sewing – Page 56 – the long thread

October 30, 2007August 18, 2013

Roses Quilt

OK, so if I write a post about the quilts I plan to make, does that mean I’ll actually get to them? The projects are stacking up, but I found some beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabric today (pictured at right).

I wouldn’t really consider myself a pink roses kind of person, but this fabric is bright and clean and I was immediately drawn to it. I have been planning to make quilts for the girls from old baby dresses — a way to recycle and pass something along. So I saw a copy of Quilt Pink magazine (available at your local quilt shop) which is a publication of Better Homes & Gardens to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Have you noticed that this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Talk about the power of women and PR.

Anyway, this lovely magazine has a beautiful applique rose quilt pattern in it:

So I think I’ll try to make a small quilt for each girl and back it with the roses fabric. With both girls’ birthdays in December, the holidays and a trip to Hawaii coming up, we’ll see if it happens. Look for my finished quilts sometime next year!

October 30, 2007March 16, 2008

Old World Style

It was International Day at Preschool last week, and it got me thinking about the Old World European style that I love so much. Not dark, heavy furniture and velvet curtains — but more like Heidi, Swiss Miss and Hansel & Gretel. Painted furniture, flowered ribbons, window boxes and bright colors. Swiss, Dutch, German. My girls represented Germany and the Portuguese island of Madeira. When researching Madeira, I came across this lovely image of a traditional cottage (above) that has been in my mind since I saw it (perhaps because it’s just my size). I love the shape, colors and thatched roof.

Below is a detail of the trim on Laura’s costume, which belonged to me as a child and was a gift from my aunt while she was living in Germany. I was so happy that Laura was able to wear it. I have been buying lots of flowered trims lately and love the look with the wide ribbon and the ric rac together. Really sweet and cheerful. I also made the girls some fall capes that are reminiscent of this style. Burda pattern 9674. Burda, a German company, offers some cool European patterns for women and kids. You can order online or find them at the larger craft stores. For the capes, instead of the prescribed fleece (which would have been much easier) I used brown suiting wool lined with colored flannel and added some embroidery (also below) to play up the European style. Eva seems to like her cape, but Laura won’t wear hers. This is the trouble with sewing for kids!

So thinking about ribbon and trim now, here are a few sites that seem to have a wide selection of decorative ribbon:

And I’d be interested in any other sites out there!

October 24, 2007February 28, 2008

Baby Blocks

I made these sweet baby blocks for our goddaughter’s birthday last week. They spell out her name on one side and have numbers on the opposite side. My inspiration was the blocks I saw over at Craftsbury Kids. So they would also be great with felt applique, but since I had the embroidery machine…well. Each one is filled with polyfill (though foam would have been a great alternative) and I put a plastic easter egg filled with various noisemakers in each one (duct taped for safety!).