Benji's Quilt

My eldest is in Pre-Primary this year ... she did Kindy last year so I thought I had this school thing pretty much sussed out.  Ah nope.

Usually in these early years of school, the children have a mascot or class teddy bear to share.  They all get to take a turn bringing him home.  Last year, in Kindy, we got to keep the bear for the whole weekend.  The bear travels around with you for the weekend for zoo visits, a ride on a train/ferry/bus etc and you take a few pics with the bear and pop them in a scrapbook.  The scrapbook makes for an interesting read!  I love reading kids accounts of things :)

Anyway ... this year when my daughter realised there was a bear to bring home we had a little dialogue that went like this:

Daughter: Mum!  Can we make a special quilt for Benji (the teddy bear) so he will be comfy in my bed?
Me: Sure! (thinking we'll have him all weekend and it would be a nice mother/daughter thing to do).
Daughter:  Great Mum!  You're the best!
Me: I know
Husband: Rolls his eyes

Is this story sounding familiar to any of my regular visitors?

So .... it's our turn to have Benji.

Daughter:  Mum! It's my turn with Benji!!!!!!! (she was super excited)
Me: That's awesome sweetheart!  (thinking ... hang on it's Thursday?  Last year we got the bear on a Friday and brought him back on Monday - alarm bells ringing)
Me asking the Teacher: So we document in the scrapbook and bring Benji back on Monday?
Teacher: No, bring him back tomorrow.
Me: Sorry, did you say tomorrow?
Teacher: Yup, just take a picture of him having dinner with you or something, you don't have to do anything fancy.
Daughter: I can't wait to make him his quilt!
Me: Gulp.

Here we go again ... 

Bringing Benji Home from School

After scrummaging through my meagre excuse for a scraps bin, it was decided that Benji shall have a blue quilt "because he's a boy mum" ... alrighty then.

I, luckily, had recently purchased some alphabet fabric called Potluck by American Jane Patterns for Moda from @cotton_factory_destash (Instagram account) so we used the letters to spell out his name ... see?  Quilting is educational for kids!

The letters are 3" square so I chopped up the blue scraps into 3" squares to match.  Then left it to my daughter to lay out in a grid  of 7x7 (maths education - tick!).

I didn't worry about fabric placement or layout ... this was supposed to be her "thing" after-all.

I did all the sewing, quilting, binding, yawning and swearing myself though.  

My daughter hasn't had a turn on my sewing machine yet and well, by the time she sorted all the squares it was time for DBBB (dinner, bath, book, bed).  

So  we popped some pics in the scrapbook of her laying out the squares and I told her that I would tuck Benji in with his new quilt after she went to sleep.

True to my word ....

Guess what happened when she woke up the next morning?

Daughter:  Mum I feel sick, my ear is sore and my throat is burning ...
Me: Oh ... no school for you today bub.  Looks like Benji is staying with us for the whole weekend after-all ...

Backing fabric is "A is For ..." purchased for Textile Traders Australia

Next time, before pulling an all-nighter sewing a teddy's quilt,  I'll remember to check my crystal ball.

... and yes, my husband did laugh at me again ...

Serena xx

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Let's Be Social and TGIFF.

Sew Together Bag

I may be a little late to the party, but that's cool right?  Oh and did I mention that I brought my maternity pants with me?   What? 

I really should be calling this my Bum Bag as that's the part of the maternity pants I used to make this little AMH vs Maternity Pants Sew Together (with friends) Bag. <---- Did you see what I did there?  

Have any of you made this bag by yourself or did you nut it out with lashings of wine and friends?

I chose to use the zipper tab ends option

My bag had a good dose of both ... and I love it.  I love it so much I want to make another one stat!

I started with cutting the bum out of my pants so that I could have a built-in pocket on the outside of my bag.  

Perfect spot for my Merchant Mills Baby Bow scissors

Quilted some hexies in place and that was my outer fabric all sorted.

AMH - True Colours

The insides took a bit of planning with friends.  Carla and Jo were over for morning tea, so I bounced some AMH fabric combos off them and came up with this ...

Carla was already ahead of me in her bag planning stage, in fact she had already tackled all of the zips into submission ... Jo looked at us both like we were crazy ladies (I'm not saying she is wrong) but I have it on good authority that she might be joining us ... in the bag making that is, not the crazy lady bit.

I joined Carla at her house for the zip bit ... strength in numbers and all that.  

I decided it was time to go home when this happened - oops! - I had top stitched my zips in a fancy-smancy-12wt-Aurifil-rainbow-thread. 

Looks awesome but it was stitched in that tight that it took about an hour to unpick ... Not. Happy. Jan! (non-Aussies will have to click here and here to understand the "Jan!" reference).

I ended up finishing the rest of the Bum Bag (see, it's stuck with that name now) on Retreat with the Perth Modern Quilt Guild.  Such a lovely bunch of ladies and a wealth of sewing knowledge to answer all my questions on construction ... and a lovely spot to sew I might add.

Hand Sewing the binding down

All finished!!

So that's 4 projects made from these pants now!  

Here's how they are looking ...

Front

Rear (lol)

... yup I reckon I could squeeze another Bum Bag out of them!

Maybe this time I'll pair them up with some Liberty ...

Bum Bag
Pattern:  Sew Together Bag
Tip: Make sure you check out the Quilt Barn for extra explanatory notes and pictures
Fabric: Anna Maria Horner - True Colours and my old Linen Maternity Pants
Zips: Purchased from Spotlight Australia

Thanks for stopping by!

Serena xx

Linking up to TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday

WIP - Hubby's Half Hexie Quilt

... is coming along nicely!

I've just spent the long weekend here in Western Australia on my first Sewing Retreat ... only one word is needed to describe the experience ... Bliss.

I pieced all 500+ half hexies required (or so I thought) for my Hubby's quilt.  I really wanted to return home from Retreat and say "Ta-da!  It's finished!" ... but that wasn't to be the case.

You may think that all the talking, drinking, eating, massages and yoga breaks soaked up too much of my sewing time, but no (well yes) but no ... you see I did piece the entire top, but, when I stood back to look at it all sewn up, I realised it was too small.

I toyed with adding a border ... but decided against it

It's just supposed to be a couch quilt, something to cover him up when he's up at 3am watching Spurs (English Premier League Football Team) play live.  It would cover his lower body if he was sitting up - but he tends to watch these matches sprawled ... well wouldn't you when the couch hoggers (read: his two daughters) are tucked up in bed and you have the whole couch to yourself?  Too right, mate.

There was an old house next to the Retreat grounds ... perfect for quilt pics - albeit unfinished quilt pics!

So I've done ... what only a good wife should do ... and ordered some more fabric to complete the job. {Pats herself on the back}.

Serena xx

Binding Tote Bag (For Me!!)

There's some selfish sewing happening around these parts ...

I've just bought this scrumptious Japanese Linen ... it was 30% off ... I couldn't help myself ... and it goes so well with these hexies I've put together.

... that Aurifil fell in my bag too ... because well, it's a match made in heaven.

I'm just after the perfect leather handles now ... I quite like the ones Rachel used here.

I'm hoping to make a bag similar to this Zakka one ...

Something to carry my quilts around in when I'm binding them.  I like to hand sew the binding down, so they get dragged everywhere with me at this stage (a few stitches here, a few stitches there) and so I need a large tote bag to carry it around in, right?

Happy Wednesday!

Sx

Texan Denim Baby Quilt

Remember when I made that Quick (not brown) Fox Quilt and I used a denim-look cotton tablecloth from Ikea?  Ring any bells?  Well, I needed a quilting weight denim source better than an Ikea table cloth (lol) and Craft Project came to the rescue with a little something (wonderful) called Texan Denim - y'all (sorry) heard of it?

I've had a good play with it now and officially love it ... here's my latest make using Texan Denim.

This little baby quilt is the one that has interrupted hubby's half hexie quilt, but as it's a gift for one of his mates, he's let it slide.

I tried a few new things with this quilt ... such as ...

I made up a pattern for scrappy sashing.

I used a variegated thread to quilt it and I didn't stay in the ditch!!!  OCD freak out!!!  I thought the pattern was beginning to look a little rigid for a baby so I loosened up the quilting lines.

To de-rigid-ise (that's a word) the quilt a little further I gave it rounded corners instead of sharp 90 degree corners using the dinner plate trick.

I used fabric with moustaches on it (weird but totally cool)

And finally, the last thing I did differently was hand stitch down the binding with a running stitch using Perle cotton.  First seen by me here.

So what do you think?

I know the new owners are happy with it ... they sent me a pic of the quilt all ready for when bub arrives ... 

Oh yeah, that's another new thing I did ... I actually got this one finished before bubs is born!  

How to wrap a quilt: 1. Have a three year old do a painting for you.  2. Wrap quilt in painting (once dry - tehe) 3. Use leftover binding to decorate ... et voilà! 

Wonders will never cease!

Texan Denim Baby Quilt
Size: 38" x 44"
Main fabric: Texan Denim
Scrappy sashing: It's a Hoot leftovers
Backing fabric: Moustache from Spotlight Australia (beware the selvage!)
Binding: Texas Denim (with Perle cotton hand stitching)
Quilting: Straight line quilting with Guttermann Sulky variegated col. 4015

So this is my first Quilt Finish for 2015 and it's totally not on my Q1 Finish Along List and neither was my daughter's Library Bag ... I see a disturbing trend emerging ... ugh.

Serena xx
Linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday ... you can too!

WIP - the school run version

I'm sitting in the car with Miss 3 (snoring her box off) waiting for Miss 4 to finish her day at school . So let's see if blogger works on my phone ... this could be tricky ... but what's life without a few flips of the coin?

Speaking of which, I flipped my own coin this week and stepped out of my 90 degree - perfectly mitred corners - comfort zone.

Yup I tried the ol' dinner plate trick ...

... and turned those sharp corners into lovely sweeping curves - ah that's better!

I made some bias binding (have curves must use bias binding), used a zillion pins and held my breath!

It turned out great!

I've tried something new with hand stitching the binding down too ...

More on that later ... but in the meantime ... what is the meaning of this message on the selvage of the fabric I'm using for the backing?

Whaaaaat?  Surely if I've purchased the fabric I can do what I like with it?

I contacted Spotlight Australia for a "please explain" ... Pauline Hanson style ... but no joy so far.

Can anyone set me straight?

Serena xx

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday (if I can get this to work on my phone !)

Unicorn Library Bag

So this little project could have gone one of two ways.

Time flies ... she's starting Pre-Primary!

It all started with reading the school stationary list and realising at the 11th hour that Miss 4 required a Library Bag for school this year.

Me: Oh you need a library bag!
Miss 4: Can I have a Unicorn one?
Me: Absolutely, no problem at all.  I know just the pattern!  (Then going for Mother Of The Year Award)  How about I print out the pattern, then you can colour in the pattern all the colours you love and we can match Mummy's fabric to the picture? ... and then I sew it up for you!
Miss 4:  Awesome Mum!  You're the best!!
Me: I know
Husband: Rolls his eyes ...

So here's her picture ... everyone say "Awww" .. thank you.

I happily tuck Miss 4 into bed shortly after proclaiming that the Unicorn (not the whole bag) shall be finished by the morning.

Now, did you notice all the blue sky in the Unicorn picture above?  Lovely isn't it?  Shame I didn't have any blue fabric on hand ...

Me: Uh Oh
Husband: You're stuffed!

With panic settling in and my MOTY Award fading into the distance, I desperately searched every nook and cranny for blue fabric ... then realised I used it all up in Husband's Half Hexie quilt.

Me: Death Stare
Husband: Snickers

Then, with the fabric fairies shining down on me, I find some rainbow dot fabric on a white background.  Bingo!  Unicorns, rainbows ... match made in heaven, right?

Rainbows and sparkly thread saves the day!!

I finished it off with some (very badly please don't look too closely) FMQ'd flowers using a gorgeous glitter thread (see above) ...

 .. and even managed to FMQ her name! (...and yes, the thread broke at the 'G' and dragged the yellow bobbin thread up and made a real mess of things!)

My FMQ writing is at about the same level as her hand writing ... she's 4 ... but ...

First day of Pre-Primary

... SHE LOVES IT!

Me: Ha!  I am the Master of the Universe!
Husband: You got lucky

Miss 3:  I want one too!!!! (cries hysterically)

Me: (... remembers she has another child that wants so desperately to go to school as well and that really she should have made her one at the same time so that she wouldn't feel too left out) .. ohh
Husband: No words ...

So ... stay tuned for the 'up and coming' Mermaid Library Bag!

Me: Must go buy some blue fabric ... mermaids ... there's bound to be water.

Serena xx

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday, Let's Be Social, TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday