beginning of a quilt: calendar kids

Besides sewing a puppy quilt for my nephew,

most of my project lately have been small and fast:

heart pillows for Valentine's day,

lavender sachets, bags for Hawaii,

and an Easter basket.

So it was time to start a larger project,

a big quilt with lots of appliques.

It is based on a pattern I purchased many years ago:

Calendar kids by American Jane.

I simplified it and shrank it,

as it was too large and too busy for my tastes.

The first 3 blocks are for fall,

with back to school and a big yellow bus for September,

with a stack of pumpkins for October,

and finally a cute turkey for November.

The pattern came with a panel of fabric with "paper" dolls and their outfits.

So I just ironed wonder under on the back of the fabric,

cut out the dolls, dressed them up and fused them to the background.

The accessories to the scene (bus, pumpkins, turkey) are not part of the fabric

and must be home/handmade but follow the same principle.

I had previously used the dolls to make a fabric book for Baby K.

It is fun to use it again for this quilt.

Next time: winter!

Happy sewing!

Sharing at Quilt Story

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bunny basket

I made this cute little basket to carry chocolate bunnies, the perfect Easter treat.

I followed this tutorial from naehkitz, another relatively fast project. The deer fabric is an old  Lecien print, I attached the handle with some cute flower/buttons.

Happy sewing! and happy Easter.

phone case for the beach

Another little sewing project I made for our trip to Hawaii  was a water resistant pouch for my phone.

I do not use my phone too often, but I did not want it wet during our adventures. Just like for the swimsuit bag, I used the "travel label" fabric  from Tim Holtz and vinyl. I was inspired by this post from Polkadot Chair but mostly followed this tutorial from Little Bug stitches.

I added an extra layer of vinyl inside, so that the phone is between two pieces of vinyl, it worked out well. Happy sewing!

We had a great time in Oahu, not just hanging out at the beach, but also spending an entire day at Pearl Harbor Memorial. It was very interesting, the kids and I learned quite a bit. Brick Master is taking the AP US history class/test, so it was perfect for him, if only the school could see it that way! We need to re-watch the Pearl Harbor movie (even if it is not totally accurate) now that we have visited the navy base....

Aloha!

wet swimsuit bag

Are you ready for Spring, or even better Spring break? We just had the luxury of an early Spring break in Hawaii! It was our first visit and I hope not the last one. Mon Cheri had to go there for work, so we went with him. The kids and I had a great time at the beach and visiting the island of Oahu. And just before going, I had a little time to do some sewing, so I made a vinyl bag to carry our wet swimsuits. (swim shirts were required for afternoon swim, too much sun on our winter skins!) I followed this tutorial from Negligent style, I just changed the size as I wanted it quite larger.

I had purchased this cool retro print "travel labels" from Tim Holtz 

without any project in mind, but with the picture of the surfer,

it was made for an Hawaiian project.

The bag worked well, it kept the rest of our stuff dry, but the sand had a tendency to accumulate in it, I guess we cannot have it both ways. Happy sewing! While we did not surf, we enjoyed playing in the water with a body board:

A beautiful afternoon at Kailua.

A wonderful morning at Ko Olina.

Aloha.

set of three little pouches

One of my girlfriends' birthday is coming up, of course I wanted to sew something for her, but something different or at least something I had not sewn in a while. So when I saw this blog post by Pretty By Hand, I knew I wanted to sew some pouches, a set of three, just like hers.

I did not buy the pattern, I just made it up as I went along. I have made so many pouches, that I am getting good at making them, with or without patterns. The zippers on the front make it even easier to sew than the zippers on the top edge as most pouches have it.

I chose 3 coordinating prints from Andover fabrics (Low tide collection), sea urchins for the big pouch with linear quilting, seaweed for the middle one, and seagulls for the small one. They are quilted differently but all lines in seaweed,  light color makes it easier to fin anything inside! The inside side seams were covered with a seaweed biding, making them as pretty on the inside as the outside. As a stack of three, they will make an excellent present.

Happy sewing!