Gifts for GA ~ aka The Shower that almost was…

When my husband and I visited GA, along with Kim’s mom, we took as many gifts as we could and tried to make the dining area look fun, girly and exciting.  Here is the result:

The little buggy was actually Kim’s when she was a girl.  Her mom has been saving it all these years.  Doesn’t it look so cute!

One of the downsides to blogging is that if your project is a surprise…you really can’t blog about it until the person receives it.  So here are some of the other projects I have been working on…I also made a set of burpies that match her Amy Butler nursery. Maybe you remember these pictures from a previous post.

Kim ordered her dust ruffle, crib sheet and bumpers from an Etsy seller, but she had only one crib sheet. So, I made her 2 more in her coordinating colors. I used this tutorial and knew it would work because I had made several vintage looking crib sheets for my daughter. I like the elastic all the way around, but it is tedious running it through with a safety pin!!

I also made a couple of coordinating galvanized buckets for Kim to stash some stuff (diapers, lotions, whatever). They are also coated with a water-proof finish so she could use them in the bathroom if she chooses.   One of them was filled with the only gifts I did not make…Ralph Lauren onesies.  All shades of pink and so comfortable.  I just love them.

I also brought the second AMH voile receiving blanket which I have already posted about sitting here on top of the left bucket.  I mailed one earlier when the shower was cancelled.

This last gift/shower picture I will share is the first diaper cake I have made in 25 years!!  I was glad that I remembered a few things.  For this one I used a pizza pan as the base with a wooden dowel going through the center for support.  I made it with size 1 diapers so that Kim could have it around for a while and not feel as if she needed to be using the diapers.  I also came across file folder sized rubber bands at the Wal-Mart and they were perfect for keeping the diapers together.  Perhaps you can see them through the tulle and ribbon???   Another tip I received from a colleague at school was the use of paper doilies between each layer.  We had tons of rattles and toys to use as decoration…but in the end I preferred the little socks twisted like flowers.I foraged into Kim’s sewing supplies (with her mom’s permission ; )) and found some corsage pins which were perfect for securing the socks.

The theme for Kim’s shower was { Pink, Pearly and all things Girly}.  I think that sums up the cake as well!    But the best part of everything is this little bundle of joy in her little house.  I can’t wait for her to be just a wee bit bigger and stronger.

I have another gift just about finished and ready to send. I will put it in the next post.
Thanks for visiting,

http://www.donnachurchillritter.wordpress.com
churchillparkstudio@gmail.com

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AMH Little Folks for a little one

My dil was supposed to have her baby shower today, but it had to be cancelled.  I was so sad for her, she was going to travel home to NC from GA to see all of her high school and college friends and celebrate her first baby.  I sent her a package with a few of the gifts I had planned for the shower.  It is supposed to arrive today.  One of the gifts is a receiving blanket I made using the Anna Maria Horner voile.  Everyone always talks about how buttery soft this fabric is-and they are right.  It feels like silk.  I understand now why there were so many scarves made with it.  Well, I wanted to make something that the baby would use right away with this wonderful fabric.  I chose to make a couple of receiving blankets with the voile on one side and AMH Folksy Flannel on the other.  I didn’t want to make the blanket too complicated, so I used large pieces from several of the prints.  I made them approximately 36 ” by 36″ and rounded the corners.  I finished them with a top stitch around the edge and did not do anything to the center (such as any type of quilting).

Here they are:

I also sent along this dining chair cover made with some Sandi Henderson Ginger Blossom from this post.  Along with some burpies from this post and a couple of store bought items.  I hope this will perk up the new mom to be and hopefully she will look forward to the shower she will be having in GA in mid-May. 

Thanks for visiting,

http://www.donnachurchillritter.wordpress.com
churchillparkstudio@gmail.com

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Some matching burpies

I worked on my matching burpies and except for some monogrammed initials or names, which I am going to attempt with my new Bernina 820, these are finished.  I like to make them in sets of three…not sure why.  Maybe it is because that is how I often see them in boutiques and specialty stores.  My niece Jessica is due in May.  She loves the colors purple and turquoise and those are the colors my sister said to choose. 

I like to roll them and present them to the new mom looking like this.  Isn’t that pretty?

Someone will be getting this set with Farmer’s Market and a little AB  that is waiting to be monogrammed.

I have made enough burpies to know that you can get three from one fat quarter, but you are left a little short on the end.  I used to run them through my serger and just make them 1 1/2 to 2 inches shorter.  But this time I am going to try the embroidery on my new machine.  Hope it works.  I am a little reluctant because I normally buy the premium Gerber diapers and they are pretty thick.  I like the thickness for padding a baby’s head, but not sure it will work for the embroidery.

My daughter-in-law, Kim is a huge Amy Butler fan.  I think you will be able to tell which girl is getting which sets of burpies.  The third one is not finished because I ran out of the pink rick-rack. 

My nephew is having a boy in late June.  I am planning to use my Pure for that quilt, but in the mean time I made a few burpies with snails  for his new boy.  They are going to name him Keegan (hope I spelled that correctly).   I will let you all know if I am able to figure out the embroidery on my machine and show you the results.

 I made these so that the snails are right side-up when they are over a mom or dad’s shoulder and the name will show on the back side. 

<< Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails-that’s what little boys are made of >>

Thanks for visiting,

http://www.donnachurchillritter.wordpress.com
churchillparkstudio@gmail.com

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Amy Butler and Everley Marie

I’ve mentioned before that we are adding another granddaughter to our family and believe it or not, she is due on my birthday!!  So, we will be sharing the same middle name.  All three of us.  Donna Marie (me)  Kimberly Marie (my dil) and the June bug Everly Marie! 

Kim has been working on the nursery (it is still a work in progress-she would want me to add that) and found this bedding on Etsy, so although this post is not exactly sewing related, I thought I would share some pics.  Kim loves all things Amy Butler.  The wall art we made for her living room was AB, many of the patches in her pillow were AB and now the nursery is AB.  Her are some hi-jacked pictures ; )

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Kim’s first blanket

My dil sent me this picture of her first quilt/blanket. She worked on the blocks last year and when she found out her new baby was to be a girl, she put the blocks together into a log cabin style top. I think the quilting and binding part was something she wasn’t ready to tackle, so she used some minky and sewed them with right sides together, turned it right side out and top-stitched. I am so very proud of her. She made the entire top with scraps and some fat quarters she had.
Thanks for visiting,

http://www.donnachurchillritter.wordpress.com
allzimsewingis@gmail.com

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Angel Pillow Reproductions

I have joined several swaps on Flickr and one that is particularly rewarding is the pillow talk swap.  In round 3 I was sent an angel pillow by KarrieLyne and my daughter really loved it.  So, here is the story of an Angel Pillow that blossomed into 3 different pillows for Christmas.

When my daughter stopped by one day, she saw my angel pillow and  threatened to snitch it from my home.  This gave me the idea to make pillows for the 3 grown girls in my life.  I started assembling them way back in the summer while on vacation at the lake.  I talked about my set-up in this post. 

I was making pillows for 3 very different girls.  For my daughter Amanda, I used scraps from all the dresses and quilts I have made for my granddaughters.  I kept the lines in the same 4 patch.  Many of these are from the dresses I have shown on this blog.  Here is the completed top, sorry, but for some reason this picture is a little blurry.

For my daughter-in-law Kimberly, I  went out and purchased some additional Amy Butler (she is a big Amy Butler fan) to add to my scraps so that I could incorporate the design wall we made for her home.   I wanted to make the pillow coordinate but didn’t want it to be too matchy matchy in the event they move to another Base and therefore, a different house.   Her living space has lots of greens and Khaki.  Here is her pillow front.

For my son’s girlfriend Alexandra, I busted out the Anna Maria Horner scraps from her quilt which I blogged about in this post.  The center of the pillow is actually a left-over block from the quilt and the rest of the squares are from scraps.  I did mix in a couple of patches that are from Amy Butler, but most are from the original quilt.  I like the patch in the middle as an alternative.  I think one of each style on the same couch/sofa would look great.  Here is Alex’s top minus the border.

Here they are:  quilted  and ready for wrapping.

Here they are all together.  I quilted 2 of them using stippling and Kim’s with a grid pattern.  I used a simple envelope closure and some more 100% linen for the backs, with the exception of Kim’s.  I used a scrap of Amy Butler to liven up the back. 

Here they are with their respective owners just after unwrapping them.  The girls seemed very happy with them and my daughter starting  hinting for a second.  Why is it that the daughters are always the most bold???

Update:  My daughter-in-law just sent me this photo from her iphone…and the caption is word for word, hehehe.  Sometimes those men just don’t get it ; )

He is touching the untouchable pillow ! ! Ahhhhhhhhhh ! ! ! ! ! ! !

 

Thanks for visiting,

http://www.donnachurchillritter.wordpress.com
churchillparkstudio@gmail.com

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If Only I Had Gnome!

Ok, so I am now officially in love with gnomes.  If I had only known about these little fellows my block choice for the VQB might have been very different.

This little guy has a hat from Objects of Desire, an outfit from Anna Maria Horner, legs from Neptune and some green grass ; ) from Neptune

She, has a hat by Amy Butler, but I believe everything else is by Lila Tueller, along with pink legs and grass! 

Here is the happy couple together.  I just had to add the eyes : ) They are soooo cute!  His legs look a little wrinkly in the photo.  I am hoping my new pressing board will do a better job than the soft ironing board I have been using.  I noticed it happened on my practice block for the VQB and I used Kona Cotton in white there as well.  All my fabrics are washed ahead, so I don’t think that is why he has wrinkly legs. 

 My block for the virtual quilting bee is a paper pieced block and I was exploring additional  tutorials when I  found the most fabulous pictures on flickr.  Here is a link to the flickr account.

The pictures led me to this blog Artisania which includes tutorials  for paper piecing.   She has a basic tutorial and then a more complex one.  All have gnomes a/0 mushrooms.  And, the bonus is that my paper piecing skills are really improving.  Unlike the random, wonky types of blocks, these really come out better if you cut your pattern pieces on the wrong side of the fabric and add exact 1/4 in seams all the way around the piece.

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Amy Butler Wall Art

While visiting my daughter-in-law, I was sharing an idea from the summer issue of Quilts & More Magazine about a wall collage using quilting fabric.  She had told me that she really wanted to do something with the large empty wall behind the sofa.  She and my son bought a new home in April and Kim has been doing as much decorating as a newly married couple’s budget will allow (I remember those days!). 

 On our excursion to the fabric store Sew Blessed, Kim spent lots of time trying to come up with some Amy Butler combinations for a type of collage that would coordinate well with her sofa, furnishings, and the paint colors in her new home.  She finally chose 4 different designs.  She wanted to make sure that is would not be too feminine. 

 

Below you can see that only one print contained flowers and a little pink, not too girly!

We went online and registered for both Michael’s and Hobby Lobby coupons.  This collage we were thinking about would require at least 4 and perhaps as many as 6 artist’s canvases.  We borrowed an electric staple gun from her uncle, purchased our canvas frames each day (coupons are only good for- one per  person, one purchase per day) and began a 2 day project.  I did not take pictures during the process (sorry about that), but at least you can see the end result.  I was in charge of the mitered corners and the stapling.  We put a couple of beach towels on the dining room table and that became our work space.  Kim had the job of applying 2/3 coats of decoupage (we chose satin finish) to the frames.  We did a small one as a sample using fabric that coordinated in her laundry room.  This was a good idea because I was able to practice the mitered corners and know how tight to staple the fabric.  It also allowed her to put a small decoration in another area of the house : ). 

 I included this picture from the side so you could see that we used the deeper canvases.  We thought it gave the project a more expensive look.

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Sister Dresses

In a perfect world these would have been completed by the 4th of July…in a perfect world.

So much for perfection.  I used these patterns for the dresses.

One day while surfing several sewing/quilting blogs I came across this pattern for a new born baby dress.  I was very interested because the new baby was due in early June and I already had so many dresses either made or in the works.  The dress is called the Itty Bitty Baby dress by Rae Hoekstra, you can find it here: wwwmadebyraeblogspot.com.  I did not use the piping or bias tape suggested in the itty bitty pattern for the cherry dress.  I did use piping for the Midwest Modern dress, I think it looks good either way.   Apparently another sewer/blogger  took the dress and made a larger size (more like a 3T), and you can find that one here: CraftingInspiration.blogspot.com

 

I made a change to the Butterick  pattern, because I made it reversible.  Here are the 2 sides during construction.  They are in the forefront of the picture. 

Reversible

My very first attempt at the dress occurred before Caroline was born.  Knowing that my daughter really favored the Midwest Modern print dress on Kate, I used the scraps for a new born dress.  We tried to take some nice pictures…but it is really difficult with a baby that isn’t even a week old and her 22 month old sister.  These aren’t  the best pics, but you can see the dresses really well : )

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