Firefly baby quilt

For a while now, I have been ensuring that the clothes I sew are finished garments throughout; that the seams are enclosed on the inside as well - no loose strings! I want them to look as professional as I can get them, and to be high quality and durable enough to last for many washings. 

I have recently finished my fourth quilt (two full size, two baby quilts) and am happy to say that with this one, I have achieved the quilting equivalent of this: 

I am as proud of the way the back of the quilt looks as I am of the front!

It was the free motion that did the trick. It virtually eliminated all bunching, and allowed me to create some really exciting quilting designs that are so fun to see illustrated on the back of the quilt. 

So, here she is.

I am going to start by gushing about Michael Miller's Wee Wander fabric once again.
This is the project I finally bought this fabric for, after drooling over it for a couple years.
I made sure to get extra and used some for Fern's Easter skirt as well. I love this print so much. It defines childhood innocence and wonder to me. Not to mention reminding me of countless memories of prancing around as a child myself, then with my younger cousins,
catching fireflies in jars or just marvelling at these brilliant creatures. 

I made two of these quilts, identical in fabric selection, one for each of the friends I was talking about last time. Both of the border fabrics are part of same fabric collection. The back is yellow minky, because I wanted to add a different, super soft texture to the blanket for the babes to explore and snuggle in. And the binding is made from the green sheet that I used for Althea's Jakku dress. 

Since the print is so engaging, I decided to emphasize my favorite parts of it with the quilting. I started with the grass, tracing the tops of the blades and then adding some additional texture. 

This shows up well on the back also:

  

Then I began tracing the flight of the fireflies. This was when I finally switched into free motion mode and it was the best possible first project for that technique! Being erratic as I spastically became accustomed to the freedom created by covering the feed dogs fit perfectly into the look I was trying to achieve. Some of the fireflies come out of the grass, some from the top of the sky and some from the sides. My girls loved the maze that it created and kept asking if they could trace the fireflies trails. Hopefully the little ones these blankets are for will be just as mesmerized by that aspect of it as they grow and begin noticing greater details of the world around them.

For the square around the center, I just stitched in the ditch around the inner and outer edge (free motion is not ideal for this I realized). But then I couldn't help getting fancy again for the outer edge of the quilt and began tracing the trunks of the trees. I thought I would just do a few of the them, but ended up doing just about every one. It was too addicting. 

It also looks pretty rad on the back. 

I had so much fun with this. I have realized that baby quilts are something I could sew every day. If I had a craft fair booth, this might be what I would fill it with. I don't have a specialized quilting machine, never mind a long arm, so quilting the larger quilts gets so complicated and frustrating. But these little guys fit in my machine with no problem. And I can get super detail oriented without spending too long on one project. Plus, there are so many awesome panel fabrics out there, which make sewing a showstopper of a baby quilt even speedier. 

There will be more of these in my future!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hullo Spring!

   I just love sewing for Easter. I always had a special Easter dress growing up, or a fun hat or something. And even though we are not a religious family and just have a pretty casual family gathering on the big day with an egg hunt for the kiddos, I still love having something fresh and new and fun for the kids (and sometimes myself) to wear. I guess it has to do with Easter being a sort of gateway to spring and all the new possibilities that opens up in terms of style; or maybe it is just fun to have at least one reason to dress up in every season and this is the big one for spring. The older I get, the more spring becomes my favorite season. (I may change my tune once fall rolls around again). I love to garden and walking around the yard, seeing what is popping up is as thrilling to me as shopping for fabric. Maybe even more so (gasp!). So it is fun to celebrate this wonderful time of year with sweet things for the girls.

Hellebores, one of the first bloomers in my yard this year.

    I have a large project which I am procrastinating on  finishing up right now that had been keeping me from garment sewing this past month. But I decided that I would be able to squeeze some Easter bonnets in there no matter what. And then on Saturday night, I figured that I could make Fern a new skirt to match her bonnet, because skirts are so quick, and I didn't really know what else she would wear to go with the color scheme of her hat. And then Althea asked if I could make her a new Easter dress, and I had to tell her yes, but it might not be done for Easter since it was Saturday afternoon when she was asking. (I had a dress in her closet in mind that matched her bonnet). But I picked out some fabrics and thought about it and knew exactly what I wanted to make for her. So I went to sleep after finishing Fern's skirt and both bonnets and woke up motivated and confident and decided that I could pull off her dress before we had to leave to head to Grammy's house.
     The Alley Cat pattern had been such a fun sew last month. It fit the girls so well and is so cute and comfortable and stylish. I am starting to get the hang of using knits, and using my serger which makes everything so much faster and easier. As a result, I was able to bang out an alley cat dress on Easter morning. I went from uncut fabric to finished garment in two hours, and took a break to scarf down the breakfast my husband made in the middle of that. And another break to braid Fern's hair. This is an all time record for me. I cut the sleeve and skirt hems on the selvage of the fabric, which helped. And I sewed the entire dress on my serger except for the top stitching on the neck. I think using sleeves helps make this an easier sew as well. I still have yet to do one of those burrito rolls. But the dress came out great, and she was enchanted.

The skirt fabric was from that Knit Fix I bought from Girl Charlee last August. Slowly and surely, I have been ploughing through that soft pile of fun. We agreed the bubbles remind us of eggs and made it especially appropriate for Easter. The top fabric is this stretchy, almost rubbery eyelet material that I got from JoAnn's a year or two ago as an add on purchase. I am so bad about grabbing an extra yard or two (or just a half in the case) of something that catches my eye while waiting in line at the cutting counter. But they usually end up as some of my favorite fabrics. This worked out perfect for this project, and I have enough left of this and the skirt that I think Fern is going to get a legit alleycat out of it. They love to be twins sometimes. 

       
     Fern loves her skirt as well. It has some of that amazing glitter elastic as a waist band and utilizes some of my all time favorite fabric: the wee wanderer by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller. I bought some recently for another project and made sure I had some extra for garments for the girls. This print almost makes me want to cry, it is so sweet.

Fern's face in this kills me. We didn't do a very good job getting pictures; either the sun was in their eyes or the bonnets shaded their faces completely. 

Here is a close up of that print: 

Love it. 

     And they are both happy about their bonnets. Which makes me so so happy. I love that neither of the girls feel too old for them at all yet. I had to expand my pattern to a new size; I now have a 0-12 month (which is probably more like 6-12 month and I will probably make a 0-6 if any of my friends or family have a baby girl), 2-4 year and 4-6 year size. I may put up a tutorial / pattern if there is any interest. A fun thing about them is that they are completely reversible, so you get two adorable sunhats in one. I usually do a print and a solid, but on Fern's I used two different coordinating prints. They are so fun and satisfying to sew and always get so much use over the spring / summer / fall at our house. Just don't let your husband fold them in half, crease the interfacing in the brim and stuff it in his back pocket if you end up making one. Ahem.

Fern is wearing her Easter coat from two years ago. Love that it still fits her! The sleeves are slightly short, but not that bad, and otherwise it is fine. Skinny little girl. It is her go to outerwear throughout spring and fall. 

     Happy Spring time!!!