Thread, chosen

The cat approves.  

Sandwiched

Finally basted the layers together tonight.  I had hoped to get it done over the holiday weekend but my effort to patch a small piece of batting to make the perfect fit, I stupidly cut into a panel of my backing.  Luckily I had extra backing and I was able to cut out the bad part and fix it.  Pretty sure I'll be the only one that can tell where the mistake was after it's finished.

I need to check out a few colors of thread for the front but then I'm ready to quilt. I'm thinking blue or grey for the top and red for the back.  

And for reference, I'm going to use this idea for straight line quilting from Piece and Press.  

A picture of the back before I accidentally cut into it.  

Teachers gifts

I got these finished on Wednesday night and we stuffed them full of notes and cards.

I have to make two more bags for M's teachers and finish them by next Friday night.  The fabric and interfacing pieces are already cut out. I just need to sew them up. While the draw string bags are bigger, they come together a lot faster than the gathered clutches.

My first big quilt

I snapped this on my phone the other day. The quilt had 4 columns of blocks along with sashings and two outer borders. It's huge!!!

Felt fruit and veggie quiet book

I made a quiet book for another nephew who is celebrating his first birthday this week.

I pinned an image from someone's Etsy shop but it's no longer for sale.  I studied the couple of images from the listing and I think I came up with a good replica.  I loved working on this since it didn't have a tutorial.

I used felt cut to 5 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches.  Unlike the blue quiet book, I was going to use both sides of the felt .  One side could be sewn right on to the felt and the opposite side would have the fruit of veggie image placed on to some scrap fabric.  That way you can cover up the stitching from the back side by the larger scrap square from the front.  Sew a line 1/4 inch around all the edges of the square.  This will save your fingers from getting too close to the iron when you're pressing the edges under.  Fold on the sewing line and then press.

The scraps were cut 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 inches but I think I'll make them 5 X 5 next time.  I had to be careful I wasn't going to sew the edges into my "binding" after everything was done.




Background scrap
Red felt
White felt
Black embroidery floss
Brown ribbon
Green rick rack

Cut all your pieces and sew on some black embroidery floss seeds on to the white inside. Then attach the white felt to the red felt, cut some ribbon and fold it in half, tucking the ends under the red felt, then sew the apple to the backing fabric.





For the pear
Yellow cotton scrap
White felt
Black embroidery floss
Brown satin ribbon
Green satin ribbon

Again, sew the seeds to the white felt then the white felt to the yellow cotton. Tuck the ribbon ends under the cotton. Here's where I would suggest using the fusible web to attach the cotton to the felt. Zig zag stitch on to the felt.

The radish
Marroon felt
Green satin ribbon
Background square

Tuck the ends of the ribbon between the felt radish and the background fabric. Sew the radish on to the background fabric.


For the peas
Green felt
Green scrap fabric
Green embroidery floss

Sew the felt peas to the scrap fabric. Then fuse and zig zag stitch to the felt. Add some green embroidery vines.

Carrot
Orange felt
Green rick rack
Background fabric. 

Fold the rick rack ends between the carrot and background fabric. Attach the carrot to the back ground fabric.



Watermelon
White felt
Green felt
Pink scraps
Black embroidery floss

Add the seeds to the pink scrap. Sew the white felt ring to the green felt. Sew the white felt to the edge of the pink scrap and then zig zag stitch to the felt.

Eggplant
Purple felt
Green felt
Green rick rack
Background square

Sew the green felt cap to the purple felt. Tuck the rick rack between the eggplant and the back ground square and sew together.





Last page, lemon
Orange felt
Yellow felt

Sew the yellow felt to the orange felt and add some stitching to resemble the lemon segments. Sew the lemon to the felt and the lemon juice drops to the felt.

Arrange all the fruits and veggies on background squares to they cover all the stitches from the design sewn directly on to the felt.  I lined up most of my squares on the outside edges of the book so i could make sure when I sewed the pages together, I wouldn't catch any of the square in my seam

Fold the book in half and sew using a 1/2 inch seam.  I went back and forth a few times at both ends to ensure the stitches wouldn't come out.  

5 more blocks

I'm so close to being done with M's blocks. I've got some extra cut up squares and rectangles and even three less than perfect blocks I'm going to add as part of the design on the backing. My assistant is going to come up with a draft of the pattern in a few more days. It won't be much longer. I had hoped i could talk the little guy into letting me quilt it with an all over orange peel pattern but he wants straight lines instead.

Car caddy information

Here's the link again for the tutorial for Homemade by Jill.

Again, I skipped the freeze paper and cutting away for the numbering on the car pockets.  For this project, I blame the fact that I didn't have an Exacto knife to do the tiny work.  My husband has since fixed that since then. 

I used a pair of old worn through the knees jeans and a pair of some work pants that had seen better days for the duck fabric. 

The directions were pretty straight forward but I need to work a little more with my piping.  I left too much of the flat part exposed so it showed when i turned it right side out.  Next time, I will get regular velcro instead of stick on velcro.  I had to sew the stick on velcro to make sure it held.  This made my needle really sticky and I had to throw it away after I used it.