Hawaiian Shirt

     When we were in Hawaii to cheer on our coach at Kona Ironman we did some sight seeing and fabric shopping.  I found several stores via the web.  After visiting just one I had enough fabric for several projects.

     The first thing I have finished is this Hawaiian shirt.  I bought 3 yards of fabric which I knew was more than I needed but it allowed me to do some fussy cutting so I could get the pattern placed just so.

     One example is the pocket on the front.  I cut it so it exactly matched the fabric underneath.  Except for the stitching line you can hardly see it.  For the sleeves I chose the same motif in the pattern for the center of each one.  On the front I balanced the dark and light parts so it wasn't too light or dark.  If I had only bought the amount I needed I would not have been able to do this.

     Another thing I like to do in my garments or purses is put my monogram.  Here it is on the back facing in a matching thread so it just blends in.  I have this monogram stored in my embroidery machine's memory so I can do it at a moments notice.

     The pattern I chose was the camp shirt from the Cutting Line Designs pattern.  I had made it previously and liked how it fit.  The directions are very detailed so it is easy to follow along though I am not too fond of the method she uses to set in the sleeves.

     Looking forward to some warmer weather so I can wear it.  I will mostly wear it as a jacket during the summer.

Busy May

     It has been a crazy month so far.  The weather is finally starting to get a bit warmer so now it is a race to get everything planted in the garden.  Add to that, our training is picking up also.  Longer bike rides and runs on the weekends and even sometimes during the week.  One week I was on my bike every day either in a class or out on the road first thing in the morning.

Colton 14 1/2 months

      I also had the privilege to babysit my grandson (16 mos old) a couple of times these past two weeks.  One day I picked him up from his daycare because both his mom and dad had to work late.  We spent some time playing and then he joined me in my studio while I was teaching.  He ate his snack nicely in his high chair and then got out and played with blocks for the rest of the class.  He was a bit of a distraction but not much.

     Yesterday my daughter came by with him after she was done teaching.  I got to play with him for a few minutes before my students came.  While I was teaching my husband made dinner and my daughter started him eating.  When I was done teaching I supervised the end of his dinner while his mommy got dressed to go out to a retirement dinner for some f her fellow teachers.  We played outside and then came in to play some more.  I read him a couple of books and then it was jammie and bottle time.  It took a bit to get him settled to sleep.  Finally I was able to eat my dinner and then get started on some housework.  Such a joy being a grandma.

     Work lately has been a series of smaller projects.  Trying to balance end of school sewing classes and get ready for summer camps.

Dock Popsie bed

     This is a photo of a blanket and pillow I made for a client.  It was a shower present for her daughter and son-in-law who own a boat.  I had previously stitched their boat logo on sweatshirts for them.  Here I did the logo on a pillow I made and then on a purchased blanket.  I was concerned that the thin lettering would get lost in the nap of the blanket so we opted for a patch of the pillow fabric stitched onto the corner of the blanket.  Made for a really nice made up bed in their cabin.

A Pile of Pillows May 2014

     I just finished up a couple of sets of pillows for a client.  She recently bought a new home and is working with a decorator to furnish it.  I have had the pleasure of sewing all the pillows.  Next I will be working on the window treatments.

 

     This pretty turquoise Ikat pillow has a self covered cord.  It was fun choosing which motif to highlight on the pillow.  I chose a different one for the back to mix things up a bit.

     On these grey pillows I chose different motifs to highlight on the fronts.  This makes them match without being identical.  They have a small trim cord on the edges.

     This orange tweed fabric has a self covered cord.  Since this fabric was more of an upholstery weight I didn't need to interline it like the previous two pillows.

     These blue velvet pillows have a knife edge with braided trim on top.  I made a 'frame' of the trim and mitered the corners.  Then I stitched in on with an matching thread before assembling the pillows.

     These grey chenille pillows are a Sunbrella fabric so they will hold up well.  They just have a knife edge finish.

     This basketweave fabric makes for some interesting looking pillows without a print.  These have a trim on top with brush fringe on the edges.  The brush fringe makes for such a lush looking pillow.

     These gold chenille like pillows have an interesting trim on the edge.  The trim is a woven tube around hard plastic beads.  It was not easy to sew because you couldn't get too close to the beads with the zipper foot and they were too big to use the cording foot.

     I had a lot of fun sewing these pillows.  Next up are her window treatments.

A Year of Pillowcases

     Before my first grandchild was born last January I made a set of bibs celebrating the 'First' of 12 different holidays.  It was so much fun to see my new grandson with his bib for each holiday.  I decided he needed something else to continue to celebrate the holidays.  Since pillowcases are fast and also small it seemed the perfect thing to do.  For directions on how I made these see my blog here.

     I was having a hard time with the fabric for the New Year's one.  Everything seemed to be geared towards drinking a toast.  I finally found a New Year embroidery I liked.  I changed the size of the hats and added his name.  Then I found fabric in my stash that looked like a party or fireworks that I used for the band.  The other two fabrics were also from my stash.

     For his Valentine's Day pillowcase I bought the fabric at a local quilt shop and then found the embroidery design in my stash.  I chose a font that was similar in style for his name.  It was hard finding fabric the wasn't all pink and lace.

     This pillowcase for Mardi Gras was all stash fabric.  I had made a table topper quilt and napkins using this fabric.   The font here is Cajun Boogie.  I thought it was appropriate for the holiday.  I did a fancy fill with circles just to change things up a bit.

    For his St. Patrick's Day pillowcase I found some cute Snoopy and Woodstock fabric at JoAnn's.  Just a simple font and white on green for his name here.

     While I was going up to my quilt retreat in March I stopped at a couple of shops on the way up.  At Patched Works in Elm Grove Wisconsin I found fabric for several of his pillowcases.  This one for Easter I thought was cute without being girly.  I think the font on this one was something like Sweet Candy.

     The next one also has fabric from Patched Works.  This one is to celebrate summer.  Here I used the opposite colors in the band and contrast strip that was in his Easter one.  I used a color changing thread for his name.  After being exposed to sunlight it should be orange.  We'll see if it works since I accidentally ironed over the thread.  Oops!

     Here is his pillowcase for the patriotic holidays.  This fabric came from Mill House Quilts in Waunakee Wisconsin.  I used the Independence font with a star fancy fill for his name.

     Then it is back to school time.  The fabric came from my local quilt shop, Quilt Play in Grayslake Illinois.  The embroidery design is from my stash and I chose a font that was similar in style for his name.

     The Halloween fabric I bought at Sew n Save in Racine Wisconsin.  I liked the font with the ghost around the upper case letters.  I did do some editing so that the ghost and letter were different colors.

    Happy Thanksgiving here.  I bought this fabric also at Sew n Save.  I couldn't find a cute Thanksgiving fabric so I embroidered the cute turkey.  I had originally bought it from Embroidery Library I think.

     His Christmas fabric came from Quilt Play.  I used the Christmas Lights font for his name.  Unfortunately you can't see his name too clearly here.  I had to do a lot of editing for this one.  When I made the lower case letters smaller there were stray stitches.  I had to move them one at a time.  A real pain but it turned out great.  That is what grandmas do for their grandkids :-)

     Of course you have to have a birthday pillowcase.  I found this cute fabric at Patched Works.  It is an Eric Carle print based on his Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar book.  It was one of my daughter's favorite books.

     Then no set of pillowcases would be complete without some sports ones.  My daughter and son-in-law love their baseball and football.  They are both Cubs fans so no problem there but when it comes to football there is a little problem.  She is a Packers fan and he likes the Bears.  The baseball fabric is from Mill House Quilts and the band and contrast strip are the opposite color way from his Fourth of July pillowcase.  The football fabric came from Sew n Save.  Now you can see I didn't use any Packers material, though I could have.  My husband and son-in-law though object to the color scheme.  Not sure why;-)  I used the same athletic font for both pillowcases, the only time I repeated a font.

     This last pillowcase is the first one I made for him.  It matches the first quilt I made for him after he was born. 

     I hope you enjoyed this year of pillowcases.  I am thinking that for my next grandchild I will make them and give them as a first birthday gift, that is if there is another one.