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Teddy Bear to Match Quilt

January 25, 2009

Years ago, I bought a Simplicity Crafts 8418 pattern to make teddy bears. Over the years I have made countless bears for baby shower gifts, birthday gifts, etc. I made each of my children one to match their rooms. I am showing them here even though they now look well loved having been slept with every night for roughly 3 years and washed multiple times! The one above, I made for the baby with quilt scraps. As my son said, "Mommy, you need to make the baby a bear too or she will feel leftout." Instead of sewing on button eyes or using felt as the pattern suggests, I use fabric paint so they are fully washable, dryable and safe even for babies. I hope this teddy will be loved as well as the other two!
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Practicing on Runners

January 27, 2009

Before I worked on the baby's quilts seen below, I decided to practice my quilting skills a bit with some runners after being inspired by a Christmas runner on a friend's dining room table, made by her talented mother-in-law. I copied the general idea of that runner, though not the fabrics or measurements to make my Christmas runner. It is handquilted with metalic thread because I didn't have a needle on my machine for metallic thread. When my husband's friend saw the runner, he mentioned how much he liked it and would like one for his dining room table. His birthday was a couple of days ago so I obliged with a runner in fall colors, at his request. Then I fell in love with some batik fabric at my local quilting store and made a wintery runner that I have out now. I used the following tutorial to make the log cabin squares http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/08/baby-quilt-week-day-3.html. The tutorial happened to be the exact square size that I was looking for so it saved me a lot of time. These last two runners were machine quilted but before I got my walking foot and free motion foot. Now it is so much easier! These projects gave me something to do though while I was waiting for my feet to come in the mail!
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"Tulip, the Wee Elephant" and Receiving Blankets

January 28, 2009

Recently, I borrowed Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts from our library through interlibrary loan. It's a fun book with lots of simple projects. I had to try one of my favorites, "Peanut, the Wee Elephant" by Hillary Lang from Wee Wonderfuls. It said that it was a 4-8 hour project but I would estimate that it only took about two. It was really quite easy to make and so adorable! I didn't have any yarn for the tail so I used embroidery floss. All the fabric came from my stash. The little tulip print has been around forever. I think it might have come from my mother or grandmother originally. Due to the print, I have named my version "Tulip, the Wee Elephant."I also liked the very simple idea of binding a yard of flannel in order to make a receiving blanket. The idea is so simple but the results are very polished looking. Instead of using solid white flannel and a patterned binding, I found some patterned flannel that I liked and then used cotton fabric from my stash to bind the edges. These would make a great baby shower gift! They really aren't that fun to make though as the majority of the time spent making them involves handsewing the binding on the back. I just don't like the look of machine stitched binding though so I felt it was worth the time. All in all, it is a fun book. I would like to try the little calico birds pictured in the book at some point too but I have a little boy's birthday party coming up this weekend that I have to focus on for the moment!