More Baby Stuff

Another changing pad for another baby. This one is for my cousin Heather who I think is due in May. I also made a couple of more taggy blankets and am officially out of ribbon, so no more babies until I can stock up again!


I also made this hooded towel for Sarah and Danny because I'd love to fill the diaper bag that I made for them with goodies. The pattern was from the PurlBee but they used a bias tape method and I just sewed right sides together, turned inside-out, and topostitched.

San Francisco Quilt Show

The San Francisco Quilt Guild held its bi-annual show this past weekend. This is the first time I've participated in the show as a member. It was fun, and exhausting (even though I only had to do two easy shifts taking money at the door)! The picture above is my Wednesday sewing circle, which is just a small group of guild members who get together every other week to work on projects together. We made this group quilt by cutting up a picture and each making a quilt to represent one "slice" of the image. Then they were hung up sie-by-side to re-create the picture. Each of us used whatever techniques we wanted to, so each panel is different. It was great fun to put together and seemed to generate a lot of interest at the show. Every time I tried to take a picture of it, it had a group of people standing in front of it. Late on the last day of the show, we all got together for this picture. The members are Priscilla, Dani, Melissa, Dorte, me, and Janelle. Missing is Carol, who is in Australia and mailed us her finished panel from there! The project was Carol's suggestion as we were debating what kind of group quilt we could make for the show.

The only other quilt I entered was this small (24" square) challenge quilt. The challenge topic was "How Green is your Quilt?". I wanted to try this paper-piecing pattern that I found in a magazine, so I made it to represent green trees and used it for the challenge quilt. There were ~20 quilts in the challenge exhibit, with many different interpretations of "green".

There were so many beautiful quilts, of all kinds, in the show that I couldn't take pictures of all of them. This one is one of my favorites, made by the featured quilt artist, Judi Mathieson. I think I'll try to make one like it with some of my Asian fabrics.
These quilt shows are so inspiring - I'll undoubtedly be trying to do more quilting in the days ahead. Maybe by the next show in 2011 I'll be ready to enter a quilt for judging!

Craft-Warming Gifts!

Last week I got a great present in the mail from Aunt Kathy: an Amy Butler book and 15 fat quarters from the midwest modern fabric collection. It's great timing because I'm ready to make some smaller things after that big bag and I really fell in love with these fabrics while working on the recent baby gifts.

Diaper bag #2

I finished Sarah's diaper bag last week and I'm kind of in love with it. I used this great Joel Dewberry fabric for the outside and Amy Butler Midwest Modern inside pockets. I love this fabric and I just found out they're having a girl, so the pink is more appropriate.

The accompanying changing pad is also Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric but in teals and blues just in case it was a boy or so that Danny would feel manly while changing diapers :)

Group Quilt - my part is done!

If you remember, my small quilt group is doing a group quilt for our guild show next month. We sliced up a picture, and each of us will do one slice of the picture, then we will hang them all side-by-side to re-create the image. My "slice" of the picture is shown at the left. And now (...drum roll...) I just finished my panel and here it is:

I really had fun doing this. I used a variety of techniques, just doing one section at a time, doing whatever seemed to work for that section. I used a lot of fusible webbing, so the whole thing is stiff enough to stand up on its own! In two weeks, we're all getting together to put the quilt together and submit it for the show. I've seen most of the other sections in progress, and it's amazing how well they flow together! Of course we're all a bit nervous about how it will look and line up once we get all 7 sections together. So far it looks great, though! Stay tuned for the finished product.

Baby Gifts

This is the taggy blanket. As my friends have started to have babies, I've learned a lot. For instance, babies seem to love the silky tags found on blankets, clothing, toys, etc. Like the old story in which a kid is more interested in the box than the toy inside, babies seem to like tags as much as the toys to which they're attached. The solution: cut out the toy and give babies what they want--lots of tags.
I made this blanket for my friends Erin and Mike, who are having a baby in May. It is small (baby-sized?), only about 18x20" made of flannel and an assortment of silky ribbons that Mom and I bought at a discount fabric store in San Francisco.

New Year Print-out Craft

I found a great printable desk calendar at the vintage glam blog and now I finally have a desk calendar to go along with my outlook calendar, my gmail calendar, and my pile of scrap paper with to-do lists on them. Maybe this year I'll be able to keep dates straight!