A Gift in the Making

Several weeks ago my daughter asked me to make smocked dresses for a friend of hers who is having twins. This friend loves fashion and I happened to have a smocking plate with pocketbooks on it that I thought would be perfect. After calling several quilt shops in my area I found the fabric to co-ordinate with the smocking. Today I completed the picture smocking and will immediately begin the back smocking which holds the pleats in place. Hopefully by the weekend, I'll be able to start the construction of the dresses. I have to have this project completed by September 18, 2011 which doesn't give me too much time.

Crazy Quilt Bear

Several months ago, I met a woman who makes and sells bears who had an old patchwork quilt that she said she'd cut up so that she, two friends and I could make bears. My part in this was to teach embroidery stitches to be used as trimming on the bears. This week, my bear was completed when his ears were sewn on and his mouth and nose were embroidered. This project was lots of fun to do and now I'm thinking about making another bear from new fabrics. Because this bear was made from old fabrics I was constantly concerned with the strength of the fabric. All in all, I'm pleased with my bear.

My Hussif

Three years or so ago while looking through the Crazy Quilt on line magazine I spotted several hussifs and fell in love with them. In preparation for Marcy Tilton's surface design workshop, I started the crazy quilt block. While at Design Outside the Lines, I silk screened some of the silk. When I came home from Taos, New Mexico, I made the patterns for the pockets and flaps and began the process of embroidering and sewing on each of the pieces. Yesterday, I sewed on the cording and attached the front to the back and today I did the last of the finishing work, sewing on the button and closing up the hole that I used to turn the piece right side out.

Dog Sitting

I spent this week with my son's two Bernese Mountain Dogs so that he, his wife and three children could go on vacation and not worry about their furry children. When I wasn't taking care of them and paying attention to them, I worked on some projects, a quilt block for my calendar quilt, a doll dress for Adina's Bitty Baby doll, and a tape measure that will be a gift for a friend.

A Belated Birthday Gift

When I asked Erlisa, my daughter inlaw what she'd like me to make her for her birthday, her answer was a bag to hold her yoga mat. The fabric I chose was a batik in shades of green with some pink peaking through. The fabric was purchased on a recent trip to Lancaster along with lots of other batiks. The pattern was partially mine and partially from a free pattern on the Internet. Erlisa was very pleased with her gift as you can see from the photo of her modeling it.

A Summer Bag

Today I completed a summer bag for myself. I'm proud to say that everything I used for this bag was from my stash. The pattern is Lazy Girl's City Purse and this is the fourth bag I've made from this pattern. The bag has many pockets inside that should help to keep me organized.