Orca, a "whale" of a quilt!

When my now, 14 year old grand daughter was younger, she was in love with the Orca whale. She wanted to be  a trainer at Sea World more than anything else. I told her she could if she wanted to, but alias... now at 14, Orca trainer has kind of fallen by the wayside!She does still love the whale, but as with all teenagers...things change in those years!
 
So I made her this Orca quilt. I looked high and low for orca whale fabric! Online, in stores, everywhere I could think of.. and no orca whale fabric. I was upset as I really wanted her to have this quilt as a memory of her younger years when her passion for the Orca whale was so meaningful to her.  One day, I went to the thrift store and bought several bags (gallon ziplock size) of fabric. I couldn't see most of the fabric in the bag, stuffed full, but the outside fabrics I could see were cotton, and for $3.99 I figured I'd find enough in there that I could use. So I bought 3 bags of fabric.

Once, home, straight to the laundry room I go with the bags of fabric. I am opening them and pulling out the fabric pieces and  all were pretty good, and then IT happened...

Dresses for my Grand daughters....I amazed myself!

My oldest grand daughter is 8 and a Brownie Girl Scout. Her troop is putting on a program  with several other troops about other countries in the world and each troop chose a country.... hers chose the Ukraine. The troop contacted someone to make the outfits for the girls in the troop. 

 But she has 2 little sisters and my DIL asked me to make the sisters dresses to match so that they can kind of be part of the troop since they will all be there together anyway.  My DIL sent me a picture of this dress and asked if I could make one similar for the  2 sisters.  I thought, okay, a pheasant blouse, an apron and a elastic waist skirt.. and some embellishments of ribbon and lace. Yeah, I could do that.  I couldn't find a pheasant blouse pattern so I bought a kind of A-line dress with a regular bodice, took bodice pieces  and altered them to make a blouse, added some ribbons and lace and piece of the print fabric and made the blouses with a zipper back.

                      

Now just so you know... I haven't made childrens clothes in 12 years! Last I made was for my (then) 2 year old grand daughter. I made her 13 outfits for her second birthday. Before that, it was probably 15 years since I made clothes last. I made all my own clothes through high school and I made all my daughters clothes from birth  through 5th grade. I'll never forget the day she asked me "Mom, can I have a store bought dress?" I knew then that she was growing up and it was time to start accepting it!

How to Make a Neck Pillow Cover

I have been wanting to do this for some time. I kept telling myself I could make the pattern myself...just draw around the pillow, but I just never got around to it.  Then I stumbled on to this pattern and just said...DO IT! Especially since I use the pillow for traveling all the time now...just without a nice cover on it! So finally just did it!

A Cover for my Favorite BFF... my Singer 2010 sewing machine!

I wanted to make a cover for my other sewing machine.. a 29 year old Singer 2010...among the first "computerized" machines to come on board in early 1980's. I love that machine and  back in the day, I put more miles on that sewing machine than I did my car!   I have lot of good memories of that Singer and the things it helped me make!

I got a new Singer Quantum Stylist 2 years ago when I wanted to learn the FMQ technique and the 2010 wasn't that great at it. But I wanted to keep the 2010 out for things like assembly line sewing and to help not to have to change thread colors all the time in one machine and to just make my sewing room look nice. I already made one for the Quantum so now the "old girl" would get one!

I looked through my stash for fabric and I had bought this sewing theme related fabric back in December as it just jumped out at me off the rack and I just loved it!

Baby Quilts or Doll Quilts....quick and easy and FUN!!!!

While my PC was in the shop trying to update and later finding out it couldn't be so I had to buy a new one...

I looked forward to a week of nothing but sewing! I Didn't have anything planned, so I happened to be thinking about  my grand daughters and have been told "NO TOYS" as gifts because they have so much already that they don't play with. So I make them things they need or could actually use for a reason. My immediate thought was doll quilts! I didn't have any design ideas, but thought this would be a great way to use up scraps (since I am not a "scrappy" quilter, I have lots of scraps!) So I just took some scraps and some charms that I had no use for otherwise and literally off the cuff...came up with these three quilts. I gave them Baby Alive dolls about 2 years ago Christmas so I used that doll size and made the quilts to wrap that size doll.

And another fun thing...these quilts can also be used as (real) baby quilts! They are about 36x36 and soft, cuddly and perfect for any baby to be snuggled up in or to lay on the floor or grass at the park to play on!

Ashleigh's Doll Quilt  I had started this one about 2 years ago intending it to be a full size quilt. I was mistakenly designing from the inside out and found out that wasn't a good way to go! But, in this case, I notice that 2 of the pinwheels were not positioned as they should have been to match the rest, so I just stopped and hung the WIP in the closet as I didn't know what to do with it. So I noticed it, and just thought..for a doll quilt all I had to do was add another sashing or two and a binding and it'd be done. So that is what I did.I am sure Ashleigh didn't even notice the pinwheel issue!

For Ashleigh's quilt, I used the WIP that I had and added some borders. The first border there is a pink and white "checked". This is from s bargello quilt I had made for my daughter in pinks and this is what was left so I cut the strips and put them on the outside of the solid pink. Then another border of a pink print and another border of a solid pale pink were smaller pieces I had...not scraps, but not big enough to do much with....except to cut for borders! Binding is last and it is just a pink.  The quilt is about 36x36".

Emily's Doll Quilt 

This quilt is made up of hour glass blocks. I had bought a package of 5" charms that included these strips and plaids prints. I don't like working with lines so these didn't get used..until now. I used them with a matching solid and made hour glass blocks. The solid is  some I had ordered a long time ago, a package of 100 5"  charms. When I got them I found out they were that batik looking pattern and I don't like that!  So.. I took  the plaids and matched them with a  batik and made the hourglass blocks. I used white as the middle blocks.  The green border is large scrap piece that I could cut 2" borders from and same with the yellow. The binding is the cotton/poly fabric. Measures about 36x36

LillyAnn's Doll quilt

 First, please pardon the picture..it does look off, but I am having a hard time learning a new software program since Windows 7 doesn't accept older versions of my Microsoft Picture It software! This quilt is made using more of those batik 5" charms that I don't like! I made flying geese blocks with the charm and some yellow fabric. Then I sewed four together, in no specific order. The middle blocks are just a child's fun teddy bear print fabric I got at a thrift store last summer....5 yards for $2! At the time I didn't know what to do with it but it was brand new fabric and only $2! So since Lillyann is only 3, I thought she'd like the teddy bears. Then I used larger scraps again for the red and teal borders and pink for the binding. The back is the same teddy bear fabric

All three of these doll quilts are literally just colorful with no specifics. I just used alot of color on them with out worrying about matching much.Which is a 'first' for me as I have this tendency to make everything match!

The batting I used on all of them is just baby receiving blankets I got at the thrift store. When these have their final wash, I am sure that receiving blanket will shrink more but that will just make the quilt have that crinkled look which many like and it also helps the quilt to be softer and more "wrappable". I didn't include pictures of the backs, but I used that same teddy bear fabric for 2 of them and another teddy bear fabric that I got the same time at that thrift store, is on the other one. They all turned out pretty good if I do say so myself, and I know that I am my own worst critique! And the girls will love them!

Fun thing also, with these doll quilts...they can be used for the dolls but also for the little girl themselves! Great for a sitting mat at TV time or snack time on the floor or outside or take in the car to cover with.

So my week of waiting for the computer was totally worth the wait! And has taught me to sometimes, get off the PC and just sew!

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Thanks for stopping by and...keep on sewing those memories!