Sparkly Bear Toy

I was invited to a little girl's one-year birthday party.
Her room is all purple dandelions, so initially I chose a lavender fabric with a stars pattern, but it just seemed lacking.
So I laid it out on some sparkly flannel, with purple minky for the ears and tummy.
I liked the darker fabric better.

This is a pattern from the book One Yard Wonders, by Patricia Hoskins and Rebecca Yaker.

I used fabric for the eyes and nose, and embroidered the mouth.
I thought that was a safer choice for such a young girl.
The neck ribbon is also sparkly!

She liked it!

Fabric Baby Blocks

I have so many months of posts to catch up to.
Not having internet at home is cutting into my blogging.
I sewed these months ago but am just getting around to posting.

Anyway, remember those baby blocks I made for Ashlyn?
Her mom asked if I'd make baby Makenzie a set also.
I used the same Amy Butler pattern, but this time I stuffed the blocks with foam squares instead of stuffing.
An upholstery store was able to cut the squares for me--it was easier than I thought it was going to be!
The result is a stiffer block.
Both (stiff or soft blocks) are cute, it's just an individual preference.
Sadly this version of blocks didn't make it onto her birth announcements.
That was a pretty cool endorsement previously.

Here's the finished blocks, all eight of them!
(I should have stacked them up like a triangle. Oh well)

I was able to choose my own fabrics based on the baby's room decor, which this time was a purple dandelion theme.



I immediately thought of wishes, stars, and fairies, so I went with that idea, being mindful to match the grape color and keep additional colors to a minimum.
Who knew there were so many variations of the color purple?!
Funny, considering I made Ashlyn a fairy dress I guess I like fairies more than I realized.

I got this amazing Japanese Peter Pan fabric from Super Buzzy

Coupled with Pocket Pixie fabric by Alexander Henry, and a sparkly solid that coincidentally matched the letters on the wall


I included a couple squares of the bedding dandelion fabric for the blocks--something that made the mom cry (with joy), which really made me feel good at the baby shower.That gorgeous star fabric is Sheherazade, by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics (an Etsy purchase).

Each block contained one square of soft purple minky.

I like the idea of tactile blocks, so in addition to the minky I used a flannel.


I found some incredible photo realistic dandelion fabric on Spoonflower.



The front of each block included one letter of her name, made using a plastic stencil and the Sheherazade fabric.
I embellished each block with some dreamy ribbon I bought on Etsy, as well as fussy cuts from the Peter Pan fabric.
The letters were fused then stitched with a solid dark purple thread onto a solid lavendar linen (another luscious Japanese fabric).

Geez, I finally sewed something again

I finally dusted off my sewing machine and made a gift bag for a friend's birthday.
(Jen, if you're reading this, look away....at least until I give this to you this weekend!)



I first came across this gorgeous grape fabric by Martha Negley for Westminster Fabrics.
Jen is a wine aficionado, so I figured she might like this.
Initially I just thought I'd make a simple drawstring bag, but my projects always tend to get more complicated, so I decided to make the Slouchy Yard Bag (tutorial on Lazy Daisy Cottage).

That meant another trip to the fabric store to find more designs in the Autumn Medley fabric line, and I ended up liking this Bright Mix even more.
So the grape fabric that started me on this project became the lining

I got the grape vines in the green colorway (it's called Burst Twigs) for the interior pockets.

I decided to use a wide purple satin ribbon for the handles.
I'm hoping maybe she can reuse the bag for light shopping.

Inside, my favorite gift to give friends right now: a soy candle from Bottlehood.
Bottlehood is a San Diego company that takes trash (bottles from restaurants, bars, etc) and cuts them into reusable bowls, vases, pendants, goblets, lamps, and candles.
They also make flattened bottles into cheese boards and spoon rests.
Eventually they hope to even turn glass into countertops.

They use unusually shaped bottles, and/or bottles with permanent designs (etched designs versus paper labels).
Most of the bottles are rather manly designs, like Stone Pale Ale's Arrogant Bastard.
But I love the harder-to-find Dolce wine bottle for feminine gifts, with its gold swirls and cascading grapes
I love supporting recycled projects, mom and pop businesses, and local businesses.
Bottlehood sells at San Diego Farmer's Markets, and also have a shop on Etsy.

Homemade Pillowcase

I made a pillowcase for a little boy for Christmas, but just gave it to him recently, so I can finally blog about it.

His bedroom is mostly brown and bright orange, so when I came across this fabric at the San Diego Quilt Show last year, I just had to buy it.
Then vendor had complimentary fabrics arranged in kits along with a pattern, but I can't link the vendor since she didn't label the kit at all.
She had miscellaneous prints and colorways, but I gravitated to the orange in the fun robot print.



I used the pillowcase as a gift bag for small toys.
He got another stuffed toy snake, a train whistle, a nose flute (!), and a creature from the Black Lagoon-style set of swimming goggles.

I'd been away from my sewing machine for so long, it felt good to brush the dust off.

Ashlyn's Dress: Continued

Yesterday I mentioned that I had to cover up a hole in the front of the bloomers made by my wandering seam ripper.
Applique wasn't going to work (too close to the center seam), and a ribbon wasn't going to work (too centered), and a ruffle wasn't going to be in the right place either.
I considered making three-dimensional flowers from the bloomers fabric, but chances are they wouldn't look nice without ironing, and that's a hassle.

So I bought some pink embroidery floss and the plan was to make random French knots.
I figured the knots would cover the one tiny hole, while echoing the polka dots in the fairies print.
I considered metallic silver, but figured the regular cotton would be easier to use.
Unfortunately, the tiny hole was larger than I realized.
Hmmm....now what?

I took yet another print by Michael Miller, Apple Morning Fairies--the same fairies as the skirt fabric, but larger, with green leaves and blossomsI randomly cut out leaves and blossoms, fused them with Steam a Seam all around the bloomers in line with the little hole, then used the tiniest stitch on my machine to stitch each applique.

Ridiculously time consuming, but I think it's cute.
The leaves bring green into the bloomers, and tie the entire design together.
You'll see.

Tomorrow: the finished dress.

Pillow Repair...aka, the dog ate my pillow

Sometimes Reese and Dylan's mom asks me to stop by when she and her husband have long work days, so the boys won't be alone, and so they can play.
Recently, I walked into their house and burst out laughing--
feathers were everywhere.
Far worse than these photos captured

Reese is about the best dog on the planet, but sometimes the temptation to chew things is just too great.
He has destroyed a brand new comforter, a remote control, pillows, etc.
On this day, he chose one of the silk pillows his parents brought back from Thailand.
Oooh, not good.

I decided to repair it for them.

Before, there were two matching pillows on this couchOn the damaged pillow, one corner was completely ripped off, the fabric a shred on the floor.
I cut the pillow down below the ripped portion, and saved any scraps.
I removed the liner pillow, dumped out all the feathers, re-stitched and refilled it
I see repeating circles often in Asian designs, so I used any scraps to cover the bite marks with two sizes of circles.
I concentrated on turning the grain lines so the light would hit the circles differently than the background.
I also concentrated on balancing the size and placement of the circles and rectangles.
Now this travel souvenir still matches its partner, it's just a bit smaller
(click on images to enlarge)

Ashlyn

It really made me feel good that my co-worker included the blocks I made in her birth announcement.
Cool, huh?

Soft Fabric Baby Blocks

I was invited to a baby shower of one of my co-workers, and decided to make her fabric baby blocks.
I already knew that mom-to-be Amber likes Amy Butler fabrics (I made the ring bearer pillow for her wedding from Amy Butler's mod pillow pattern, and we've discussed AB fabric designs before), I knew she is going to be having a girl and naming her Ashlyn, and I knew the baby's room is lime green and pink paisley.

So first off I bought an Amy Butler Lotus fabric: Star Paisley in lime

And Amy Butler Daisy Chain Flowers, and Jasmine
plus I already had some pink and green fabrics left over from my entry for the Amy Butler purse challenge.

I found this tutorial online by Motherhood for Dummies with this cute idea to make puzzle blocks
and this tutorial on Whipstitch with more info

but the most informative how-to was the tutorial on Flickr by London Mummy
Though I didn't use the idea this time, one of the comments suggested to stuff the cubes with strips of plastic grocery bags (the crinkling sound is fun), and to use a cat toy instead of a jingle bell inside, if you want the cube to rattle (less choking hazard).

All the tutorials claimed this was a really easy project, but it took me FOREVER to make these.
I used a magnifying lamp to handstitch the last opening closed, using tiny stitches that are barely visible.
The hand stitching took me over four hours alone.

I decided not to make these rattle, so did not include a bell inside.
I also decided, rather than puzzle blocks, that I'd do alphabet blocks, and I'd spell out her name.
That meant I needed to make six cubes, so I cut out 36 five-inch squares in several fabrics (I used 13 different fabrics).

Oops, didn't spell it correctly here!
(sorry the image is so small. Click on any image to enlarge)

I made sure the placement of the fabrics was unique, with especially nice prints on each end of the first and last block, as well as on the top side of all six.
Initially I wanted to make at least two quilt blocks, but I just didn't have the time.


I chose each background on the alphabet side as pale pink, with the letter fabric the green paisley print.
I couldn't find any cute letter designs in coloring books or quilt books, so I had to settle for a standard two-inch stencil that I found at Michael's.

I fused each (fussy cut) letter in place, then used a small zigzag (from my new machine!) to adhere it in place.
I chose a variegated thread that appeared pink and green, but when I used it I discovered it's actually orange, blue, green, and purple.
I actually still really liked it, so I used it throughout.
Go figure!


I added three trims to the alphabet side--a velvet ribbon, a polka dotted ribbon, and a pink and green rick rack.
That seemed too plain, so I embellished each letter with fabric floral motifs that I fused, then stitched.






I think they turned out really cute!
Unfortunately, I lost my invitation so therefore didn't have the address of the shower, so didn't attend :(.
I'll give these to her later.