Oh, Hello

Hmm, let's see.  Things I've done since last July...  We took 3 month old Jess on a hiking vacation to Colorado and New Mexico.  We bought a house in Boring, Oregon.  We named the house Hoquarton. We invited some friends to move into the basement and put a kitchen down there so they have their own apartment.  Josh started at a private practice.  And I made exactly one quilt.

It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but we just got it in the mail last week.  Oops!  My excuses are as follows:
1.  I was still the gift processor for the Red Cross, a job I supposedly left almost a year ago.  But as I am still on the payroll and the need remained, they would drive the gifts out to me in Boring so I could work from home with the baby.  As you can imagine, the holidays and year-end are an incredibly busy giving season!  I did train someone to take over in January, which has been a relief.
2.  We were building that kitchen.
3.  I really did sew other Christmas presents that arrived in a much more timely manner!

See!  There's a purse, two skirts, a fabric-scrap book about colors, a homemade memory game, and a little crocheted hat for our nieces!

Enough with the excuses!  Here is the quilt I made for Josh's mom:

She loves Taos, New Mexico, which was part of our summer trip with the baby.  I was inspired by that to make a sampler of sorts.  Each block design appears twice in varying colors.  It was interesting how much that changed the look of some of them.  Here are a couple of my favorite blocks:

And here is my cute little helper who was quite sure that we went out to the deck to pictures of him.

The Waiting Game

As I mentioned in my new year post, though my due date was March 30, I didn't expect our baby to show up until April.  Here it is, April 3, and we're showing no real signs of his ever wanting to leave.  So, I've been using my off-work time to whip together a few necessities.

First, I made this diaper bag:

Josh picked out the fabric so it would be something he was willing to carry.  The plaid is canvas and the brown (which is also the interior) is plain cotton.

It has handles, a shoulder strap, and pockets on all sides.  It didn't occur to me until I was sewing the last side closed that the pattern didn't include any inside pockets.  Since you quilt the outer and liner fabrics together before cutting out the pieces, I don't know when you'd attach pockets to the inside without the seams showing on the outside or quilting over what you've added inside.  I would have to figure that one out.  Instead, I'll just make a little loose pouch that I can put smaller things in to find easily.  

Also, due to the piecing-the-interior-and-exterior-simultaneously construction method, you end up with open edges inside your bag.  I anticipated that, though, and serged the edges of each piece before I put the bag together.  So the edges look nice, won't fray inside the bag, and will stand up to washing.

Then I made a nursing cover.  Instead of just doing a rolled hem, I wanted to have a contrasting fabric around the edges, so I bound it quilt-style.  I've been wanting to use those cherries on something for a long time!

As with most nursing covers, the neck straps fasten together with D rings.  A friend recommended that I use a twist tie or something to fasten the two rings together before sewing them into the end of the strap.  This keeps them snug enough that your fabric won't slip out, extending your strap and revealing more than you intended while feeding.  It was a good tip - easy to execute and I can see the difference it made!

I also checked another quilt top off my list!  Assuming this baby keeps hanging in there, maybe I'll even get it quilted this week.

Little Gifts

Last week I had a farewell party for a work friend and a baby shower for another friend.  I made a couple little gifts for these hello and goodbye occasions.

First is a little appliqued wall hanging for my work friend.  At the Red Cross (like most workplaces, I'm sure) we use a ton of acronyms.  We send DATs on DRs and they need to have CPR and AED training and we ask our MGOs to find gifts to make it all possible.  Right?  There's a lot to absorb when you're a new employee.  So my co-worker started using extra abbreviations to poke fun; she particularly got a kick of calling the restroom the "LGR" (Little Girls' Room) to discreetly say it was time for a break from marathon meetings.  Our team thought it would be nice for her to have something to remind her and so I made this:

I just found a font I liked on the computer to print out, traced the letters on to a two sided fusible paper which I then fused to my fabrics, cut them out, ironed them on to some natural linen, and did a zig zag stitch around the sides.  I made it 8x10 so we could put it into a cute little frame for her to hang in her own LGR!

Secondly, I made this for a friend who is having a little boy in July:

I couldn't not buy this tiny Columbia fleece.  It's the cutest thing I've seen in my entire life.  Baby Greer will be about 6 months old in the winter, which is the size of the jacket, so it seemed too perfect to pass up.  I had the blue part of the hat mostly done when I got the jacket and found some matching green yarn in my stash, which, again, seemed too perfect to pass up.

It's nice to have smaller projects than quilts sometimes for some more instant gratification!

A Holy Undertaking

Our friend Robert paid us a visit at the end of March.  I think March is a pretty good time to visit Oregon because things are blooming and you even have a chance at blue skies.  In fact, I was thinking on March 29th that it really hadn't been that rainy this spring.  There were even some beautiful clear days when we went to the beach and worked in our garden.  The very night I had that thought, I saw on the news that it has been the rainiest March in recorded history in Portland.  I guess I adjusted back to a Northwest mindset pretty quickly!

I've been working with a moderate amount of diligence on a quilt that I will post as soon as it's finished; but in the meantime, I made something that is not a quilt!  Although, it is quilted.  Since he is a Presbyterian minister, I made a stole to give to Robert when he came to town.  This might be the holiest thing I've ever made.

As you may be able to tell from this photo, Robert is quite tall.  This means that 1. His stole is about 4' on each side and 2. He didn't fit all the way in the picture.  The pattern I made with the fabric reminded me of stained glass windows, of which Robert is a big fan.  I was happy with the way it turned out!

I am also happy with the way this picture turned out:

It's not often that I take a nice picture, so I thought I would show it off!  This was snapped at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm where we went for a sunrise service on Easter morning.  It was lovely!

Christmas Joys Abound

As I sat down to write this post, I realized I didn't take any pictures of probably one of the coolest things I've ever made before I sent it off as a present.  Oops.  I feel sheepish.

Here are some things I made and remembered to photograph:

This bear is for my friend Susan out of part of an unfinished family heirloom quilt top.  I think he looks quite distinguished in his leather chair.

This is the fourth quilt made from Susan's mom's gardening shirts.  It's for her nephew, so now all her mom's grandkids have one.  My mom made quilts out of my Grandpa's shirts for all of my cousins and me a couple years ago.  I love mine so very much; so I was happy to be able to make these meaningful quilts for Susan.

I made this pillow from linen for Josh's mom.  We brought back two bags of pine needles from Maine so she could have a pillow and a supply of delicious smelling potpourri (is it potpourri when it's not made from flowers?) to put in it.  It's got an envelope-style back so she can refill it with fresh needles every once in a while.

I made this scalloped hat for our one year old niece, Josie.

I made this butterfly hat for our nearly five year old niece, Abi.

It was hard to see the butterfly, so I stuffed it to get a better picture.  It looks kind of creepy.  I'm assuming it will look much cuter on the head of an adorable five year old.

Josh painted these for the girls and they match the mugs we got their parents at the Saturday Market last Christmas.  Now they have a family set!

I also crocheted some stuffed snowmen wearing tiny scarves, but I neglected to take their picture as well.  Don't hold it against me - things are a little hectic around here!  Aside from scrambling to get all my projects finished, we've been planning a trip to Costa Rica in January.  Additionally, December is the busiest month of the year in the non-profit world because everyone feels extra generous.  This is a wonderful phenomenon, but makes for long work days for me.  Lastly, my long work days are nothing compared to Josh's.  He is in the middle of 28 days of work without a day off.  That includes overnight every Saturday (Yes, Christmas Eve.  Yes, New Year's Eve.)  But the end of December means we are halfway through residency.  That sounds pretty nice!

Frilliness

Ruffles are popular right now, so I don't have to hide that I am in a ruffle phase.  Luckily, I have friends expecting, or with brand new, little girls.  (Note: If you are Laurie and haven't received a box from me yet, wait a couple days before scrolling down)  So I started with a super-girly hot pink zebra ruffle-fest for Aleah:

 I don't think Ada gets how much fun ruffles are

And then I made a diaper bag, complete with pleats, for Allie (or I guess for Allie's mom):

Allie's grandpa picked out some special quilts for her, so I thought I'd try something a little different. It's the first time I've made a diaper bag, and the first time I've designed my own sewing pattern, so I started by making a practice bag out of tissue paper.  It worked, so I charged ahead.  Upon assembly, I decided to put a bird on it, in true Portlander fashion and in keeping with her mom's impeccable taste.  Once it was finished, I didn't want to smash it, so I may have picked an unnecessarily gigantic box in which to ship it.

I also received a ruffly apron from my sister-in-law Ruth Reese (who can meet all your photography needs), friend Marissa (with whom I could talk about sewing for hours), and niece Abi (who picked out the fabric).  It helped me get into the ruffly spirit as I worked on my projects.

Ready for Anything

We're having a baby shower for a coworker next week, and I offered to make a little, inexpensive, but unique present from our department to him.  So, I put together these (unauthorized) Red Cross onesies:

I have a plan to embroider "Be Prepared" on another, but I was unhappy with my machine's embroidery font.  So I may have to rethink that idea.  But, I'm pretty pumped about the way they've turned out so far!  I plan to go to the Sidewalk Sale on N Alberta on Saturday, so maybe I'll get some ideas on what to do with the other two.  There are some pretty creative folk around here!  Yet another reason I know I'm right where I belong.

I finished a couple gifts for some friends this week.  I'm waiting to post pictures at least until I get the packages in the mail.  I'm very excited about them though, it's so hard to wait to share them with the world!

I finished something!

No, that something is not either of the quilts I've blogged lately.  Mom and Dad went to China and that means I don't have access to the giant conference tables at Tektronix which are the best surfaces for pinning big quilts.  I did, however, start and finish our niece's 4th birthday present on Friday.  She likes to cook with her mom, so I made her this apron:

I hope its bright colors appeal to her fashionable taste.  This kid is 4 going on 15; she has very definite fashion opinions and a new crush on Orlando Bloom.  "Do you think he looks better with blonde hair in Lord of the Rings or brown hair in Pirates of the Caribbean?" she asked Josh a couple weeks ago.  Seriously.  Just turned four.  She's awesome.

Projects Galore

I've been working on Christmas gifts for people pretty non-stop these past couple weeks while Josh is on night float again.  I don't think any of the recipients know about the blog, so I'll put up some pictures!

First, I made Josh's grandma a purse like the one I carry from Elizabeth Hartman's Margaret Bag pattern:

Josh said, "It's so awesomely old lady!"

Second, Josh and I made a jewelry box for our older niece:

Josh did most of the work on this one.  I stained it, but he added all the fanciness.

Third, I'm making stuffed animals for our baby niece.  I've made a bird so far, and I sewed insulated batting into the inside so it crinkles when you squeeze it (babies dig crinkling, don't they?).  I'm also going to make her a fish with a rattle inside.

Lastly, I'm making placemats for Josh's mom.  Basically, I'm making 6 tiny quilts.  I've just got to bind them now and then I'll be done and I'll put up a picture!  The quilts for Josh's cousins have been bumped to birthday presents - one in January and one in March.  That will be much more doable!

Monster

I have my first Portland Modern Quilters' Guild meeting tomorrow night, and we are having a pincushion exchange.  Nike lent me her pincushion pattern book and I picked a cute little cactus to make.  Well, the pattern was a lot bigger than I thought it was, and I ended up making a bigger cactus than I thought, and I think mine looks more like a monster:

I love him, but I don't know that others will find him lovable.  He is a little dweeby looking.

"I'd buy that!"

I made this purse before we went to Europe so I could have a roomy purse to supplement the sole backpack I brought for our four week adventure. Since I couldn't find one at a store that suited me, I raided my mom's fabric stash and made one myself. The pattern is Elizabeth Hartman's at Oh, Fransson! who is my favorite quilting blogger and a fellow Portlander.

On Friday, Josh, our new intern bff, Denise, and I went to the Brewer's Festival downtown. I got there first, so I passed the time listening to the fantastic bluegrass band, Head for the Hills. While I did so, a girl came up and asked me where I got my bag. It was such a great feeling to announce "I made it!" She said that she would "totally buy it," but as I can't take credit for it's design, and it was full of my stuff at that moment, that is/was not an option. Kudos to Elizabeth Hartman for a great pattern, though! And the compliment made me pretty proud of my assembling skills.