It's "Bow Wow Blankie" Time!

About a week ago, I finished a small quilt as a gift for Liam's 2nd birthday.

Liam is the son of Chris and Jennifer, good friends of mine. I would have posted this earlier, but I wanted to wait until after the quilt had arrived at its final destination in Reston, VA. I've received confirmation that it has been received, and is already being enjoyed, so now I'm able to share my little accomplisment!

I used a pattern called "Bow Wow Blankie," by All Through the Night. The instant I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it for Liam. I was originally planning to make it as a Christmas present, but I came up with other plans for that, and I didn't want to ditch this idea... So with two weeks to get it done, start to finish, I decided to take on the challenge!  I love that the quilt incorporates both pieced blocks (the stars) and applique (the doggie pull-toys). Applique is a skill that I've only had for the past year, so I'm still not completely confident in my abilities with it yet.

Surprisingly, I had the top finished in two days! 

Yes, just two days!  Granted, two insane days of cutting and late-night sewing, but still.... Two days!  The actual quilting part, where I had to sew the quilt sandwich together (top, batting, and back) took quite a bit longer. Pulling the quilt through and around the sewing machine wore my shoulder out really quick, so I had to do it in little spurts with long breaks inbetween.

Justin, a great friend of mine, and, coincidentally, Liam's uncle, helped me design a label for the back. My mind was coming up with this picture of a little girl, wearing an apron and glasses, but I cannot draw to save my life, so I enlisted Justin's help. I added the "For Liam on his 2nd birthday" and the date the quilt was finished, but everything else was pure Justin!  I ADORE how it turned out!  I'll be sending the design in to have actual woven labels made that I can add to the things I make!  I can't wait to see how they turn out!  Even though this particular label was created using my printer and a product called "Printed Treasures," it does not run!  Trust me, I washed and dried the quilt after I finished it, just to make sure!  :)

I have to say, even though I know that I didn't do a perfect job on this quilt (it's obvious, to me, that I'm still a beginner at this) that I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!  I was downright giddy to get this feedback from Jennifer (Liam's mom):

"... By the way Yvonne, thank you SO MUCH for the incredible birthday gift. We came home and the package was there waiting for us. We immediately opened it and were just blown away! Liam LOVES the blanket! Within 15 minutes of opening your gift he was curled up in it, taking a nap given the exhaustion of his wild birthday party. :-) I took a pic with Kaylee's camera and will have her send it to you. It made the trip with us and he used it all day in the car yesterday. It's really too cute...oh, and the tag is the coolest! THANKS AGAIN!"

Oh, to give credit where credit is due... All of the fabric (and the pattern, too, come to think of it) was purchased at Fabrics, Etc. here in Bellingham, WA.

The Bopple Ball Challenge!

Since I had never seen anything like this before, I'll explain it as if noone has seen anything like this before...

In other words, with a LOT of pictures! 

Introducing, the Bopple Ball! 

As you can see, the Bopple Ball is a ball with a MILLION  little arms coming off of it. Okay, maybe not a million... really there was only 14 of the little buggers. It certainly felt like a never-ending amount while I was in the process of stuffing those bad boys. More on that later.

THE REASON:

A good friend of mine, that I've known for over two decades (EEK!) gave birth to her fifth child - a not-so-little boy named Joshua. I wasn't sure what to make. My mind automatically defaulted to the rag quilt that I'd made previously, but since this whole sewing blitz is still rather new for me, I wanted to try to make something I hadn't made before. Babies are great for experimentation. I mean... trying out new sewing projects.. not mind games or mazes with little pacifiers at the end. Hmm... 

BACK TO THE SEWING PROJECT!

As his name implies, he's a boy, so all the cute little girl outfits I'd seen were obviously out of the question. I was walking around Fourth Corner Quilts (yes, you can find me there quite regularly) when I came across the Bopple Ball pattern by Vanilla House Designs.

THE PROCESS:

If you've read my other posts, you have discovered that I have been known to sew aprons, quilt blocks, purses... I've even made a lined, princess seamed jacket, complete with a mandarin-style collar. (I'll post about that later.) Yeah. This thing, at times, felt like the hardest thing I've ever made. Granted, it had some really cool sewing shortcuts, like folding one piece of fabric in half, right sides together, and drawing all fourteen arms on it, sewing on those lines, and THEN cutting them out - BRILLIANT!  Mainly, my frustration came from the turning and stuffing of said arms. I was trying to find a rhythm for completing them... Nope. I tried distracting myself so the process wouldn't seem so arduous... Nope. I was in the living room, with the TV on in the background, and my mom walked in and started laughing at me.  Why?  Because I was repeatedly shoving the back end of a crochet hook down the end of one of those wretched little arms to get the stuffing as firm as I wanted it. She seemed to think I was getting out some frustration... Hmm. Maybe I should approach it from that tactic!

THE RESULT:



IN ACTION!  Thank you, Mom, for being my hand model! ;)



So, all of my ranting about the arms aside... The trouble was worth it!  It's irresistable - you can't help but want to play with it!  It was universally liked - my DAD even thought it was cute!  Best of all - the look on my friend's face when she saw what it was and that I made it. Can't beat that feeling. :) 

ps... In case any of ya'll are thinking that I'm somehow wonderfully talented at sewing, let me show you Exhibit A, which will demonstrate how false that idea is... The pattern required that, after stuffing the ball, that the opening be stitched shut...

(cue the evil music) 

BY HAND!

As the picture makes clear, this is an area where I have a LOT of room for improvement.

 

Has It Really Been Four Months?!

Apparently my need to update my blog has been almost completely eclipsed by my need to sew, sew, SEW!  Currently, I'm working on a birthday present, a baby shower gift, two purses (a matching mother-daughter set - aww!), a dress that comes from an old shirt that I thought I had to throw out, and a quilt for li'l ol' me. Oh!  I'm also attending a quilt class, each Wednesday night for three hours, to help me work through some of the more challenging blocks from the 2011 Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop.

Whew.  I just wore MYSELF out! 

Long story, short - I have plenty of upcoming blog posts in me.

To catch you up on a few projects that I've completed since we last saw each other...  As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on blocks for the quilt shop hop from 2010. I've just about wrapped up the blocks for that project, only about a dozen more to go. (That's not so bad when I started with 58 to make!)  Here's another one that I designed myself. I took pictures of the flowers that appeared in one of the fabrics from the hop and then enlarged them in my dear, precious, couldn't-live-without-it Photoshop.  After that I traced the flower shapes on to some Steam-a-Seam 2, and played around with the three flowers to get them to all fit on one 8.5" block. TA-DA!  It looks like I was able to pull off a little magic with this one! 

Now we come to a scarf that I made a few months ago...

One evening, while I was blog-stalking, I came across this fantastic tutorial on Make It and Love It. (By the way, thank you Amber Weyland, for pointing this blog out to me. Yes... I still want to make those alphabet bean bags that you mentioned!) I had been in such a rut with purses and aprons, this came as a breath of fresh air. It also looked like the perfect project to use some voile I had found at Fourth Corner Quilts. If I do say so myself, I was right! I never really envisioned myself as a ruffle kind of girl, but I may just have to change my tune!  Speaking of the ruffles, here's their close-up shot: 

Now I just have to figure out the perfect outfit to wear it with. OH!  I almost forgot!  If you want the directions to this pattern, the very same one that I used, click here.

Last update of the evening!!!

It seems like lately, there's been a non-stop baby train. I have so many friends that have either recently had, or are about to have, a baby.  The last baby shower I went to was for Jolene Thayer. Since the shower, she gave birth to Liberty, on the 4th of July!  CONGRATS!  For Jolene and Liberty, I tried my hand at a rag quilt. I've seen them around for quite some time, but I hadn't taken the plunge. I started by choosing an adorable pink owl fabric, and some coordinating pinks and greys, from Two Thimbles Quilt Shop, also here in Bellingham. 

It's such an easy quilt to put together... All the directions I needed I got from this picture I took while I was at The Quilted Forest in Salem, OR. Granted, the instructions are a bit vague. If you have questions, let me know. I'll just leave it at that! 

Here is how my first attempt turned out:






Jolene liked it, that's what matters most to me!



A close-up on the "rag" effect.