McCalls Quilt

 You really can't call this quilting. Binding maybe because that's all I had to do. Sometimes, I deserve a project like that. Lauren and I had seen this line of fabric at Hancock Fabrics. I had used some for a couple of craft projects. She asked if I could make her a quilt. Um, sure, I'll get right on that. I do have fabric but that quilt isn't at the top of the list yet. Lucky for her, I spied this pre-quilted fabric this summer. It was marked down and I grabbed some. The bad thing about the prequilted fabrics is that you are limited in size. So I bought enough to make a large crib size quilt. Too small for her bed but she loves it just the same.

Notice how the pattern sketches match the dress that would have been on the front of the pattern envelope. This would be a McCalls 3679. I loved this line of fabric. I really wish they would do something similar again.

Winter Flannel Pillowcase

 I wanted to make sure each child had something homemade. This was one of Lauren's presents. Unfortunately, I only had enough fabric for one pillowcase. I collect certain fabrics. I think most have you have seen my collection of cowboy fabrics. I also have a small collection of figure skating fabrics. Two of the girls were figure skaters so that sport is close to my heart. I must have gotten the last on the bolt because what I had was an odd amount. I of course was saving it for a quilt but who know when that would have been completed and the amount of fabric wasn't enough for a quilt I don't think. I do have enough for a few squares still, so that's good. The fabric is called "Snow Valley" and it's from Alexander Henry. It's a beautiful, luxurious flannel. I tried to find more on Ebay but it was a no-go.

Whitney's T-shirt Quilt

Don't you love husbands? Mine has a tendency to come up with ideas for me to do. He came up with the idea of making a t-shirt quilt for Christmas. Easy for him to say, isn't it? It was a good idea but it's not like it's a piece of cake.

Several years ago, there was a speaker at the quilt guild who briefly spoke about a t-shirt quilt she made. That wasn't the purpose of her talk but the thing I remembered was that she used her serger and she quilted the squares one at a time before the quilt was put together. No need to use stabilizer with this method. I decided that was the method for me. 

We discovered a box of tshirts in Whitney's closet. She's been married and gone for a little over a year now. So we figured what she left in her closet was fair game. I made a couple of mistakes and that being not taking into account that some of the graphics were large. I ignorantly thought I'd just make 12 inch squares then I came upon my first graphic that was larger than 12 inches. So I had cut up a couple of shirts that I wasn't able to use. I did have enough shirts to work with but there were a few shirts that I used the front and back because I either liked the color or the shirt had her name on it.

 

Here's the back of the quilt. The main fabric is from M'Liss Hawley and it's "Houston" fabric. I was short for one square so I used Wisconsin Badger fabric. Whitney is a Wisconsin alum and she now lives in Houston. Pretty clever huh?

 One challenge of this quilt was that for some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to have a different quilt pattern on each block. I ran out of brain power close to the end and I think I have four squares that were meandered.

 

 On some of the squares, I free motioned a word or two. This square has the words "50 yard line" in it. The Crazy Legs race in Madison ends on the 50 yard line in the Badger football stadium.

 Tried to mimic EKG waves.

 This square has "Bucky" in it.

 Her senior t-shirt has seniors name on it. I stitched Whit's name on the side.

This one was just one of my favorites. Simple quilt pattern that stitched fairly quickly. Love that!

Watermelon Apron

 A couple of years ago, my friend Donna and I hosted another Saturday sew-in at work. We focused on quick Christmas gifts. On project was a raggy watermelon potholder. When I purchased all the fabric for the potholders, I also purchased additional yardage to make this apron. I finished it a while ago and I guess forgot to post it. The fabric came from Hancock Fabrics.

 Closeup of the pocket.

 Closeup of the top of the apron.

 

The pattern used is McCalls 5643.

Ballet Slippers

Last year I made a ruffled skirt and top for Kayla using the same fabric. The goal was to send the ballet slippers to her along with the outfit but I put the slippers on the back burner. Crossing that project off my list was a goal for this year. The pattern is from My Favorite Things. I used leather for the sole instead of fabric and batting.

Snowflake Towel

Are you a clearance shopper like I am? Sometimes that can be a burden. You come home with some fantastic deals and now the challenge is where to store the stuff. Taylor and I went to Target last year the day after Christmas. We came home with some super duper sales. I'm usually not a Target shopper. But this past year, I've scored some decent bargains for embroidery. I purchased two of these snowflake towels for a song. I just purchased this snowflake font from Planet Applique and decided to use that one for Kayla's towel.

 Will anyone else be at Target on December 26th?

Sugar and Spice Ensemble

It's funny how an idea develops. I saw a piece of this fabric at a quilt shop near Madison. There was about a yard and a half left of it and no other companion pieces left in the store. I had to then go on a mission to find more of this line. The line is called Sugar and Spice from Riley Blake. I ended up buying a few yards off of Etsy and a few yards from Whimsical Designs.

My goal for the outfit was to have a skirt that had kind of a Christmas feel to it. You can see this isn't Christmas fabric but with the red and aqua colors it could lend itself that way. I purchased two aqua shirts from Old Navy but ended up only using one. I wanted to get away from always using a white shirt but the design just didn't pop on the aqua. So back to white it was. You really can't tell that the design on the aqua shirt it Christmas candy. Well I guess that will make it easier for my niece to wear it longer than the Christmas season.

Now for the important parts. The mint applique is from Planet Applique. The "K" is the Jack and Jill font from Planet Applique. The font for Kayla is called Sammy from 8CAAP and finally the raggy flower is from Hang to Dry. I really like how the white shirt pops those colors out.

The pattern is McCalls 6276.