Her First Apron

As I was tidying in the kitchen this morning my little girl kept running by with pieces of fabric from my scrap bag showing me quickly and asking my opinion on how I liked the owls, or did I think the trees were a pretty shade of blue and to express her sheer excitement that she had found two pieces of matching gingham large enough for her project :) It's not often to find larger pieces in the scrap bag so this was a major find for her but she still wasn't revealing just what it was she was making *grin*.

I so wanted to go and peak in the doorway to her room and see just what it was she was up to but I didn't want to spoil her fun so I waited and watched her slip past with more fabric as she gathered and returned ones that didn't fit her needs :)

After a while she didn't return again and I could hear her humming softly in her room. When she finally reappeared she was grinning from ear to ear as she walked proudly out with her brand new apron that she had made for herself :) And what a magnificent job she did!

She had found strips of apple fabric long enough to be the sash and there were two large pockets along the bottom which she explained were for her recipe cards and her measuring spoons and she was ready to bake.

I just love her creativity. She had a vision of what a special apron of her very own would look like and she snipped and stitched until she had created it just like she had imagined :) I can't wait to do more projects together with her. I think that she may be just about ready to start learning how to use my sewing machine and use a real pattern! Oh are we going to have some fun *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

QAYG ~ Color Therapy

I'm very pleased with how my Quilt As You Go blocks are coming along. I managed to get two more of them sewn together amidst the piles of scrap fabrics that are accumulating at breakneck speed on top of the kitchen table *grin*.

Sewing them together is a real breeze but this project has completely confirmed what I have long feared about myself but have never dared to admit....

I am absolutely HORRID at matching colors together *grin*.

Seriously I never go to the fabric store for a project unless I have a very clear idea of what colors or patterns I want to buy because being confronted by a sea of colors boggles my brain entirely! It must be quite funny for my mom or whomever might be with me on a day that I have no idea of what I want because I wander down the isles with my eyes darting over the rows of fabric like a panicked rabbit being chased by wild dogs LOL.

So maybe this project might prove to be a good therapy tool as it's forcing me to sift through total color overload as I rummage through my scraps. Either I'm going to get the hang of it or I'm going to need a serious cheater card as to what fabrics I should be putting together.

Take that strip of green linen on the top of the bottom block in the photo above. I thought it was a good idea before I stitched it to the rest of the block but now I'm thinking it wasn't such a good idea *grin*. Oh well, to late now!

Three blocks down and quite a few more to go....
For better or for worse *wink*.

~ Rosina

QAYG ~ Block 1

Okay so I was hoping to have two blocks for the quilt along finished to share with you tonight but I actually only got one done :) Oh well, one is definitely better than none! Right?

I think I just might have thought a little to hard about how I was going to put them together *grin*. So much for mindlessly slapping strips of fabric together! It actually took more time than I thought it would but it could be that it was my first one though and I wasn't quite sure what strip sizes I should use. I ended up using a range of widths from 1.5 inch to 3 inches.

I'm not sure if the 1.5 inch strips are to narrow though. What do you think? Should I use those teeny tiny ones like the green polka dot one and the orange apple print above it or should I go with the larger sizes?

To finish off this block and bring it up to the 14.5 inch size that it should be I'm going to surround it with white strips on each side. I think that it will give it a nice clean look in the end and not so crazy busy to the eye *grin*. I'll update you again on it when I get a few more finished :)

~ Rosina

Quilt As You Go ~ Quilt-Along Round 2

I'm super excited because I got asked to participate in round 2 of the Quilt As You Go quilt-along that is being hosted by the fabulous Heather of A La Mode Fabric!

There are sooo many ultra talented quilters participating and I can't wait to see how their blocks shape up. We get to do free motion quilting on the squares, one block at a time in any design we like so I'm looking forward to trying out the free motion foot that I actually bought for my machine a couple of months ago but have been to scared to use *grin*.

When I was in the city yesterday I stopped by the fabric store and picked up 2.5 yards of a gorgeous 50% organic cotton and 50% bamboo quilt batting that should be enough to complete a queen sized quilt. It is so incredibly soft it's unbelievable. It's nearly a shame to have to quilt it inside the layers later LOL.

I definitely have no shortage of scraps either. My scrap bags runneth over *grin*. We're making Wonky Log Cabin blocks and I have tons of shorter pieces for most of the block but I'm hoping that I can find enough larger scraps for the outer edges of the blocks as I think we're supposed to end up with a 14.5 inch block. I just might have to cut into some of my good stash!

I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be able to get a couple of blocks sewn together after we finish up our schooling and chores in the morning. If I get them done I'll share with you how they turn out :) I can't wait!

~ Rosina

Bunny Fun

It's Easter weekend!!
I like to keep the candy consumption on holidays to a minimum and it's especially hard when everyone wants to give baskets full of those tasty chocolate bunnies at Easter. So to combat the sugar overload that I know is inevitable I've been lovingly creating handmade gifts for the children to replace the candy from mama :)

Oh my goodness, there is no shortage of craft tutorials on the web and you could seriously craft something new everyday till you die! LOL. Needless to say it was pretty easy to find some super cute bunny themed gifts to make :)

I bookmarked these adorable bunny bowling pins last year when thelongthread shared about them on the Storque knowing that I was going to have to try making them! I've been collecting brightly colored fabrics for them and last night in the wee hours of the morning I started cutting, dug out my button stash to sew on their eyes and embroidered their whiskers :)

They're turning out fabulously! I have this wacky sort of quirk about hoarding fabric scraps *grin*. I very rarely throw them away. Larger scraps are kept for quilting and other smaller sewing projects and the selvage and other tiny trimmings that I slice off of my cloth bags that I make I have in bag in the craft closet waiting to be recycled so that I can keep them out of the garbage can. Well this was a perfect project for re-using them!

I stuffed all of the bunny bowling pins with them :) They created super dense and heavy bunnies and the strips compacted nice and tight inside the bunnies just like they had been stuffed with batting. I just finished sewing up their bottoms and can't wait to give them tomorrow as surprise presents :)

My little bunny finger puppets that I had mentioned making a couple of days ago have turned out perfectly to. I just LOVE their little pom pom tails and they were so quick and easy to make. My little 4 year old is going to have so much fun playing with them :) Well I better get back to sewing if I'm going to finish off the last minute touches the my goodies.

Happy Easter everyone :)

~ Rosina