see how far I get, with a quilt for our 3rd child, Tessa.  I bought this pack of fat quarters last summer and plan on using that and making a log cabin quilt.  It's "Cottage Charm" by Heather Mulder Peterson.

I'll be making them with one half of the block warm and the other cool coloured.

I searched online for a pattern to make it simple for myself but I could really only find instructions for making the individual blocks.  So here's my block plan with sizing for the pieces:

 And then I figured out how I could get the most out of my fat quarters.  I have just enough for a 60x90 twin quilt!  (that is as long as I've figured it out right...)

Fun, fun!! 

Potholder Pass 7

After observing so many different flickr swaps I finally joined one myself. The Potholder Pass was started by Amy and it's in its seventh round! I was kind of nervous but I think my potholders turned out fairly well.



My partner didn't supply much direction other than that she likes 'colour.' The theme for the swap was "anything but square."



I used some of my leftover Freebird fabric. Is it colorful enough do you think? Would you be happy with these potholders?



I had intentions of making something else to go with it but I am kind of short on time right now. So I bought a couple of little things at Hamels today.

I told you I'd be making more potholders!

Log Cabin Pillow

A while back I posted this as a block. I finally finished up to cover my couch pillow.



Did some fun echo quilting on it. I really need to try my hand at different quilting techniques.



I think I'll be scarce around here for awhile. Keeping my house tidy and clean all. the. time. takes up most of my time right now. (It's for sale. Want to buy a house?)

Can I have your opinion?

Time to let you know that we're exited to be expecting our 5th child to join us this September, Lord willing! With this of course brings a new wardrobe and I need your opinion on what could be a thrifty thread :)

Here's the before picture. A long jean skirt that I never wear anymore:

 

And here's the transformation! I cut the waistband off, dipping it in the front and put a stretch knit "convertable" band on it.

I cut it off using the existing hem as the new hem and that's the part I think looks kinda silly - but maybe not...

 

And just to compare, this is the one I bought (but still has the tags on):

So...am I saving myself a pretty penny or does it look goofy?

It's a Sleep Sack

Thanks for all the guessing, ladies. I had fun reading all of your guesses. Thanks to you, I now have even more things on my to-do list. :-)



I used to make sleep sacks out of pre-quilted fabric. They were easy and warm. Kind of like wearing a quilt. I can't find that type of fabric anymore so I decided to make my own. It sort of takes the 'easy' out of the project, but it was so much fun!



This is a very overdue baby gift for a friend. I know she will appreciate it because with her last baby she borrowed my sleepsacks and loved them.



I decided to try out some new (to me) quilting and I really like it. I need to work on it a bit more to perfect it, but I sure had fun with it.



It's fun using up bits of fabric. I had this lilac fabric in my stash for about a year. It was originally for another project that didn't happen. The inside is a thrifted white cotton sheet. Perfect for sleeping in don't you think?



The sleep sack is a little bit stiff, but after a few washings will soften right up.

Thanks for reading our little blog!

Just a little side note: I ran into my high school sewing teacher today. She retired the year I graduated so that makes her 80 years old! She still looks the same to me. (She always looked old to me...) She was thrilled that I still sew. I asked if she still sews and she told me that not a day goes by that she doesn't touch her sewing machine. Wow! I want to be like that. I told her that I quilt now too and she said she doesn't have the patience for quilting! Really??! She taught kids how to sew for many, many years. She must have great patience. It was neat to see her again, as the beginnings of my love of sewing started in her class room.

Can you guess...

What these three pieces might become? Humour me and take a guess, okay? Just for fun.

String Block Tutorial

by Alisa and Benjamin


Start by cutting strips of fabric in random widths. Ours were between 1.25 and 2.5 inches. This is a great way to use of all your scraps. Also cut an 8 inch (or which ever size you would like your block to be) square from white cotton. We used a thrifted cotton sheet.

You are ready.

Lay your first strip diagonally across the square, right side up.

Then choose your second strip and lay it right side down on top of the first strip. Make sure one of the sides matches up. (They will probably be different widths.)

Now stitch down the matched up side with a 1/4 inch seam. I have a 1/4 inch foot on my sewing machine, but for a block like this the 1/4 inch seam allowance isn't overly important.

Press the seam open.

Sew on another strip, press it open. Repeat until you have covered up the white block.

It should look something like this when you are finished.

The back will look like this.

Trim off the excess so you are back to your 8 inch square.

And you are finished! Make more. Stitch them together to make a quilt. Have fun using up your scraps!