Little Frogs Quilt for Kids

I made this quilt in June 2008, for my daughter Jessica's 2nd birthday.

I called it "Hoppy" Birthday.  (Brilliant, eh?  LOL)

I still wish I'd used that dark purple for the binding, too!

I had lots of frog fabric left in my stash so when my mom told me her church group was making quilts to donate to Quilts for Kids, I decided to pull it out and finally use (most of) it up.  The top has been done for about 6 weeks, I just finally found time to do the quilting and binding last weekend.

I got to practice my FMQ a little bit.  I still need lots of practice!

The back is the same pink with the tiny purple box-shaped dots.

This measures 45" x 50" after washing.

While I really love subtle, girly colors, I need to break myself out of my shell and use some of the bright, colorful fabrics in my stash.  I always tend to do "matchy match" (as my daughter Rachel calls it).  Hoping my next quilt will be much different from this one.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Journal cover experiment

I decided that this year's holiday teacher gift would be a journal cover, using a composition notebook. I'm planning to personalize them for each teacher and have seen some awesome tutorials around the net. However, never being one to follow instructions well, I just measured my book, grabbed a few pieces from a batik jelly roll and dove right in. This one will be for my own project notebook, so I was going more for "decent measurements" than perfection or over-the-top creativity.

This is also my first time uploading pictures to Blogger from my iPhone, so hopefully the photo quality is at least OK.

This was fairly simple to make, it came together in under an hour.  

Front, back, inside

Inside with my composition book added.  I love this one because it has graph paper instead of just lines... good for sketching things out when I need to for a project I'm playing with.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Classic Pooh Baby Quilt

My sweet friend Rachel is pregnant with her first baby, a girl.  Her shower is later this month and she's decorating Baby Girl's nursery in Classic Pooh.  Last Christmas, she asked me to make some quilts for her nieces and mentioned that someday, if she had a baby, she'd love a quilt also.  Ask and ye shall receive!  (Oh, who am I kidding... she would have gotten a quilt even if she didn't ask!)

I wanted to use Classic Pooh but not make it *all* about Pooh.  I chose soft greens and pink from my stash, as well as a beige solid, since the Pooh fabric was a tea-dyed ivory color.  This is a classic Churn Dash block, each finished at 12".  The quilt (12 blocks) started at 36" x 48" before washing.

Just a few of the block centers --- Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore.

Thought I'd try something a little "fancier" in those beige diamonds.  Far from perfect, but it was fun to practice.

I stitched in the ditch (columns and rows) for most of the quilt, and did an all-over meander in the green and pink sections.  No quilting on the Pooh character blocks.

Even though the front isn't all Pooh, the back is :-).  This fabric is so sweet.... and the quilt is small enough that I didn't need to piece a back, so I used the fabric as is.

This little guy (gal?) will keep the quilt safe until the shower on the 23rd.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Needle Book swap

Upon returning from my vacation, I found the most lovely package waiting for me -- a needlecase from my swap partner for this month, the lovely Leona from Leona's Quilting Adventure.  How beautiful is this??  I just love it!  

Front - ladybugs in the center :-)

Inside -- she sent all those notions with it and how cute are those button pins?!?

The back - more ladybugs!

She also included some more ladybug and bug fabric for my stash

Plus a pattern and a note pad.  How generous!!

This is the one I made for Leona.  The photos are a little dark :-(.

She told me she likes patchwork, solids and hedgehogs!

Inside front cover.

The hedgehog print was a little big, so I had to keep that inside.

I used it for the pockets and the binding.

Middle

Inside back cover

(I forgot to take a picture of the back --- it looks a lot like the front)

I hope Leona will enjoy this.  I also sent some hedgie fabric for her stash.  I'm looking forward to finding out who my next swap partner is and what our next project will be!

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Halloween Projects

I know that Halloween has already passed, but I wanted to share photos of two costumes I made this year.  We went on a 5 day Disney cruise (for my birthday!!) and we were on the boat for Halloween.  We decided to do a "theme" for our family but didn't want the obvious Mickey, Minnie, etc.  We opted to be characters from Peter Pan.

I was not originally planning to make these, but a few were hard to find.  Peter Pan (me) and Tinkerbell (for my 7-year-old) were easy enough to find, so I just bought those.  (I don't usually make clothes, so wanted to avoid that as much as possible!)  However, I couldn't find anything for Wendy Darling (my 10-year-old) and an adult size Captain Hook (for my husband).  There were lots of Pirates of the Caribbean adult costumes, but no authentic Captain Hook for grown-ups.  Here's what I came up with:

My darling Wendy Darling (Rachel).

I made this costume using a Simplicity nightgown pattern (1575).

I made a few modifications to the bodice so it was lined, left off the collar and added a sash that ties in the back.

Captain Hook's jacket was made with a Simplicity Costume pattern (0209).

I made some modifications to add the gold strip and didn't add all the pattern embellishments.

I used red faux velvet for this, so it was warm!

The pants are from a Simplicity pajama pants pattern (9871) cut short.

The hat --- I can't even describe how I made that, and I could probably never make it again, lol!

The ruffled shirt is just a white t-shirt with some ruffles sewn down the front.

This costume took For.Ev.Er. to make -- but it looked great! 

Here's our whole Neverland crew.

Here I am saving Wendy and Tinkerbell from the evil Captain Hook.

I just love my girls' expressions in this one!

And, just because I can, here's one more family photo from the cruise.  We were dressed up for their "Pirates of the Caribbean" night, which was the night before Halloween.

And one more just to prove that costumes are not always required (but I did make our shirts and the 2 skirts my girls are wearing):

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~