Custom Bunting Quilt on Etsy

Hi Everyone!

I've been busy here the last few days working on a custom bunting quilt commission that I got on Etsy.  I finished it up yesterday and sent it off this morning.

Instead of the green/ blue/ yellow color scheme that I normally make these in I did this one in blues and yellows.  I personalized it for it's lucky new little owner-- a little boy named Thomas Henry who was just born last week.  I hope he loves it and gets lots of snuggles in it.

Sewing for Babies

This past week I've been super swamped making baby quilts and I love it!

When I got home from camping I immediately began working on a baby quilt for my friend Claire's new baby boy. I went fabric shopping last Wednesday with Rebeckah at M & L fabric discount store in Anaheim and we came back with several steals (especially since everything in the store was 20% off!) including the fabric to make this beauty:

 

The large blocks are cut from a panel of 8 images from Robert Kaufman's Animal Party Too! collection.  We used a yellow stripe from my stash for sashing around the large blocks and for binding, and then we used 3 coordinating prints from the Animal Party Too! collection for the stacked coins panels.  The backing is yet another coordinating print with fun blue stripes.

 

Rebeckah and I teamed up on this quilt like we normally do when it's for a mutual friend.  She did the sashing while I did the stacked coins, and then I sewed the top together.  Together we sandwiched and basted it, and then she quilted it.  I made and attached the binding and then both of us sewed it down by hand old-fashioned quilting bee style.

We worked together a little more on this quilt than we usually do because we only had 2 days to get it done!  Even working together we were still sewing the binding down when Claire arrived for the baby shower.  Luckily though we were able to hide out for the few minutes it took us to finish the quilt and nobody was the wiser.

Besides the stress of getting a quilt done last minute the downside to rushing is that there's no time to get a decent photo.  The above photos were snapped in my living room during the shower around 10 at night so you'll have to forgive the horrible lighting (and the fact that the quilt isn't pictured on my fence like my quilts normally are).

To add to the chaos of it all in the middle of working on Claire's quilt I got a custom order from Katie on Etsy for a bunting quilt on Thursday afternoon.  I was in such a rush when I started making it that I made 70% of the quilt top before I realized that I was WAY off in my dimensions and had to start over.  I waited until yesterday to start over so I had a chance to clear my mind and enjoy my weekend before jumping back in.  After a whirlwind sewing session I'm happy to say that I finished the custom order and it looks fantastic.

I hope Katie likes it.  It's for her niece Sophia Joanne and she had me tweak the colors of the quilt slightly to include orange and take out the darker blue and grey that were in the original quilt.

She also added customization to her quilt.  It doesn't stand out as well in the pictures as it does in person, but it was a lot of fun quilting the letters down (as well as a lot of work).  I shipped it off this morning and now I can settle down and enjoy some selfish sewing.  I'm currently fussy cutting centers to make polaroid blocks for the *picture-perfect* polaroid block swap going on over at Flickr, as well as cutting squares for the Super Mario Bros QAL.

A Manly T-Shirt Quilt

I've made t-shirt quilts before and to be honest, I've never really been a fan.  The ones I've made have all been simple, mostly just consisting of a bunch of square t-shirt fronts sewn together in a grid with a piece of fabric for the back.  They always just feel so... blah.

Anyways, I was commissioned a while back by a friend to make a t-shirt quilt for her husband for his birthday.  It was a challenge for me both in that I didn't want to make the same old "blah" thing, it's just not my style, and in that I only had 11 t-shirts to work with.  Sashing was definitely going to have to be on the menu for this quilt.

After much pondering this is what I came up with:

The tricky part was to figure out sizing.  I settled on a set width with varying lengths.

 

I pieced together this block from sleeves of the t-shirts

 

One shirt didn't fit on the front so I added sashing around it and pieced it into the back.

I had a lot of fun quilting this, though it was very difficult to keep the lines in the plaid on the front straight while keeping the quilting straight and even.

The backing is a dark grey flannel that matches the plaid flannel I used on the front.  The binding is made by me out of black flannel, and for the quilting I selected a black thread.

I hope they're both very happy with it and that it gets a lot of use in the future.  I'm also happy to say that my stance on t-shirt quilts has changed, and that now I might need to dig through some of my husband's old shirts to make him one too.

-Stephanie

p.s. I'm linking to Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday.

All About Dolls!

Before Christmas I had my hands full whipping up these custom order dolls.  Aren't they adorable?

The three taller dolls are all 18 inches and I made them using a pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls book that I modified slightly.

All of their faces are hand embroidered and their hair is stitched on by hand.

As for their clothes I had to make up wee little patterns to fit their wee little bodies.  Since I'm no pattern drafter it was a bit of a challenge, but overall it was fun to see how I could take what I did know about patterns and how they work and apply them to making clothes for the dolls.

The short doll wearing the pink dress is a style of doll I made when I was first starting to take custom orders.  She's a pattern I made myself that I generally don't make anymore, but I made an exception since the little girl the doll went to has an older sister and brother who both have dolls in the same style, so I wanted her's to match.

I do take orders for these, and am willing to make them in whatever skin/hair/eyes/features combination you might want.  If you want a specific type of clothing I'm also willing to stretch my pattern drafting skills a bit to make whatever kind of outfit you want.

Baby Shower Cards...

I was recently commissioned by my good friend Lindsay to make two cards for baby showers she will be going to in the upcoming weeks.  She gave me full reign over what I did with the cards, she just told me that the theme for one was zoo/animal themed, and the other was ocean themed... and with free reign I had a lot of fun planning what to do with each card. 

For the zoo animal card I went through my various cricut cartridges and looked at what animal shapes I had.  When I came across this giraffe shape I knew I had found the one I wanted to use...

 

I added a tag with "little one" around the giraffe's neck and tied a bow to show that it's a gift for the baby.

 

I used paper from Anna Griffin's line for the backdrop, and with 3D scrapbook foam stickers made the giraffe stand off from the page.

 

For the second card I knew I wanted to do a whale theme right away.  

For some reason I find big cartoon whales to just be so fun and welcoming, I thought it would be the perfect thing to welcome a new baby boy.

  I had the idea to use vellum curls for the whale's blowhole, and I tacked them down with glue.

 

Once all the pieces were ready, I put the whale and waves down.  It's difficult to tell from the photos but the whale pops off the the card with the aid of my 3D scrapbook foam stickers.

I think both cards look very good together.  I hope the families enjoy them, I certainly enjoyed making them.