Schoolday Skirt

I really like the vintage feel this little skirt has, and Lucie just loves the way it fits her too! We went out and took a few photos of this skirt in action in our back yard. This was after a day of play so it may look a little wrinkled and have a few food stains on it :0) I made her a little pair of bloomers to go under it because this is a little rough and tumble kinda girl and I am not a fan of seeing her "panty flash" on the playground or anywhere else she feels the need. SO we have a win win here! A cute pair of coordinating bloomers to make her look girly and cute, she can jump and roll on the ground, and mommy is happy! I put four different vintage buttons on the front that coordinate because I wanted to use some of my stash, but not have to spend any more money of buttons... I have so many! I am really happy with how this skirt looks and I know I will be making her more as she grows.

                                      There is a pink and white hounds tooth detail in the pocket area.

Rabbit Lovie and Baptism

This week I wanted to post the free motion appliqued rabbit lovie I had mentioned a few weeks ago. I finished it and Sara June has been sleeping with it about two weeks now. She really loves the taggies on the end of the blanket. I really think it is so cute!

Sara June was baptized this past Sunday ad she was beautiful! I made her these little shoes, but Mom found the vintage handmade dress and bonnet for her at an auction. It was so much fun and we were so glad for those who came to her ceremony.

Sara June Jeffcoat

dedicated on February 23rd, 2014

the great grandmother Sara June is named after

And last but not least here is my weekly Leah Day block. I really like the design wiggly pasta for a couple of reasons. it is easy to do, and it has a really great look to it! I love to do free motion instead of following the lines :0)

Sara June Tribute

This week I enjoyed quilting the circles block, and did like Leah and just free handed them. I did rough sketch them out with my dissolving ink pen first though....Because we plan on baptizing our daughter tomorrow morning, I thought I would incorporate a cross on the block corners and I really like how it looks. I soaked the block to get all the ink off....it is wet in the photo.

Sylvia I have quilted five of your blocks this week! Looking good! And yes, there is one with a golden retriever on it. Would you like me to free motion embroider his name on the block to remember him? If so, just comment on this post. (But his name would be backward on the the reverse of the block because this quilt is double sided!) it would be small though...

Spaghetti noodles design from this weeks video tutorial...I just did it one way, not both ways across. Maybe I'll do another block with both directions because I thought this was a fun design!!

                                                                      regular stippling

                                                                             some curls

                                                                       some wavy lines

and a large circle that takes up the whole block on the machine

Love it!

I spent some time this afternoon quilting and really enjoyed it. Although I have been quilting for a long time, I feel like I am learning something new! Believe it or not I really enjoyed stitching out the straight lines that we were to do this week free motion style because it is really helping me with my foot and hand speed regulation. Sometimes I see some areas on the back of my quilt (especially when doing loops or curves) where the thread looks like the stitches are not 'tight" or locked together. Does that make sense? It's more like the bobbin thread is laying on the bottom side, and if the thread was cut or picked loose the whole line of stitching would just bust loose because the stitching is not tight woven....(ok did anyone follow that at ALL?!) ANYWAY, I am finding that by stitching straight lines towards me, I am getting into a groove of the speed that I should be feeding the fabric through as well as how much I should push the gas to keep up with that speed. I am doing the outside line around the block first (I call that my warm up lap) and then I start quilting on the inside of the block. This gives me some time to practice speed/feed control and then do a better job when I start quilting out the middle. I am much happier changing my thread color choice to the butter yellow and am officially caught up to speed with the free motion quilt along! :0) YAHOOOOOO!

 

Make Time

OK I love something Leah said in her video today!! Don't quilt the block like someones is standing there with a gun to your head! Slow down, take your time and enjoy the process. I did not blog last week because I was thinking so hard about the quilt, how it was turning out, and trying to decide what to do about it. I decided that I am going to change my thread color to butter yellow (which is what I wanted to do to begin with) instead of the brown, which was making me feel icky about this project. You know if you don't want to do it, it probably isn't going to get done ...so I have re cut and sewn all of the first three blocks, as well as the three blocks for the month of February! I am going to go back and "start over" with the quilting piece now that I have everything prepared. I took the time to cut my batting squares out, and now I just need to cut my backing squares all out. I think I'm going to like this much better :0)

Sylvia I plan to make good progress on your t-shirt quilt this week. I have made 15 "square sandwiches", and I have five more to make. After all sandwiches are done, I am going to start quilting them out! (The fun part :0)  I will repost at the end of the week to show some progress!  

I am so excited to finish this up for Lu this week....It is our Rabbit Family :0) We cut out all of the applique pieces together and she helped me place them on the blankie. She had so much fun doing this..I just noticed one of the bunnies has lost it's hand when taking the photos...we'll have to re cut that! 

By the way I have made so many things this past week besides quilting but to hit a few:

*A "Frozen" themed peasant dress and cape for Lucie
*Two dresses for the Etsy shop
*Eight Infinity Scarves
*A Cat in the Hat Birthday Shirt
*A baby changing pad cover/burp cloth, and ribbon
*Twins matching onesies set
*Baby leggings with feet for Sara June
*Five Valentines Day picture frames with lucie's handprints shaped like a heart and Sara June's foot print attached to the side (once I get a photo inside I will show these off)
 *An overall dress for the Etsy shop...did I leave anything out....