time to live up to its name

for a long time, i have had grand ideas about making quilts based on books, especially children's books, hence the blog name.  but i haven't really put the idea into practice for a while.  one of the books i always wanted to do is this one: brown bear, brown bear by eric carle.  i actually bought the fabric and took the above picture a year ago; i was already pregnant but didn't know it yet.  when i found out, i figured this was the perfect quilt to do for my own baby.



now a year has gone by and what has become of that beautiful pile of fabric (moda marbles by the way)?

8 down, 1 to go!  each one is my own design, copied pretty much directly from the book, and hand appliqued.  all that is left is the blue horse (which i like to say would have gotten done if she hadn't decided to come a week early).  and then i will put it together and hand quilt it. sorry about the crummy photography.  i should work on that.  

 i decided while i was working on this that she'd probably never be allowed to touch it because so much of it is hand work.  so i made her another one with the help of my mother-in-law.  i'll post about that one soon.

essential sewing

I am taking a sewing class called Essential Sewing! It's on-line which is the only way to go at this point in my life. Check out my teacher's blog: Whipstitch.  I kinda know how to to sew stuff other than quilts, but it's like when I took beginning quilting several years after I started quilting.  It's amazing how much you find out you don't know as well as building confidence for what I do know.  Plus it's fun and it's a great outlet for me right now.  There is no pressure and I can do it in little bits and pieces when the baby is sleeping.  (Or sometimes she hangs out in the sewing room with me).  It's fun to see what everyone else is making too and we can comment and ask questions.  Below is what I've made so far - a napkin and a tote.  I'm supposed to be working on a tool roll-up but I screwed up making bias tape.  I think I have it figured out now but I haven't had the chance to get back to it.

Getting back on the blogging horse

Lots has happened since I last posted here.  Not only did I bind the Maine quilt, I had a baby and quit my job to stay home with her full-time!  I had quaint visions of sewing more.  I even signed up for an on-line class.  I'm kinda staying caught up with that, which inspired me to get back to this blog.  I'm told that someday we'll all sleep more and maybe that will mean I sew more.  Here's hoping!


the aforementioned 31 feet of binding

all done, sadly terrible lighting but it's what I got.  I love it.  

the final stitch

I finally finished hand quilting the quilt for my parents. It was started in 2006, with piecing by my sisters and myself. We were making it to honor the 100th birthday of our family's camp in Maine as well as their 60th birthdays. The top was fortunately done in time to present it in 2007 at the party, but the quilting has been going in fits and starts since then. When I found out I was going to have a baby, I knew I had to finish it now or never! Now all I have to do is make 31 feet of binding. . .

Quilt for turning 30

It was finally nice enough AND it occurred me to take some pictures of the husband's quilt outside.

Hand Puppets

I admit it, I'm pretty proud of these. I made them for my nephew, he's three.

I love this tutorial over on Sweetie Pie Bakery, especially the curtain - a simple idea but such a great addition to the puppets themselves. I decided to machine stitch rather than hand partly for strength and partly for time. I decided to do this a week before Christmas!

I followed her directions for the pig, elephant, and lion, and then added the penguin cause he likes them and the dog cause he has one (though he thought it was a bunny, a reasonable assumption due to the ears). The tails of the pig and dog were made with pipe cleaner. I used leftover material from the bridesmaids dresses from my wedding for the curtain and made ties so they could be velcroed (not sure if that's a word).

In action!

Christmas extravaganza

Finally got my camera back!! I had forgotten half the things that were on there (it snowed in December?) Anywho, I had been diligently photography my pre-holiday craftiness and then left my camera at a friends back east. As it turns out, I didn't even document everything I did but I'm excited to finally get to show some things off.

Using this laptop sleeve pattern, I made an Ipad cover for my mother-in-law. I made this for myself for my laptop a while back and I love it.

Sad to say but it's been so long that I'm not exactly sure who's crayon roll pattern I followed. There are plenty out there, but I definitely looked at this one. I found the colored pencils in London and bought them for my nephew who's an avid artiste. I used material from his bean bag chair that I made a couple years ago for the outside, cause it was from his chair and also cause of the tree motif.

I decided a button and some elastic would be easier to wield for his little fingers.

And the piece de resistance for this year - hand puppets and a curtain from Sweetie Pie Bakery. More on this in a minute.