A Quilt for Nana Joan

While I was on the phone to my Nana Joan a few months back, she mentioned that she had a Sunbonnet Sue template from a magazine that she had been holding onto for ages, but would likely never do anything with...... enter crafty scheming granddaughter and mother combo, who conspired to retrieve said pattern in order for me to make it. 

Well on its arrival here in Texas, I can only say I was a little disappointed with the quality of the pattern; it was less shabby-chic and more just plain shabby. Dont get me wrong, the picture of the finished quilt was cute, but I though we need something much more special for my Nana Joan..... 

So I sat down and started to sketch my own little Sue's. And I sketched and sketched, and then converted them to digital images and made outlines for all the little pieces, and over the course of the past couple of weeks, the quilt has come to life!

May I proudly present Nana Joan's Sunbonnet Sue quilt! 

 

Oh gosh this one was fun to make, and it's going to be tough to let go! I hope she loves it!

Here's all the little Sue's;

 Cupcake Sue

Basket Sue

Apple-Pickin' Sue

 

Rainy Day Sue

 

Flag Waving Sue

 

Dog Walking Sue

Gardening Sue

 

Flower Pickin' Sue

 

and Singing Sue!

And a few close-ups of all the stitchy goodness...

You gotta have rain on a quilt bound for England!

 

 Loopy quilting by a loopy quilter! Coincidence?

Cupcake anyone?

Whilst the quilt itself is off to reside in the UK, I loved making this so much that I decided to turn it into a pattern. You can find it here in my Etsy shop!

Autumn Days

The weather here in south-east Texas has turned distinctly fall-like in the past few weeks, bringing some much needed relief from the blistering summer heat. With little humidity, the mornings are positively chilly, and its finally nice enough to spend some real time in my sewing shed. I have been wanting to do a nice little fall-inspired project to ease me back into some sewing, and figured one can never have too many cushion covers......

So to shake things up a little, I wanted to do some raw-edge applique and some embroidery, and after perusing the beautiful fall projects on Pinterest, sat down with my sketch-book and came up with this little gem...

I love the idea of incorporating movement into my cushion and what says Autumn better than a crisp breeze blowing the leaves off the trees?!

If you want to make your own 'Fall Breeze' cushion or wall quilt, you can find the template in PDF format here.

It is sized for an 18" square pillow and you will need to print it in a tiled fashion across 6 sheets and stick them together (For instructions on how to do this on Adobe Reader click here). You can also get the regular letter paper size here, for embroideries or other stitchy goodness!

The best way to make the leaves is to cut a little template out of cardboard to draw around, and if you squish them close together you can get them all on one 5" x 5" charm square! Make sure to choose fabric with a small print that has a variety of colors so your leaves all look different.

Happy Fall, y'all!

Fanciful Flossery

A nice little project took up my spare time this week, and thankfully I got it finished in time for it's recipients baby shower earlier this afternoon. Now this was not your run-of-the-mill baby shower gift as the baby made an unexpected appearance two months early! Fortunately, the little dot is doing ok and her thankful parents are looking forward to taking her home sometime in the next month.

We never seem to have appropriate wrapping paper for birthday's and such, so we have now started to keep a roll of brown paper handy. Suitable for all occasions and decorated any way you like with stamps, paints, pens, ribbon etc. This is my new favorite thrifty wrapping!

So go ahead, open it up.......

A quick and easy pre-printed panel that makes up into a nice little wall plaque for the nursery! This one is wrapped around a piece of plywood, which makes for a nice sturdy base, but could as easily go in a regular picture frame.

This little project sure saved my hide this week!