A quick fix, and an unlikely model

A friend brought a dance recital costume by for a quick fix while Siu Jeun was napping one morning.  (The little rainbow band that you see around the waist had to be attached.) Siu Jeun woke up while I was stitching it on. My friend, being the sweetheart that she is, went downstairs to get him. By the time they came up to the sewing room, he was snuggled in her arms, head on her shoulder, rhythmically patting her back. As soon as he saw this tutu, though…it was a different story! He was all grasping hands and jumping feet. This guy would not rest until that tutu was where it belonged. On him! (Blame it on having a big sister who likes to dance around in tutus!)

 

Oh well. Blue is a lovely color on him!

Thing 20: Lemonade Dress!

I'm sorry - this is the best picture I have of it! I saw this tutorial over at Ruffles and Stuff and knew that I had to try it out. This? Is the basis of my Summer Uniform. At the moment, I have a very limited number of thread colors on hand...so most of my colored shirts are safe. The black and white ones, though? They are cowering in fear. Their days as tee-shirts are numbered, y'all. 

(If anyone is local, I'm leading a session on Wednesday morning for our Relief Society "Crafty Playdate", and we're making these dresses. Let me know if you need more info!)

(This is us....in Boston! We took a quick overnight trip with my husband's aunt and uncle. Boston, you're beautiful and I LOVE you.)

The bonnet was a NYC Chinatown find a few weeks ago, and the sandals are a throwback to my Pacific Northwest Days. Lo Gung declared me Utterly Pacific Northwest. I said 'thank you.'

Thing 19: Purple 'Parkly Pillow

My daughter lost the vote on the color of her new bedroom walls (my "pink" vote bested her "purple" vote). Our compromise? Purple pillows!

She picked out the fabric herself...and check it out! My first buttonhole! It turns out...it's just as easy as the Brother manual says! Long Live Automatic Buttonhole Features. Oh, and I did the button by machine, too. BOOyah.

(I cut the case a little too small, and the opening was gapping. Thus...the button. It was necessary!)

QIP: Hedgerow, partially sashed

QIP: Hedgerow quilt, arranged!

That? Is one. large. quilt. Each block is about 12” square.

I finished half of the vertical sashing today. More pictures later! (Sorry for the weird lighting. I roped Lo Gung into helping me arrange it all after the kids went to bed on Monday night. He has a great eye for color and mixing patterns! Besides, we both knew that if I did it on my own, and he didn’t like the end result, I’d throw a major hissy fit. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. *grin*)

QIP: A Nine-Patch Sort of Thing

It’s a start. I went out and bought the sashing material for this quilt yesterday…and then realized I couldn’t NOT pre-wash it. My blocks are all made from repurposed bed linens (i.e. – fabric that has been washed DOZENS of times and will never shrink again). And the sashing? Is brand new cotton. That will shrink. A lot.

So…that quilt is on hold until I do laundry again. It could be a while. Laundry me no likey. Heh.

In the meantime, I took all the scraps left over and started work on a new quilt! What do you think? (That block up there is approximately 4”x4”. Hello, Itty Bitties! ) I’m totally winging this one. I took all my scraps and sewed them into long strips. Those strips were cut into 32” lengths, and then sewed together into random groupings of three. Those groupings were sliced up to make the rows you see above…which were then put together to make blocks. After I counted it up, it looks like I have enough to make 126 of those little 4” blocks. So, maybe a lap quilt? This is my favorite way to create – just take what I have in front of me and start putting it together!

Thing 18: A Big White Tutu

My daughter had a birthday party to attend, and this is what I came up with to send with her. It’s super simple – 7.5 yards of white tulle, folded in half lengthwise. I put in a 1” seam on the fold, making a casing for my elastic. After I fed the elastic through, I sewed the ends of my elastic together, tried it on my daughter, and trimmed off enough so that she could comfortably walk. Easy peasy! The little pink bow is hand stitched right onto the elastic where it meets together. I didn’t even sew the tulle back to itself!