Scrappy Postage Stamp

I finished my scrappy little postage stamp quilt this weekend, using the interfacing method on Oh, Fransson, and I'm so happy with it! These fabrics just make me happy. Most of them are scraps left over from K's baby quilt and her dresden plate pillow. This little quilt is a birthday gift for K, sort of a miniature version of her quilt that she can use for her baby dolls.



Using fusible interfacing to piece these small squares together was awesome! I'm definitely going to use that trick again. Although I don't know if it was the best choice for a little doll quilt because it's a tad stiff and I don't know how well she'll be able to wrap up her babies in it. I used Pellon Fusible Featherweight interfacing, which was the lightest fusible my local store had; maybe there's a better option out there? Hopefully a few times through the wash will help soften it up. Either way it's hard to argue with results like this- check out those perfectly matched seams! The perfectionist in me is doing summersaults.



I also tried out attaching the binding a different way and did it all by machine. I stitched the binding to the back first, folded to the front, and then machine stitched again on the front. I'll probably stick with my old-fashioned, hand-stitch-on-the-back way of binding for really special projects, but what a time saver it was for this project!



Even the back is pretty to look at! K loves all things blue, so it's quite possible that this will be the "up" side most of the time.

The Third Birthday Dress

I finished K's birthday dress, two weeks early no less!



I wasn't going to post pictures of her wearing the dress—I wanted the big reveal at her birthday party—but she was so excited when I brought it downstairs she wanted to put it on right away and I couldn't deny her. Plus it was a good time to double-check my hemming. She wasn't exactly cooperative at the last dress fitting and I was praying that I guessed right at the length.



The timing is also right to take pictures in front of our just-blooming cherry tree. I love all the little flowers on this tree but the first bit of wind or rain and they'll all be on the ground, so it doesn't last long.



The pattern I used is Simplicity 2231 and it came together pretty easily. The only difficult part was inserting the elastic, which I talked about here. The neckline elastic didn't go as badly as I thought, although I did have to pick apart one little section of the casing in order to get the elastic through. I added a couple of inches to the length of the skirt for a few reasons: 1) I'm not very good at making narrow hems and so I end up using more fabric than intended, 2) the skirt looked a tad short in the cover photo and K has long legs, 3) K is not exactly lady-like in her movements (as I assume most 3 year olds are not) and a little extra length is needed to keep her modest.

The fabric is a Little Lisette design I found at Joann's. I just can't get enough Oliver + S/Liesl Gibson! I thought the little ice cream cones and bars were just perfect for a birthday dress. Here's a little closer look at the fabric, and the photo in which she's telling me I can take 2 more pictures and then this photo shoot is DONE.

WIP Wednesday - 3/14/12

It's been a few weeks since I last wrote a WIP post, so here's what I've been up to!

Rose Star Quilt



It may not look much different from the last time I showed this quilt, but I swear there's been some progress! There are soooo many little seams to stitch up between these blocks. Oh, and the fact that I'm doing it by hand makes it slow going.

K's Birthday Dress

I've cut out all the pattern pieces and the sewing has begun. Here's the bodice, with ties attached, and the sleeves.



Threading the 1/4" elastic through those little sleeves took every ounce of patience I had. I stitched a thick thread to one end of the elastic and then used an extra long needle to pull it through the tiny casing. On the second sleeve my thread broke twice as I was pulling it through- frustrating! And I can look forward to this frustrating process again as I have to use the same elastic around the entire neckline. I may need a glass of wine first.



Postage Stamp Quilt

A few days ago I saw this post on Oh, Fransson! and really wanted to try out Elizabeth's technique of using fusible interfacing for piecing small patches. So I've started cutting out little squares!



I plan to make a little doll quilt with these squares and use it as a birthday gift for K.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday Linkup!

Lone Star

No, not that kind of lone star quilt. I had one block left over from my wonky stars quilt and it's been hanging out on my design wall, just waiting patiently for a purpose.



The large aqua star is the one I had left over from the first quilt. As I was playing around with the scraps of fabric I had left, I decided it needed a couple of friends so I made one and half more stars. Improv piecing like this is so fun because you never really know how things are going to turn out until it's completely finished. It really pushes you to keep going until it's done!



I first considered quilting this with vertical wavy lines, but then decided that didn't match the straight edges and sharp angles of the stars. So instead I quilted about a 1/4" away from all the stars- I love how this exaggerates the points of the stars.

I'm linking up to the Modern Mini Challenge over at Ellison Lane Quilts!



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For the first time, I'm also linking up to:

ltts: play town

Here's my project for the February edition of a little gray's ltts sew along (only a few days late!). I really wasn't excited about making one of these houses... until I actually started pulling supplies together for it. Now I only wish I would have started sooner!



I think I could get wrapped up in the details of this project for weeks! I could make a whole village of these little guys! Here's one side with a window and a couple flowers:



The other side with a bay window:



And here's the back with some more flowers, or maybe a grossly out of proportion blueberry bush. I liked Jessica's circular windows so much, I made one too!



There's even a little greeting inside the door:



You can probably tell I didn't use the foam called for in the pattern. Since I was going to use fiber fill, I fused some medium-weight interfacing to all the pieces. Not once, but twice, I managed to fuse the interfacing to my pressing cloth rather than my house pieces. Sheesh. That's what I get for trying to do some sewing while also keeping the kids occupied. As you can see, adding the interfacing gave the little house quite a bit of structure (this is before stuffing and attaching the bottom).



As much as I would like to add to my little play town right now, I've got a project list about a mile long for March- mostly in preparation of K's birthday at the end of the month. I'm sure not even half of my ideas will get done, but here's hoping!