Showing posts with label jungle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jungle. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Jungle Fever!

When I had visited Jackie last we went to the store and picked up fabric for a quilt.  I initially had thought that I would have it done in no time.  Yea that is never how it works.

I finished it literally on the way to meet her, Dallas, and the cutie for dinner.  No joke.  Jon drove us there.


This is what I was working with.  Jackie loved the color changing thread.

I am really glad I bought the super huge (well not the hugest) cutting mat.  It made it so much easier to cut the fabric.

Of course it all starts with cutting the fabric.  This is always the hardest part for me.  I have to make sure that I am cutting it the right way and will end up with the right amount  and right size squares.

Speaking of making sure everything ends up right... I had to draw myself a picture to make sure that I would end up with enough squares.
Don't laugh because I ended up with the perfect amount of squares.

My first roadblock became which way to have the zebra stripes facing... I had to ask Jon's opinion and it only verified what I already knew.  Non-Crazy stripes was the way to go.

Getting them all pinned up was super easy since Jon helped!

The sewing was standard straight lines.  Gotta love it.  In a pile they look all the more impressive don't you think?

Jon helped me line the backing up against the front of the quilt.  I made sure to cut away the excess.

To get the back fabric all lined up I rolled up the front fabric with the lining and unrolled it out onto the backing fabric.  It worked like a charm.  It got all pinned up and was ready for quilting!

I have a hard time making decisions, can you tell that already?  Jackie and I had decided on a color scheme in the store.  Did I write it down to remember it later?  Of course not!  It had come time to sew in the quilting and I couldn't remember for the life of me which way we decided to go.  I had to call my mom after sending her pictures to get her opinion.  And what did we end up with?

The yellow on the front and the green on the back.  I think it turned out very nicely.

The drama came in when I realized that my machine did not have the thread tension set correctly when I had already sewn almost all of the quilting lines.  I freaked out and started seam ripping a bunch of the quilting out thinking I could do it again.

Yea that didn't work.  After ripping and re-sewing three lines worth I realized my old machine was screwed.  I decided to give up and be good with how it was.  Because I didn't want to add anymore multi-colored thread to this pile.

I have no pictures of pinning and sewing the bias tape, so darn, you get to see the final reveal now.


I loved it.  And Jackie loved it too.  I can't wait for Caleb to use it.

Now I just have to get both of my machines to the Dr.s and I can get back to sewing with machines that work properly!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Left Over Fabric Trick #1

The final item I made for Jackie's babe was a result of having left over jungle fabric from the shirt and blanket we made.  It was the perfect size for something that rhymes with willow. :)

When Jackie and I initially talked about using the extra fabric to make a pillow I thought just a plain edges pillow.  Nope she had other ideas.

The process started very similar to how I made the blanket.  Right sides together, organize, and then pin the ribbons.  We put them in the same pattern as the taggie blanket we made.

When I sewed it closed I made sure to sew it twice.  Since we were going to stuff it I wanted to make sure that the edges wouldn't bust open.  If you look closely you can see the light blue and the light purple threads.

Then it was time for ironing.  I wanted the pillow to be nice and de-wrinkled before the stuffing got in there.

 We made a special trip to pick up the stuffing because we didn't plan to make a pillow in the first place.

 
Stuff, stuff, stuff.  We used about half of the bag by the time we were satisfied with it's fluffyness.

How did I stuff it you ask?  Why with a chopstick of course!

I asked how she wanted it closed and she just wanted it closed well.  Unfortunately I kinda did a messy job, but she didn't seem to mind it.

All completely finished and ready for some sleepy times with the little man!!

We got him all dressed (as you  have seen before and here) and showed him the new pillow.

We tried to get him to take a nap on it...

But he passed out on his blanket instead.
So if you ever have left over fabric from a blanket, try to make a little pillow to match!