Kids Clothes Week Challenge (aka KCWC)

Here's my 1st day of participation!
I cut the pocket linings for 4 pairs of pants for d (the linings won't show once on, but will hopefully make the pants more fun for him to wear. The special linings are SECRET, and that, of course, makes them VERY cool to a 4 y/o boy). I will be using the Oliver + S Sketchbook shorts pattern, but I lengthened them into pants. I, and, more importantly, D, LOVE the shorts, so the pants should be an easy win. I'm making a size 7, with a 24 inch (unhemmed) inseam, so hopefully they'll fit for a long time. He's still fitting (waist-wise) into the very first pair of pants I ever made him (they go just to his knees, with a teeny hem, perfect do the beach!), so I will use a shorter piece of elastic in the back for now.

I also traced/drew/copied out all 15+ pattern pieces of an AWESOME vintage coat/dress/bonnet pattern to make for the Bean. They're a size 2, so they MIGHT fit, but she'll definitely grow into them at some point.
The kids have been occupying themselves with magnetic toys on the fridge, building horizontally rather than vertically, testing gravity, which is awesome, obvi.
Oh, and I finally got a semi-clear shot of Mr Black Olives, aka Kieran, my super-cuddly,( but impossible to photograph) black kitty.

Tada!

My name-tag is done! It makes me so happy! I used it sort of like a sampler, in that I'm really trying to improve my stem stitch, and I tried a bunch of new flowers. I really like the pinwheel on the bottom right, and the looped blanket stitch flower on the top left. Yay!

Hooray!

Just got the coolest pics from J of my quilt on his bed. Looks like the soon-to-be-married couple are pleased with their wedding quilt. Matilda, the puppy, seems equally pleased. Yay!

Photographing a wiggly subject...

The bean really likes my new dress idea, even though I haven't clipped threads, and despite the fact that it turned out HUGE on her. Also, I accidentally sewed one sleeve on inside out. That what happens when you sew with an almost-2-year-old on your lap, "helping."

Bedding for Babydoll

Peacock time!

Ok, so here's my thought process/a sorta-how to for my blocks for the Bee Lovely bee.


I made the above block for a bird theme bee, and it TOTALLY inspired me!

here's my current idea....

I made this as a tester, and I LOVE IT!

here's the back!
I used the 6-minute circle technique (Thanks to Latifah for teaching our guild about it!) for the inner 3, but the outer circle was just appliqued, and I like both....

I'd also be ok with raw edge applique....

so my goal is to have everyone make me feathers....

I've sent everyone some freezer paper:

...and some fabrics:

PLEASE feel free to IMPROVISE techniques, or do whatever works for you, but I'd love feathers back, in various sizes and shapes....

(I'm having uploading problems, so I don't have pics for this part)

My technique is as follows:

*draw shapes on freezer paper (center is roughly bean-shaped, turquoise is round, brown is egg-ish, and green is a pointy oval)

*cut along the lines, making 3 oddly shaped donuts and a center bean

*iron the shiny side of the freezer paper to the back of the fabric

*trim the fabric to 1/4"-1/2" seam allowances, and clip the seam allowance inside the circle so you can iron the seam allowance to the back

*place the inner layer on or under the next layer, and sew, in any way, with any thread, to make the feather....

hopefully I'll get better pics tomorrow

It's DONE! (and I really wanna keep it!)

I'm officially addicted to the bachelor pad now. I did all the quilting on this wedding quilt by hand today, "utility stitching" the navy corduroy diagonals with navy perle cotton thread, and i tied the other points with green perle. I also embroidered initials and the wedding date onto one of the strings. I'm so so happy with this quilt! It's amazing to touch and soooooooo gorgeous!
I had some thread on my needle and a bit of episode 4 left to watch, so I worked on more of my hexies. I haven't counted, but I'm guessing 40-50? I think I'm using American Jane prints, but I can't remember. It's from charm pack I bought 2-3 years ago, so I'm glad I'm finally using it!

The top is done!

Isn't it so preeeeeeettttyyyy?!?!?

Layout!

I had a very miffed kitty cat who was completely unwilling to move or help in any way, but she didn't mind when I put pieces on top of her, so... fine, be that way, Tisa!
Despite all my counting, I somehow wound up with the wrong # of blocks. I wanted 66.... 64 for an 8x8 throw quilt, and 2 for a coordinating pillow case, but somehow I wound up with 76. So it'll be an 8x9 quilt with 4 squares on a pillow. Weird.
I'm so madly in love with this that if I don't get gift it immediately, I'm afraid it'll stay here forever.
But it wasn't TOO terrible to make, and the end result is SO worth it!!!
I used old phone book pages for my foundation paper, and it worked very well. I have about 300 more pages, probably, already cut into squares, plus, of course, about a dozen other old phone books that I COULD cut up, so I HAVE to make more, right?

String blocks are done!

64 8"x8" blocks, all pieced up! Now I need to rip off the newspaper backing and lay them out to make sure I like their placement (tomorrow, day), sew the top (tomorrow night), and then quilt it (Sunday night) and bind it (Monday night), so I can maybe show it off at the guild meeting (Tuesday night , if I can find a babysitter, as C will be out of town again), and then deliver it to the lovely couple sometime next weekend...
It's taken me 4 months of slow and steady piecing to get these bad boys done. C really likes it and "is jealous."
Guess I know what he's getting for Xmas, even if it does create a HUGE messy pile o scraps!