My seven-year-old made this pillow for her doll bed over the weekend. I was impressed by the fact that she made this herself from start to finish including cutting the fabric, sewing the stitches and stuffing. I did help her pin it closed for the final stitches after the stuffing. But seriously, she hid behind a chair to surprise us. I think she did a great job. The doll is from Project Grab Bag (looks like her shop is temporarily closed, but you can find the dolls here). The blanket on the bed is a patchwork scrap from a project I was working on a few weeks ago.
Cereal Box Books
I made these cereal box books with my five-year-old last week. Very similar to my cereal box journals from last year, but your kids can sew these themselves. The instructions are over at Alpha Mom.
Spring Pieced Coasters
I know it’s not spring yet, just wishful thinking. I happen to have a large number of scraps in my sewing room at the moment in these lovely beach-inspired colors. And I just received a review copy of Alabama Studio Style, which has a lot of string-pieced projects (more on that later in the week).
So here’s a quick tutorial for string-pieced coasters. It seems that I do a lot of coaster tutorials here, but I’m a fan of quick, easy and useful things. And this is a great project for fabric scraps.
Supplies (for 4 coasters):
- Fabric scraps: min. 24″ length
- Backing fabric: 5 1/2″ x 22″
- Quilt batting: 5 1/2″ x 22″
- Matching thread
- Cut fabric scraps with minimum 24″ length. Cuts should not be straight.
- Sew right sides together until you have a width of 6″ or more.
- Press.
- Cut off sides and top to form a rectangle 5 1/2″ x 22.
- Cut out tops, batting and backing fabric in 5 1/2″ squares.
- Sew around, leaving an opening to turn right sides out. Opening should be on a side with one continuous piece. Clip off the corners.
- Turn right sides out, press and hand stitch the opening closed.
Out of the Office
Finding Inspiration
I’ve not been posting many projects lately because I am working like a dog on my book. Do dogs work hard? Most dogs I know don’t, but maybe if you’re a sled dog in Alaska or something. Anyway, since I can’t give you many details about the book, I thought I’d share a couple of things that have been inspiring me lately.
Quilts of Gee’s Bend: I can’t remember what year I first laid eyes on these amazing quilts, but the power that these women put in their work is amazing. I think these quilts speak volumes about the beauty of necessity. Pictured below is Mary Lee Bendolph’s Blocks and Strips of 2002.
Children’s art: As always, I’m influenced and inspired by my children’s art. There’s something about the simplicity and directness in the work of a child that can’t be imitated. My seven-year-old’s apple drawing is pictured below. She was working on a cardboard box, which created those great textural lines.
Liberty of London: Always an inspiration. And I will definitely be making a trip to Target on March 15 when their new line arrives. Look at this adorable girl’s dress. You can see a few other images on the Oprah website. Thanks to Laura for sending me that link!
Oh, and one more thing that I wanted to mention. The very talented Kristal of The Rikrak Studio is holding a fun competition called the Handmade Olympics and I was nominated in the category of Favourite Blog with a Handmaking Focus. So I wanted to say thanks to Kristal and to Tara of Scoutie Girl for putting me on the list of finalists. If you’d like to vote for me here, I would be grateful.