I made this diaper clutch for my daughter in law following a tutorial by Shannon at Sewing Barefoot. It was easy to make. I started with a piece of fabric quilted with batting and muslin (on my long arm) and then cut to the size mentioned in the directions. Installing the magnetic clasp was a breeze. I had enough fabric for two clutches so I have one on hand to give away.
I can now share some of the things I was working before Christmas since the gifts have been given. This is a "taggie" I made for my nine month old grandaughter. I used a very soft minkee like material on the back. It was pretty easy to make and would be a good baby shower gift. I am sure I will be making another in the future.
I bought a bundle of Tula Pink Nightshade fat quarters before Christmas but was not sure what I wanted to do with them. My daughters birthday is coming up n early February so I made her this compact and brush case. I like how it turned it...hope she does too!
I am going to make a zip bag to go with it.
My first piece of hand dyed fabric was for a quilt my mom was working on. I haven't dyed any fabric since but this is the result:
Created this play mat for my grandson for Christmas. It is about three and a half feet square and backed with denim. There are pockets for small cars and the whole thing can be rolled up for portable play. Snaps secure the rolled up mat and there is a detachable strap for carrying.
The mat sports a residential area with several houses, a school, a church, a gas station and a post office. There is a park and beach and also a farm with a field of growing crops and a little pink pig! All the details were applied by applique.
We bought some small cars to give to him with the play mat. I sure hope he likes it since it took forever to make!
I love how the orange peel quilting turned out! This is my first attempt at using a ruler with my quilting machine. It really wasn't that difficult once I got the hang of it.
The pebble quilting took forever but I think the results are pretty cool. I would definitely do it again. I lowered my take up rail until it sat on the machine bed. This helps to stabilize the quilt for more detailed work. I had previously thought I would need to buy the micro handles for my machine in order to do such detail but turns out I did fine without. They micro handles are expensive!
The continuous curves on the orange border have some errors but I learned a lesson there too. On one side I tried quilting a bit at a time as i rolled the quilt. That did not work out so well. For the other side I turned the quilt after finishing all the rest and was able to quilt across instead of front to back. It made a huge difference in the quality.
I have attached the binding which is the same black material as the skinny borders and now only need to hand sew.
The quilt top is complete measuring approximately 60" x 70". I decided to add the circles and I am pleased with the results (although no one in my family is crazy about the idea).
The backing was a breeze since I bought plenty of the gray flannel...4 yds. This is the first time I have not had some patchwork on the back of the quilt.
I am using 80/20 batting for the first time too and I am not liking it as much as the all cotton. You never know whether you will like something until you try it! A good example of that is Aurifil thread...also a first on this quilt. I love it! I am using the 50 wt. in my quilting machine. I am do surprised how much father the bobbins go! That reason alone is enough to sell me.
Hopefully will have the quilting done by the weekend.
Half of the star quilt is now together. I have been thinking of making some borders with circles. I would prefer to not have any borders at all but the pieced star will finish at only 48" square which is too small for just about anything.
I bought some very pretty grey flannel for the back.
Should have it ready for borders by the end of this week.
We also canned 39 points of salsa with the last of the tomatoes...yummmmm!
I am a little later with my September blocks for the Sunday Morning Quilts bee. Just mailed the blocks this morning!
Over the weekend i was hoping to finish Aunt Marcia's lap quilt but instead canned a bushel of tomatoes and a bushel of apples (applesauce).The produce won't wait! I did manage to finish the quilting so only the binding is left. Photos to follow once the project is complete.
I made this quilted needle keeper today for a woman who is retiring from my office. It only took about an hour to put together. She only crochets with a few sizes of hooks so I made the keeper small and quilted it with my walking foot. I'm "sew" pleased with the finished product.
This quilt is another made almost entirely of batik fabric. The exceptions are the back which is bright magenta flannel and the binding which is satin. This quilt was pieced and machine quilted by Francesca and finished August 2012.
The PoD is a quilt pattern courtesy of sewhooked.com/harry-potter. This is block 4 out of 30. The quilt is entirely foundation/paper pieced and I have decided to use batik fabric exclusively for mine. Being a Harry Potter fan since the beginning I am very excited about this project. Updates to come :)
The purpose of this new blog is to showcase pieces made by myself (Francesca Celeste) and/or my wonderful mother (Kimmie). Please feel free to comment :)
