Baby Bow-Tie Quilt

February 20, 2012 ~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ Leave a comment

I noted in an earlier post that I planned to make a simple quilt to complete the baby ensemble for my new grandchild. He came into this world a few weeks early, so I scrambled to complete it before the baby shower this weekend.

Here is a photo of the quilt top before I layered it with the batting and backing. It’s okay, but a bit one dimensional.

I always get such a kick out of the effect that the quilting has on the overall project. I went ahead and washed it after it was complete so it would have that “crinkled” quilt look that I love. Ta Da!!! A 3-dimensional quilt:

My inspiration was from Cluck Cluck Sew. I used all one color for the background piecing but I just wasn’t thrilled with all that bluish grayish greenish background, so I decided to add a few blocks using one of the print fabrics from the same line. It is the same print that I used for my daughter’s nursing apron. I reviewed the fabric choices in my Infant Car Seat Cover and Nursing Apron post. Those print blocks really helped to break up that sea of bluish grayish green.

Adding the binding is always my favorite part of a quilt, not only because it means it is complete, but it finishes it off like a frame finishes a photo.

The backing fabric is a polka dot flannel print from Robert Kaufmann. I like to use flannel on the back of baby quilts because it is soft, warm, and easy to quilt. The only thing left to do is embroider a quilt label and attach it to the back. Since I did not piece the back and insert a quilt label like I did on this bed runner, I will make a separate label and attach it by hand.

Multi-tasking

February 4, 2012 ~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 3 Comments

I didn’t make a whole lot of progress on my Jalie jeans this week, but here’s a couple of pics.
First is the front pocket ‘bag’. This is what I will see each time I pull on my new jeans:

Second is a close-up of the front pocket topstitching.

I’m almost done with the zipper insertion, but don’t have any pictures to share yet. Construction of the jeans has been temporarily halted as my little grandson was born three weeks early and I am hosting a baby shower for my daughter this month so I must make the baby quilt a couple of weeks sooner than I anticipated. I’m almost done piecing the baby quilt and plan to completely finish it by next weekend.

This is what I used earlier this week

to accomplish this in about 15 minutes:

I LOVE my Accuquilt Go! I will be using it again this week to cut the binding strips for the baby quilt. Here’s to a (hopefully) productive week.

Jeans Progress

January 25, 2012 ~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 1 Comment

Good mid-week greetings. This is the first time I have attempted to make a pair of jeans, so I just wanted to post a quick update on the progress (or lack thereof) that I am making in Jennifer Stern’s Blue Print to Blue Jeans class over at Pattern Review. My muslin is made and hopefully fitted properly. That is, the muslin fits properly, but contrary to Jennifer’s recommendation to not use a non-stretch muslin when sewing with stretch denim, I did it anyway. Not to be defiant, mind you, but simply because that’s what I had on hand and I didn’t want to go to the store for supplies.

I also have all my denim pattern pieces cut and ready to sew. Here’s a picture of the embroidery that I added to the back pockets:

I used my embroidery machine to embellish them with a simple design. I backed the denim with No Show Mesh Fusible interfacing so as to make my stretch denim non-stretch denim so the design would not end up distorted. I also backed it with a light weight tear away stabilizer. I ended up embroidering the design twice, with the second stitch-out exactly on top of the first stitch-out for more impact since the embroidery thread was a bit wimpy looking against the beefy denim fabric. I tried to use gold topstitching thread to embroider the design, but my machine didn’t play well with that combination.

I will post more progress updates as they occur. Have a great middle of the week.