Best of 2012–for my Family

Let me start by saying I sewed many garments for my youngest 2 girls this year, the majority was maternity.
1,McCall's 5525 – Leopard trench and winner of the Best 2012 Pattern Contest at Pattern Review.  I heart this jacket, Meredith wore it just the other day and hubby was amazed that I made this.  I not sure where he was the entire time I was sewing it and Meredith modeled it


2.  Burda – 7318 – Maternity coat, I have seen this on Erin several times and it looks fantastic.  A perfect style for pregnancy
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3. Simplicity 2226 – made twice and will be made again, a great pattern

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4.  Simplicity 4281 – a knock-off of an Express jacket for Erin.

5. Megan Neilsen Ruched Maternity Shirt – made six times for Erin.

and

and

and

and

plus one more I didn’t get a picture of.
6.  Vogue 1224 for Erin

7.  Simplicity 2512 – made 3 times and have fabric for one more
 
8.  New Look 6648 – the fabric makes this top

9.  Simplicity 2362 – for Kaitlyn and it looks great on her

10.  Butterick 5497 – made twice for Erin, looks great on her.


11.  Ottobre 5/2008 – a pattern I wanted to make for along time and finally got to it.  Erin had this on one day and it is a perfect maternity style

12.  I HAVE to include one outfit for my grandson (due in March) link here

I went back and counted the number of maternity garments, it was 26, now I know where all my sewing time was spent!
Tomorrow, the top 12 of quilts and bags.

Best of 2012 for me

It is that time again, the best sewing projects of 2012.  My first post will be the best sewing projects for me, then I will do one for my girls.
1.  Simplicity 2728 – I wear this quite a bit and get compliments every time.

2.  Hot Patterns - Riveria Jacket- My go-to jacket.



3. McCall;s 6163 – nice basic for my closet


4.  Butterick 5526 – love the gingham and the pattern



5. McCall's 6563 – an easy to sew shirt but looks great many different ways


6. McCall's 6512 – made twice and have fabric for one more.  I really, really like this top

and


7. Simplicity 2580 – my favorite thing made for me in 2012

8. Vogue 8831 – my most recent garment,and a winner


9.  New Look 6097 – wasn’t sure about this one but it has grown on me
 

10. Vogue 8747 - always need another basic white shirt

worn a couple different ways.


11.  Simplicity 1919- Ponte pants – these are great when I am not sure what to wear, they look great with several things.


12.  Simplicity 2584 – wonderful pattern, love how the yoke comes together

The big thing for me this year was co-coordinating with Lynne the Wardrobe Basic Sewalong

I do know after looking back at 2012’s blog posts, I did sew a lot of garments, quilts and bags but most were not for me.  I do need to change that a bit this year, I purchased more RTW this year than I have in a long time.  Now I know why.
Tomorrow’s post, Top 12 garments sewn for my daughters.  This will be hard to narrow it down to 12.

Nursery

Here is a couple more items completed for my grandson’s nursery.
First the hanging book displays, made from this tutorial.  My only change was to make the displays 35” wide, that was the wall space available in the nursery

The second item is the crib skirt made from a tutorial from Sew 4 Home.
Changes here are omitting the ties, which is an option in the pattern.  Also, making the length shorter than their recommended cutting instructions.  The pattern does state to carefully measure and add 1” for seam allowances.  Erin and I measured 18” for the drop of the skirt.  We measured incorrectly, I need to shorten the skirt by 2”.  To do this I am going to take it from the top of the skirt.  The top is attached to a platform piece and the panels are lined, I think shortening from the top will be the easiest.

See it is just a little too long.
One more change, I did not add a panel to the back.  The crib is always going to be against the wall and I did not want to use fabric for that.  I did attach 3 pieces of ribbon, I thought it might need to be tied to the back and help with the weight from the front.
Tonight I finished a pillow for the rocker, we covered some canvases with fabric for some art on the walls and painted some letters for the canvas project.
All these pictures were taken with a phone.  Once the nursery is totally complete, I will go in with my camera.
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Today was our Christmas with all our daughters and our two son-in-laws, it was the most wonderful day.  I enjoyed the family time, the food and my cute new clothes.  I am blessed with a wonderful family.

Crib Sheets

My little grandson will be here before we know it and Erin is taking advantage the Christmas break from teaching to get the nursery in order.  That means Grandma,  Nana  or Nanny, or who knows what my name will be, needed to get busy.  I went to work on crib sheets.
Using this Tutorial from Sew 4 Home to make the crib sheets.  There is only one problem with this tutorial, the fabric requirements are 45” wide.  Most quilting cottons don’t come 45” wide anymore.  Instead of turning the edges 3/8” then another 3/8” under, I serged the raw edges and turned the 3/8” only once.  This saved 3/4” of an inch (approximately).
I made four over the last 2 days, one is pieced with strips of yellow and a cute John Deere print.  The nursery is browns, greens and yellows, with a touch of John Deere items. 
Here is the stack, folded terribly, I never have mastered fitted sheet folding

Here is the pieced one in place:


A pillow, the book slings, a crib skirt and Meredith needs to finish his quilt, then the nursery sewing is complet.

Aqua Baby Quilt

Here is the second baby quilt, made for a present when needed.  I found the pattern online and here is the tutorial
I purchased this charm pack with a couple of my quilting buddies, we like to go to new stores and this was our first trip to this particular store. I was drawn to the unusual color combination and thought how fun for a little girl, not the traditional pink.

Winners - Bags and patterns

There were 30 total entries for the giveaway (had to eliminate a couple of duplicates).  So I am going right in the order I had the items listed on my blog post.

Winner of the finished  Rose- Messenger Bag

Lucky #13 is

gwensews10:38 AM

What a nice gift from you to us. I only made one gift this year, which is a knitted ruffly scarf and matching crocheted headband/earwarmer. It was a hostess gift.

Winner of the finished Daisy - Messenger Bag

Lucky #15 is

Bea García11:20 AM

My favorite gift is a Composition Caddy I made for a nephew... he loves to draw and paint! Thanks for the chance to win...

Winner of the Rose pattern (either print or email a pdf) is

Lucky #27 is 

HIcraftsy1:59 AM

I have been making aloha shorts and shirts for holiday gifts.

And last but not least is the Daisy pattern (either print or email a pdf) is

Lucky #16 is

atymetosew1:27 PM

I made my mom a cell phone case for Christmas this year. I know she will be happy because she asked for one 2 years ago. Thanks for the great giveaway!

Winners please email me with your addresses for the completed bags and then the pattern winners tell me if you want the print pattern or the pdf.

Thanks all who entered, it was so fun reading your Christmas sewing.

Early Birthday Present

You have probably noticed, I have not been sewing much lately.  There is a very good reason, I have been scrapbooking.  

Three years ago, after Paige and Jesse were married, I made her a scrapbook of all the events leading up to and including the wedding.  This was part of her birthday present.

Erin reminded me of this fact and her birthday is January 1st.  About the first of November, I got busy on this project.  Paige had one album and Erin ended up with three.  I kept wondering why it was so different and then I remembered.  Paige's wedding photographer supplied us with over 700 photographs.  Erin's photographer took many photos but gave us just over 300.  For Paige's album, I ordered the best photos and the ones I wanted for the album.  For Erin's, I ordered all 300 pictures.

So here are the 3 albums

• the first is events leading up to the wedding (showers, dress fitting, decorating, bachelorette party, etc.
• the second album includes the pictures before the wedding, during and right after
• the third album is the reception and opening of presents the following day.  There are leftover pages for Erin to include the honeymoon pictures.

I could not wait to give Erin these scrapbooks, so today after Christmas brunch, I had her open these three presents early.

This afternoon I started on crib sheets for grandson, I just need to get some 1/4" elastic to finish.  I need to make a pillow and these cute hanging book displays

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Chevron Baby Quilt

In September and October, I made four baby quilt tops but didn’t want to show them on the blog until they were quilted.  Why four?  Just to have a supply of baby quilts.  My older two daughters have several friends who are having babies or are just getting married.  I wanted to have quilts made to give as gifts. 
I have the first one back from the longarm quilter and the binding is complete, which means time to show it off.
Let me start by saying I purchased this Riley Blake layer cake with the intention of using it for March-due grandson.  Here is the fabric which was on top, the cute little deer with other woodland animals.

That soon changed when I opened the layer cake and the predominant color was PINK!  Let me say, I ordered this layer cake online so I couldn’t preview the other fabrics.
I decided to make this quilt just to have when needed for a little girl.  The next thing to decide was a pattern.  Missouri Star had just uploaded How to make a chevron quilt using 10" squares and it was perfect. 
My quilt turned out long and narrow, so I added a border on the sides only.  When I finished piecing it, I thought this is so ugly and I almost threw the top away. Meredith convinced me to quilt it and I am so happy she did.  The quilted version is so cute.


I was worried if the chevron would show up with all the busy prints but keeping like color fabrics together the pattern does present itself.
Here is a close-up of the pattern and the quilting:


Now I have another quilt ready for when a cute little baby girl is born.
Enjoy your last weekend before Christmas, we are heading to celebrate with my husband’s family.

Christmas Giveaway

It is almost Christmas and I haven’t done a giveaway in awhile, so what better time than now!
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First up, a completed bag from my pattern – “Rose”
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Second giveaway – a completed bag from my pattern “Daisy”
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and here is the back of “Daisy”

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Interested in a third prize?  A pattern for the “Rose” bag, either mailed in a print format or emailed in a pdf format.
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and finally there is a fourth giveaway, the Daisy pattern, once again mailed in print format or emailed in pdf format.
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To enter, just leave a comment on what is the favorite gift you made this holiday season or what gift you hope is under the tree for you.
I will draw four winners on the evening of December 26th. 
Good luck and thank you for all the comments you leave on my blog throughout the year.