Trying new things

So, I have to admit, I am never a person to do things halfway.  And now that I have tried out sewing clothes, I find that I really like it.  I am thinking that part of that is accounted for by the fact that you can finish what you start in one day.  Sometimes. 

The above soon to be outfit is based off of two separate tutorials from online, pants here and shirt here.  The giraffe fabric is from Fabricland, it's a stretchy fabric of some type, not the greatest quality I would guess (but $5/m was pretty awesome!), and the bloomers are a quilting cotton. The top is much bigger than I thought and will in no way fit Abby  at this time, but I am concerned that the bloomers will just fit if at all--her legs are pretty chunky.  So, I'm at a standstill.  Also I need to learn how to do a buttonhole.  Yikes!

This top comes from this tutorial, and I love it! In fact I've already made another.  This was a gift for a special birthday girl and I didn't have anything to give her so I thought I could make it.  Love this fabric for baby clothes too!

In quilting news, I decided that I wanted to make a mini quilt to hang in my sewing room.  I plan to have a few over time, so this is the first.  Although Adam likes it so much it may end up in the house proper.  Oh well, I can always make more!

I tried something new with the binding where you make a pocket and tuck the end in, as well as zig-zagging it.  I'm not loving the pocket just because it makes it so bulky, but I love the zig-zag!! Also, this is the binding that I made for one of my first quilts ever, and way way way over guesstimated how much I needed, so it shows up on a lot of projects, luckily it's great.

I used the walking foot to quilt straight lines one inch apart.  I thought that it would be better to keep the quilting simple and I really failed hard the last time I tried to straight line quilt so I thought wider spaces might help.

Last but not least, I have started a big project as a gift for my sister.  It is aptly titled the Project of Doom, and is a paper-pieced Harry Potter bookshelf quilt.  My sister and I are both big into HP so I'm pretty pumped.  And so is she!!

I will be linking up to WIP Wednesday  at Freshly Pieced and Finish it up Friday with crazymomquilts, have a great week everyone!

Better late than never.

Well, I can't remember exactly when I finished this top, although it probably is somewhere in my blog, but it was definitely in 2012.  And it languished for a long time, just needing me to finish squaring it up and put on binding.  Nothing complicated or long term! But, I wasn't ready to finish it? However, it is finally complete!!

This was from a QAL by Sew Happy Geek, button is on my sidebar.

I used leftovers from the piecing to make the binding, I had it going so that the colours graduated all the way around but I made way too much so had to cut it short so it doesn't quite work out.

I still like this quilt, but I know my tastes have changed since I put this together--it's not my favourite, but my hubby likes it so that's a win.  Not that I don't like it.

Jess and I put together our next blocks for our quilt, her's on the left and mine on the right.  I'm doing the layout from the book that has borders around all of the blocks so I chose to do it all with that herringbone print.

This was pretty scary to make.  My niece turns 2 years old today, and I didn't get a chance to go to the city and buy something so I decided to make something.  The pattern and tutorial for this top can be found here.

It is reversible, and I made quite a few mistakes, but they were all salvageable, although the ties are clearly noticeable (I didn't realize I needed 4 ties and didn't have enough turquoise) I figured that wasn't the worst thing that could happen.  It took me quite a long time to make this, but I do feel a little braver about sewing clothing and perhaps I will try again in the future.  I do hope that it fits though!!

Linking up to finish it up Friday at crazymomquilts!

Abby's Baby Quilt!

Well, there was long period of time where this project sat in limbo, but I finally buckled down and finished it!!

The fabric is Heirloom by Joel Dewberry in Citrine.

I used mostly the one orange fabric for the binding but stuck a few random pieces of other patterns in to mix it up.

I quilted it in an all over stipple, not too small scale, with some 'hidden' gems.  There's some hearts, flowers, and her initials.

There actually is a heart there.

That's one of the (kinda) flowers.

The backing is my favourite pattern from the line, and I bought that little stat square from a local lady who does that sort of thing with her embroidery machine.  I knew as soon as I saw the idea that I wanted to sew it into the quilt, and it worked out smashingly.

I was going to put it in the centre of the quilt with the floral pattern all around--I have lots more--but I decided that this way I a) didn't have to cut any of the patterned fabric, I just used the length I'd trimmed a while ago, and b) I could save my yardage for something else, like a bed skirt or curtains or something!

I think she likes it!

I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day, and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!