Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Spiderman "Morning" Pants

Poor neglected blog. We are on vacation right now, so I'll post about that later.
Last week, I went to JoAnn's to look at backings for the Civil War Quilt, which is going splendidly. I had little Andy with me and he screamed with glee: "Spiderman fabric! Can we get some? I want some pants!" It was a soft flannel print, which would make nice PJs, so I asked him, "do you want me to make you some pajama pants?" His answer: "no, I want some morning pants." Well, I whipped them up and they have been morning, afternoon, and evening pants. He is barely willing to take them off to be washed!
The pattern is Peek a Boo Patterns Castaway Cargos, which I purchased last week on intro. It is going to be one of my favorite patterns, I can tell. Sizes from NB-12, pants or shorts, and best of all is the knit waistband.
In our house, we call it the "maternity waistband" and we all love it. For a potty-trained toddler, it is perfect for quick changes and so comfy!!

Here's a good back-view of the waistband.
These pants took less than an hour to make, from printing the pattern to wearing them. LEGIT, as my kids would say! And, they fit perfectly!!
Can't wait to make more!!

On another note, we have had our fill of THIS. I am so ready for spring!!

 Even Bennie, Shelly, and Blackie are wondering where the grass is!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Civil War Snowball Quilt Started

I think all the snow we've had lately made me want to do a quilting project. I decided to make a cozy quilt for the Civil War re-enactments Andy and I will be doing this season. I wanted something simple and fairly quick, traditional, and pretty. I decided to do a 9-patch/snowball block combo, which will look something like this beautiful quilt from Magpie Quilts:
I chose all my fabrics from my stash! So proud!! I didn't have to purchase any fabric and I'm even thinking about piecing the backing, which would really use up some yardage! So far, I have cut everything and stitched the strips and cut them into 3-square strips. I am planning to make a twin-size quilt, 7 blocks x 11 blocks.
Here are the pieces so far. My fabrics are not necessarily period-correct, but they are reasonable. I didn't want to spend a fortune on this first attempt.
I'm trying to finish this quickly, so back with progress soon! It's another snow day here, so I may even get to work on it today.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Legos and Hippos and Please Be Mine...

I have been in feltie-crazy mode this week, digitizing pencil toppers for my boys to add to their Valentine Cards for school. I bought them both Lego cards and Andy wanted Lego head felties. Davy's teacher has a "hippopotamus" theme in their classroom, so he wanted hippos.
I digitized these myself.
Here are the Lego Guys. I first made the one with the little smile and somehow I totally messed up the width of the opening for a pencil. It was way too wide, so on the second batch, I added a couple of stitches to tighten it up. They worked out fine in the end.
I made 30 of these! They looked great on the primary colored pencils.

Then I worked on the hippos. I had already digitized a hippo hair feltie, but then we decided to go with pencil toppers for the girls and the boys. I did a better job on getting this one to fit!
I could fit 10 in the 6x10 hoop, but what took a lot of time was trimming the jumps on the face details. Next time I will choose something that wouldn't have so many jumps! I made 4 colorways: pink, light blue, gray, and purple (but I didn't like the way the purple turned out!)
I made 40 of these, but 30 that we liked!
They are all ready to go with the cards for Valentine's Day tomorrow.
BUT we are in the middle of another big snowstorm. Today was a snow day and I am wondering about tomorrow!
I think it is time to unhook my embroidery unit and do some other sewing. I am attending a meeting/sewing day for my Civil War Reenactment Group on Saturday and I've been cutting pieces for a quilt to work on, so I'll show that soon.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!
 

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Stitching Even a 9 year old Boy Would Love...

I don't know if we've had one sickness come and go for the past 3 weeks, or if we've had 3 or 4 different things. Of course, illness is one thing kids are really great at sharing!!
Anyway, we've had sleepless nights, unproductive days, and cold, snowy weather. Not much creativity has been going on.
I did embroider a cozy sweatshirt for Davy, though. The only plain zippered hoodie I could find had a thick sherpa lining. I wasn't sure if I could embroider over it, but it came out great!
The "Minecraft University" logo is one I digitized myself a couple of years ago when Pete first got into playing Minecraft. Now Davy likes it, too. I like the slogan: "AD GLORIUM ET PORCOS" which means "to glory through bacon."
Here's Davy wearing it to school over a Minecraft Tshirt. I told him "don't take orders from the other kids." But you know he came home with 3 orders already!!
I think all this cold weather had inspired me to do some quilting. I have all of my "could pass for Civil War period" fabrics in the wash right now and I think I'm going to make a snowball quilt to use during re-enactments. I am still waiting for an order from PBJK to start Andy's Easter outfit, but I still have plenty of time!