Five Shadows

Daughter # 1 and her hubby asked for his & her matching plaid bathrobes for Christmas.  My Dear Hubby and I did some on line searching for said matching plaid his & her bathrobes and came up short. Did I mention that flannel was also a requirement in the matching part of the his & her plaid bathrobes? Phew! What a list to try to accommodate!

Since the on-line search did not pan out, I up and said to Dear Hubby that I could make plaid matching his and her flannel bathrobes for the two. I  already had 6 pairs of flannel PJ bottoms in the making for my crew. So just how difficult would it be to find 12 yards of matching plaid flannel? A lot harder than I expected! I found out that our local Joann Fabrics flannel comes only  8 yards to a bolt. What is up with that!? And since it was now so close to Christmas, there was not two partial bolts of the same fabric to be had. Oh bother. I could go to the local quilt shop, but their flannel is expensive. I had already bought flannel there for the PJ bottoms when the shop held a BOGO for each yard of fabric purchased. It was their anniversary sale the first weekend in November. And a great sale it was! My only other option seemed to be to check out the local Hancock Fabrics store. Boy was I pleased when I found they carry bolts of flannel with 12 yards per bolt! And I was even more pleased when I found a bolt of green plaid! And then I learned they had  Simplicity patterns for one dollar each! I bought two of the same pattern so I didn’t have to trace anything. A his and a her pattern each! Now I just hoped I had the right plaid to make the couple happy with their homemade Christmas gifts.

Here they are wearing their PJ bottoms, matching green plaid bathrobes. Notice they are also wearing slippers – given to them by daughter # 2 who did not know what I was up to with making PJs or bathrobes!

I signed up for Julie Fei-Fan Balzer online class It’s Sew Easy. She is such a fun gal and I’m thoroughly enjoying her classes, watching her videos and hopping around looking at how the other students are interpreting the lessons. But, I’m way behind in doing the actual sewing. Here are my first little bits. I skipped the painting part and just grabbed some scrap booking papers.

This is a streamer made of punched out butterfly and scalloped circle shapes.

I used the streamer to decorate a baby gift for a friend. The gift is a baby blanket with an appliqued butterfly, purchased, not crafted by me. The butterflies decorating the outside coordinate with the blanket inside!

Next I made a gift tag using more butterflies and a little paper ribbon technique I saw on a blog. It took me a while to locate the source of the ribbon. It’s Every Life Has A Story! blog’s post: {Make It} Paper Bag Ribbon.

Gift with streamer and tag:

Julie does lots of painting on her papers, tags, fabrics before sewing. I do plan on experimenting, following her instructions, but for now, I’m happy with my scrap paper results. I hope Becky and baby Rachel will be pleased too!

Funky Monkey fabric by Moda. One pillow case, one jammy bottom child size 2, and one size 6.

Two ponchos. Child size 6 made from pre-quilted fabric.  Child size 4 made from 54″ wide fabric, lined.

I searched back to my years long ago in garment making to put a nice finished touch to the seams of the pre-quilted poncho. The photo above shows the finished look where one side of the inside seam allowance is trimmed to 1/4 inch, and using remaining 5/8 inch seam allowance, turn under to cover the seam and top stitch. You see the top stitching on the outside of the garment. I’m pointing to the top stitching on the red outside, and to the covered seam of the inside of the poncho.

To finish the inside seam of the hood, I used the bias-covered method. I made a single fold bias strip from a coordinating fabric, trimmed the seam allowance, and top stitched the bias strip over the seam allowance. The following picture shows the outside top stitching.

The lighting is not the best in these photos. But I think you can see the garments ok. I used bias binding to finish the outside edge of the hood, the hem of the poncho and for the ties at the neckline. I have not made a garment in years! And I have to say I had fun with these projects! But I think I’ll stick with quilting for my main outlet in sewing!

This is my one finish for the month of May with OPAM sponsored Peg and Kris. This is a year long challenge to finish at least one project a month and then post it  on your blog. Of course if you are making more than one project a month, you share those as well. I’ve had a very slow month.

I bought this pattern from vendor Kaye Moore, while at the International Quilt Festival, Chicago, in April.

I changed it up just a bit by hand stitching yo-yo hearts to the background fabric and free motion stitching the saying.

I really love how this turned out! I am not a hand embroiderer, so I’m very tickled by my attempt at those french knots! This was playing and I hope to do more, learning hand embroidery!  The idea to free motion machine stitch the saying came from Rebecca Sower’s red thread sessions. Altho I have done free motion quilting, I’d never done free motion writing, but once I saw Rebecca’s session # 3, I knew that was how I would apply the saying for this project. (Thanks for the inspiration Rebecca!) And the last bit about this piece is the fabric is all from a swap/challenge hosted by Melissa of Ardea’s Nest. 8 of us swapped fabric and then use a piece of each of the fabrics in one project. I used the fabrics to make the heart yo-yos. Thanks for hosting the sawp/challenge Melissa! It was fun being a part of it and I’m just plain-o tickled with my piece!

And, I just kept playing with the hearts – this piece is not finished yet. I know, I need to learn some other embroidery stitches.

(Photography by Noel Schutt. Thanks son!)

These pretties will soon be an apron.

Cloth Doll Book is complete.

There are pockets on the front and back inside to hold the clothes.

I think allergies set in while visiting family and friends in NC and TN. Back home now and coughing my little head off. I couldn’t sleep so I got up and have been hopping around in blog land. I never showed a picture of the finished Ashley bag so here it is with a pocket added to the outside and the handle construction changed from the pattern instructions.

My next project completed is a curtain for a friend. I don’t like to sew curtains, and really don’t remember why I agreed to make up these – but finally! the curtain is finished. (Sorry Sandy that I took so long to sew um up.) Next time I’m asked to sew curtains, I think I’ll recommend the person goes to Jo-Ann Fabrics and inquire about a seamstress! Sandy made a lovely quilt for a young grand-daughter and now has a matching curtain.

You might remember from an earlier post that I am participating in a canvas bag round robin. We each started with the same size 13″ x 15″ x 7″ canvas tote bag. We each picked a theme for our bag and included fabric and items in that theme to pass along with the bag – for using in decorating/altering the bag. This is the third of twelve bags to which I will contribute. The theme for this bag is “Mary Engelbreit.” The owner of this bag included yards and yards of Mary Engelbreit (ME) fabric, along with a ME magazine and several ME books. The first picture shows the bag as I received it. A beautiful cross-stitch with a small border of yellow fabric. The second picture shows what I added – in a fabric collage style. First I purchased and attached a wide yellow rick-rack. Then I fused ME fabric to fusible web. I cut out several motifs and fused them around the cross-stitch. Then I stitched around the motifs in black thread. The cherries above the bowl on the left side are fused to a red fabric and stitched only at the top of the stem so they are three-dimensional. The cherries on the right side I hope look like they are pouring out of the teapot and into the teacup.

fabric collage I added

This past fall, Daily Window announced a sale on their demo bags. I bought two, with the plan on giving one to a dear friend for her November birthday. She loooooves purses just about more than any other possession! To create a card and tag, I used fabric with butterflies, the color purple, and the theme of love, all of which are her favorite things. Searching for a quote for the card, “Love is like a butterfly. It goes where it pleases, and it pleases wherever it goes.” (author unknown) seemed appropriate. The card was placed in the clear pocket and the tag was attached to the bag with ribbon. My friend is still using the bag as I decorated it. I have encouraged her to create her own art to display in the window pocket – and I’m sure she will! If you have not seen these clear pocket bags – they come in a variety of styles – for displaying your own creations, I encourage you to check out their website and blog!