I Spy Quilt

A while ago I had come across a woman who made I Spy quilts for children. I thought it was a great idea. Her quilts had very intricate patterns with much smaller squares.

I had just completed some projects with some Fancy Nancy fabric and had a bit left. It was so cute I wondered what I could do with it.

I cut two 4" squares and remembered the I Spy idea. Mine would be like that but maybe more of a matching quilt with two of each pattern. I looked through my fabric stash and cut out many more 4" squares. It was really neat to remember all my old projects made with the different fabrics. This quilt was to be a gift for my third baby who would be born in a few months. What a neat history for her too.

I decided to use 2" sashing and 4" borders. The entire quilt was made from fabric I had in the house. The backing is fleece and there is no batting.

It was a lot of fun creating the pattern and figuring out how to put it all together. My kids offered their opinions and I also took a few pictures of the different configurations to help me decide.

Finally done!

Texture Quilt Revisited

I've enjoyed making different texture quilts and was planning to make one for my new baby. As I was thinking more about it, I had the idea to make the different squares into appliqués.

It was a lot of fun planning and finding images to use. I used iron on adhesive to hold the appliqués as I stitched them down. A great tip!

It turned out bigger than I initially planned, but I like it even better this way. I found a neat, soft and bumpy fabric for the backing.

Fancy Nancy Nightie

While shopping at JoAnns one day, I spotted some Fancy Nancy fabric that would be perfect for a little girl nightie. Fortunately I have a little girl and she would love a new nightie.

I did not know that the Christmas dolls would need new pjs too!

For the nightie I took a nightie that fit my daughter and designed a pattern from that. Because it is Fancy Nancy we are talking about, we would need extra ruffles too.

My daughter loved it and said her doll needed one too. So off to design a doll nightie. I had some doll clothes patterns, but also used other doll clothes as a guide.

Then apparently the boy doll couldn't sleep without pjs either. I used a button down shirt as a guide for the top and a pants pattern for the bottoms. Fortunately I had enough fabric on hand.

Texture Quilt for Babies

I love when ideas just come to me. My very first quilt I made was for my daughter, Sydney, when she was a baby. We were at JoAnns and she was in a front carrier. I was looking at fabric and she kept reaching for this one print. It had butterflies and was a deep purple. She really liked it!

I decided to buy the fabric, but wasn't sure what it would turn into.

Finally the idea for a baby quilt came to mind. But I wasn't sure I had time or energy for a quilt as I had a young baby and also a preschooler.

Back to JoAnns we went in search for coordinating fabric. I knew then that I would like to find materials which had very distinct textures. We looked through the clearance area and found all kinds of great things: corduroy, bumpy, lacy, slippery, satiny, dotted, and more!

After finding 9 different fabrics, I started making my squares and trying to get the pattern to look right. Then I had a very tired baby on my hands. I never liked having to take a break in my sewing before having kids, but now I have seen the benefits of having extra time to think about things.

During that nap and some computer time, I learned about sashing and how nice it would look. I was hooked. The butterfly fabric would have a place in the middle with lace over it, be the sashing, and the backing. After the nap or the next day, everything came together.

Here are some more texture quilts I've made as gifts. They are always pretty small and just right for some tummy time. Later the small quilt has become a blanket for a doll.

Nutcracker Gifts for my Little Performer

The summer before Sydney was in Kindergarten I remembered a friend telling me about her daughter's experience performing in the Nutcracker. I did a quick search and found that auditions would be the next month! Great timing!

She tried out and got a part as a Page. It is a very small part where a group of children march onto the stage with their horns, raise their horns as if to play, and then march off stage. Because all of the pages are between five and seven years old, this part of the ballet is especially cute.

I was at JoAnns for some reason and saw all the shiny metal ornaments. They seemed to be all musical instruments. Kyle was a saxophonist now, so I looked around for a saxophone. No saxophone, but I found a horn that looked identical to the ones the kids used in the ballet! I was certainly going to get one for Sydney and then thought about getting some for the other kids.

The horn was the same shape, but it was missing something. The horn the kids used had red cording around it. I looked around for red cording and had a plan. I hot glued the cording on the horn and it looked great!

Because the Nutcracker experience seemed so significant for my daughter I thought about what else I could do for her to help her remember. I was able to take backstage pictures and also saved the letter of acceptance and the program. With these items and some Christmas themed stickers I made a little photo album for her.

But one more idea was in my head. I wanted to make a little doll Page, just like Sydney's costume. We already had doll clothes pins and fabric wasn't a problem. A little glue, a little cutting, and we had a little Page.

Sorcerer Mickey Costume

We were planning a trip to Disney World and planned to attend the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. Sydney already had a Minnie Mouse costume I had purchased. I talked Kyle into being Sorcerer Mickey.

I found some costumes, but they were vintage and very expensive. I decided to try to make it myself. I thought a lot about the cape part and how to make the collar. I looked at many, many images on Google. Finally I was ready to cut my fabric. It went together pretty well. I purchased a Sorcerer Mickey hat and found blue shiny athletic pants which I shortened to long shorts. I also got black leggings and a long sleeve black shirt. When it was all put together, there was no mistaking, Kyle was Sorcerer Mickey.
Unfortunately it was unseasonably HOT in Disney that October and Kyle couldn't tolerate the costume for long.

Quilt for my son

Having one bed sized quilt under my belt, I was ready to take on one more.

After searching for patterns again I came across the idea of the disappearing nine square quilt. I thought it would be great and liked it even more with only three colors.

I made one square out of construction paper and then asked my son to help me design it. He had great ideas of how to reposition the cut pieces. Using the paper really helped.

Using fairly large squares made everything go quickly and then deciding to use sashing gave the quilt a nice look and made it bigger without having to add more squares.

My son wanted all the colors to be solids, but we compromised with some patterns.

Love that disappearing nine square!