A Gift for Ezra's First Birthday

A friend of mine I quilt with on Monday nights has two children. The youngest, Ezra, was born eight days after Samuel. For Ezra's first birthday I made him a pair of pants.

Two cut out pant legs for sized 6-12 months

Pants sewn together

Sliding in the elastic for the waistband

Cuff detail

The finished product with roll-able cuffs.

Courtney, Ezra's mum, loves Japanese fabric... Well, she loves pretty much everything Japanese craft, so I made the pants out of some scrap Japanese fabric I had left over from making a skirt for our friend, Amy, in Austin. Baby pants are pretty easy to make. I have a feeling I will be making more in the future for other friends and family members having babies.

Sew, while working on the community quilt...

Monday night at our regular weekly quilting and crafty meet-up I managed to sew my left index finger.

Yes, the needle went all the way through my finger.

I hadn't completely disengaged the backstitch on my machine by letting the needle go forward. As a computerized machine it couldn't have possibly known and was just doing "its job." I was moving the quilt to the next square for quilting. When I dropped the walking foot into place the needle jumped and went right through my finger. My foot was no where near the foot controller.

Fortunately there were some very calm souls present who helped me think through how to get the needle out of my finger and keep me from freaking out. It hurt like the dickens and felt pretty gross as the needle and eventually threads were pulled out. Another fortunately blessing was the lack of blood. That actually would have done me in for the night.

Today my finger is really sore and red. Typing is a bit of a challenge, but other than that I think I will live. There is always going to be more sewing projects, and needles through the finger are part of the process. Right???

Free-motion Sam

I am currently prepping for Sam's first birthday. The above is an embroidery I made using free-motion and Paper Solvy. The image was taken from a recent photo taken on our patio on one of the first Spring-like days. The embroidery was first used for Sam's birthday invitation, and eventually I will add more to it. It will likely end up on a wall featuring various photos of Sam. Once the picture is complete I will share on the blog.

I'm also making a birthday banner for the special occasion. We aren't going overboard for the festivities, but feel like we should continue hand-making things in all aspects of Sam's wonderful life. I never need an excuse to make things, but he is certainly worth it!

A stitch in dye: Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design

Looks to be another book I need to add to my wish list.
Many thanks to the incredible Malka Dubrovsky for bringing it to my attention with her blog.

a stitch in dye: Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design: Yoohoo! Remember me? I haven't been in this space for a couple weeks, but I thought I'd pop beck here today to tell you about a fabulous new...

Circus Quilt for Baby Stella

Quilt Detail

One of the girls from the book club I attend is having a baby girl any day now. She told me the nursery theme was circus with orange as the main color. This is what I fashioned together for her.

Completed crib-sized quilt

She seemed to really like the quilt, and the color choices I made were apparently spot-on. Her quilt is one of several baby quilts I will be making in 2012. The next baby quilt will feature the colors gray, yellow, and white. I'm also currently contemplating making a wedding quilt for another friend of mine. That will be a first.

Sam to help display the size of the quilt.

Sam makes a great model. I love that little man.
Til the next adventure- pillows...

Fabric WIPs

Circles WIP

I have finally started working with dye again after the baby-related hiatus. (Dye powders and  little ones do not mix.) My inspiration partially comes from knowing I will be attending a 2 day shibori workshop the last two weekends of March. The workshop, taught by Amber Coppings is hosted by the Fiber Arts Guild of Pittsburgh, which I recently joined as a member.

Squares WIP

The second inspiration comes from my long-term desire to fill my fabric stash with less commercial fabrics. I'm actually about to dump a load of PFD white cotton in the wash to get ready for a few more runs of color. The green and orange dyes are calling my name today for some reason.

Both of the above pictures fabrics are works in progress. Each have been dyed a shade of red, resisted with soy wax and over-dyed with another shade of red, and discharged. I'm currently contemplating adding another color or doing some embroidery work. Only time will tell...

Another Baby Quilt

"Modern Circus" Baby Quilt WIP

A wonderful woman in the monthly book club I attend, Bookish Babes of Pixburgh, is having a baby in March. Unable to attend her baby shower I still wanted to make something to help celebrate welcoming her first child into the world. Next week the book club is getting together so I am spending today and part of the weekend finishing the quilting and binding.

I contacted her when I learned of the shower to find out if she minded me making something and if she and her husband had selected colors or a theme. She told me there was a lot of orange in the nursery and in the end it ended up having a sort of circus theme. Inspired I selected a variety of bright solids and began piecing them together. The above is the quilt as a work-in-progress (WIP). Once it is completed I will post detailed pictures.