Quilt Festival!

Last year the preview night for the quilt festival was Halloween, in downtown Houston, so I skipped it, just going in a frenzied pace the following day.  

This year, I went on preview night - SO MUCH FUN!  

(One of my favorite quilts from last year - couldn't take a straight-on photo.)

Just hit up the vendor room last night, but going back tomorrow - and seeing if a class I'm interested in is open.  So excited!

This was my favorite quilt last year - love the background, love the variety, love the triangles (I like triangles), love the whole thing.  It's been my phone lock screen wallpaper for a year.

Vendors last night, quilt displays tomorrow - so excited!

Sleep sack

My monkey sleep-crawls, so blankets are a ways off still, but she's outgrown her sleep sack.  Easy enough to make a new one, though.

One nearly down

Just backstitch to do!

Wise men

Well, progress on one at least!

Fabric books

I love making the fabric books from panels.  I recently made these four (holidays from Joann, Pooh from Etsy) for my little nephew.  Drool? Washing machine!  My kidlet still loves the Rudolph and Night Before Christmas ones I made her.  And there is something new on the market: http://redbikestudio.blogspot.com/2013/08/hugabook-tm.html
Book with matching soft toy!  Have to try that out soon.

Christmas!

I don't know how all these people churn out cross stitch projects so quickly.  Think I can get a half dozen of these by Christmas?

Simple skirt tutorial

Greetings!  Recently I was rushing to make some skirts for the kidlet and her "twin cousin" (born eight hours later), during the last naptime before going to visit them.  It struck me that I could make a skirt the same way a pillowcase can be made, so I took a few photos to share the process:

Step 1 (not pictured) - get some fabric (remnants work for a toddler skirt - width of fabric x the length you want the skirt); get some knit for the waistband (about six inches wide x the circumference of the baby's belly when not really stretched (this leaves room for a seam as well as some growing)).

Step 2: take up a few pleats in the skirt to make it as wide as the waistband fabric when the waistband is stretched out.  Pin them and then tack across the top on your regular sewing machine.



Step 3: oddly, no clear picture of the pinning - likely because it was a bear to do - but it's the same method shown for the basic sausage pillowcase here - roll up the skirt, pinning the waistband around the skirt-sausage; to be safe, I recommend pinning the skirt down away from the edge of the waistband, as shown here.  Then serge along the seam:

 

 Step 4: remove pins and tug the skirt out of the waistband, turning it right-side out.

Step 5: ta-da!  A very wrinkled skirt!  Serge up the back seam and finish the hem.

Step 6: I used a rolled hem, added rick-rack, and added lace.  (On one of the two I serged the seam first, on the other I added the trim first.  Personal preference.)

Hooray, a very very fast (except for nasty pinning) stretch-waisted skirt!

(Sorry, no ironing - had to get it into the suitcase!