A finish and a beginning

Marg and I have been steadily working away making wheelchair quilts. 

This is one top that is now complete. Deciding on the pattern was the easiest so far in the history of us making quilts. Marg happened to be perusing a quilt book of miniatures or something and we saw this and it was like a 'eureka' moment. The original had more blocks and one more row but that gave us the idea. We are trying to use up the fabrics we have and so this is what we came up with.

This is the top we are working on at the moment. One of the guilds I belong to had some kits to be sewn up into lap quilts and I picked one up. This was a couple of years ago and I remembered how easy the pattern was. The one I had put together was prints of blue with a white solid. When it came time to make another wheelchair quilt, I remembered this pattern but didn't know the dimensions. I knew that it was a square when finished and so, if the print in the middle was an 8.5" X 4.5" and the solid sashing strips were 8.5" X 2.5", then once the pieces were sewn, it would make an 8.5" square.

That's it for the Champagne Quilters. If someone has any suggestions for easy quilts, let me know. We are always on the look-out for fast, easy scrap quilt patterns.

Projects in progress

I have found myself working on several things at once. Perhaps it's because there are so many interesting things to make or perhaps it's because I want to use up the fabric that I have accumulated.

These are the first eight blocks of the Canadian Quilters' Association's 52 Blocks in 52 Weeks. I decided to make it a rainbow palette. (the link will take you to the main page where you will find the blocks' link)

I am now working my way through the orange blocks. 

Here they are all together. Tomorrow is week 12 and therefore, a new block. As you can see, they are easy blocks and the instructions are very well written.

I'm also trying to finish up last year's BOM Gnome for the Holidays. I think I have four blocks left to make. This block still needs a gnome and a Christmas tree. I'm hoping to get to it this week.

My two eldest grandsons, who live in British Columbia, are Minecraft fans. I found this free pattern and decided to make it for them. There are a few more blocks to make and hopefully, I can get to it after I finish the gnome top. 

I started this before my husband and I left to visit our youngest daughter and her husband in England early last month.

I also decided to start working on a big quilt that was another BOM from last year. I liked the design, which was a sampler of a different kind, and since I have so much fabric, I thought I could use some of it up. The quilt is scrap friendly and the pattern for Bari J.'s Wild Bloom Quilt Along is still available. The nine patch on the right was already done and was sort of the stepping off point for my colour combo for this quilt which is shades of green with orange/peach. I get to use up some of my 'uglies' in this quilt.

The colours may be a little 'off' but the strips are in various shades of peach/orange with some green thrown in. These blocks are 12 inch square and the instructions, basically, were to add some applique on top. I thought of flowers but since I have been collecting butterfly fabric (to applique on top of errors that sometime happen when one is making a quilt) I decided to throw some on top and see how it looked. This section is the one I am currently working on - hand appliqueing the butterflies on.

So, as you can see, I may be quiet on the blog but I have a lot to keep me occupied. I shall post more as I complete it.

More multiple sewing and knitting

It turns out that my two eldest grandsons (aged 5 and 7 but soon to be 6 and 8) are almost the same size. In weight and clothing if not in height. I had made some fleece vests earlier for them but they have outgrown them.

These are their new ones.

Pockets. That's what Patric likes.

This is the lining. It's flannel and those creatures are spiders. 

Both sides of the lining also have pockets - in both vests.

I also knitted them some new hats out of Paton's Decor.

Since Patric already had a ribbed hat in his chosen black and gray yarn, I made his brother Luc a hat out of his chosen colour too. He also requested hand warmers. So now they will both have two hats to choose from.

And lastly, I knitted two baby hats for my youngest daughter's friend who is due April 1st. the one on the right is now finished but I forgot to take a photo.

I think that's it for a while. Maybe I can get in some quilting.

Shhh, A Quiet Book

My middle daughter Maili, has two little children and the whole family were off to visit the other set of grandparents in California. Taking a five hour airplane ride could very well be quite boring for the little ones and stressful for the parents. I made one of the I-Spy roll-ups for them to take but my daughter really wanted a quiet book. She knew I had a lot of other things to sew and so she wasn't really expecting anything. The night before they left, after the little ones were in bed, I surprised them with both the roll-up and a felt book that I had just finished.

Creating can be very messy. This is the kitchen table with all of my felt all over the place.

One of the first pages I made was a monster with a zipper mouth and five cookies. I figured that the 'chocolate chips' could help with counting.

This weaving page was fun and not hard to put together at all.

This was the very first page I made. The apples are snapped off and on and hidden or gathered into the basket. It's a combination of different ideas that I got off the internet.

My daughter really liked the bead page. My other granddaughters counted the beads and exclaimed that it was a rainbow.

I decided that the peek-a-boo teddy bear would be the cover.

I was going to make a lion or some other animal but in the end, I settled on the little bear.

Shape matching page. There is a reason why they all have holes.

This is the lacing page. The big triangle was made to hold all the shapes from the facing page. The holes in the shapes were put there so they could be used on the lacing page too.

This was the very last page I made and it was fun. There are different shoes out there to look at and then of course, you have to figure out how to put it all together.

Here it is all put together. This is the cover.

The next two pages.

The middle pages. I just zigzagged them altogether.

The next two pages.

And, the last page.

Here's little Esme and her daddy. She's the one who liked the quiet book.

Her brother, little Teemu who watched cartoons instead.

The quiet book was fun to do. My eldest daughter said she could have used one for her boys while travelling back and forth across the country. They are now almost 6 and 8 so I wonder if one would hold their attention for long.

Sewing multiples

I got a request from my youngest daughter, Ayla, to make a longer sleep sack for her little son, Atticus. He has always been long and just keeps growing.

I already had the Thomas the Train fabric on my shelves and the flannel lining was purchased a while ago when Fabricland had a sale.

 The buttons don't match but they are roughly the same size. 

I didn't have to buy anything for this because I even had the long 22 inch zipper in my stash.

Here's the other one. I actually added a thin batting in between. I don't normally add extra batting but I wanted to try it out to see how thick it would be. This polyester batting is very thin and meant to be used in garments.

I originally cut this flannel lining to be inside the Thomas the Train sleep sack but I thought it was way too busy. I did purchase both the outer fabric and the zipper for this. It's yellow instead of the white I wanted. My closest Fabricland is closing and when I was there, the selection of zippers was sparse.

This time, the buttons do match. 

Two sleep sacks done. 

Eye spy roll-up travel games.
I had so much fun making these. I needed a small diversion and this one just fit the bill. I don't know how I came to find the site but the free pattern is here.

Each one takes 44 little 3 inch by 4 inch pieces of fabric.

I made two. There are 22 pieces on the front and 22 on the back.

Most of the fabrics were the same in each one.

One was for my granddaughter and other for my grandson (two different families) so a few of the rectangles were different.

I could have used velcro or a snap to close the strap.

But I decided to use a button and buttonhole instead. Once they are rolled up, they are small enough that they can just be thrown into a diaper bag or a purse.

My middle daughter and her family were going to visit the other set of grandparents and I made mug rugs for them of the little ones' hands.

They were fun to do. The bigger ones belong to Teemu and the other set are his sister Esme's.

Since most of my grandchildren wear (or wore) cloth diapers, sometimes store-bought pants don't fit all too well. I had made some 'big bum' pants before for Teemu and thought that I could make a few more for his little cousin Wren. These are gray, thick and thin wale corduroy.

All of the fabrics are soft and these are navy, thin wale corduroy.

Mauve sweatsuit fleece.

Little Wren wearing a brushed cotton light burgundy pair. I hope they all keep her warm.

So now you all know what's been keeping me busy sewing and not posting on this blog.



Oh, but there's still more to come.