The baby quilt is done! Plus a fishy toy

I finished the quilt for my daughter's speech therapist. We gave it to her today, and she loved it! It even inspired her to try quilting. She doesn't sew but she has a sewing machine and wants to learn to use it. So Samantha will have a different speech therapist next year, since her current one will be taking a year off to stay home with her baby. Sammy's a little sad about that. But on to the quilt. The pictures were a little tough to get-it was windy outside and I was determined to get outside pictures since the light is so much better.

the front (side note-I LOVED doing the bias binding and rounded corners):
the pieced back:
closeup of the label (I blurred out our last name). My daughter wrote out the label and then sewed some of it:
And here's a little sleepy fish toy I made at the last minute-I found the pattern on the moda bake shop HERE. I did a few things differently. I opted to use a blue/green color palette instead of making it as colorful as the tutorial shows. I omitted the ribbons since I wasn't sure if the ribbon I have would survive multiple washings. I used a snap (the kind used on baby clothes-very secure) instead of the velcro, and I machine sewed the opening shut. I wasn't sure my hand stitching would be secure enough. I used some packaging from a scrapbook album for the cellophane and I bought a set of washable wrist rattles and cut the rattle out of one of them to use inside the fish's body. I put it through the wash and a hot dryer before giving it to make sure it would survive both.
And here they are, all wrapped up and ready to give:

The fabric is Scoot from Riley Blake.

Cards & Things Sketch Challenge #119

I made this for the Cards & Things Sketch Challenge. I got the idea for the rest of it on the way home from dropping my kids off at the library. I'm trying to do more challenges, so if anyone knows of any other favorite challenge blogs, please feel free to leave a comment with a link. I started off using Make-the-Cut. I used the Mahalo set from Lettering Delights to make the coconut drink. When I make a shape to go on a card, I make a card-sized rectangle in Make-the-Cut first and then I can resize the shape to the right size for the card front. Then I just delete the rectangle or turn off that layer when I cut. For the letters I used a font called Grilled Cheese. I added the letters to the mat, then I used the bezier warp thing to make them curve the way I wanted them. This was done mostly through trial and error since I don't really know how all the controls on the bezier warp thing works. I added some tiny rectangles to some letters and used boolean join so that I wouldn't have to deal with putting the center parts on separately, but I made a couple of them too small and had to deal with it anyway. Once I got the word all done and sized, I found that the lines on the virtual mat in Make-the-Cut don't match up with the lines on my silhouette mat. So I exported the svg and opened it up in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition to do the cutting-it was a little easier to make sure the text was in the right spot for my card front. Before I cut, I did a test sketch on some white paper to make sure I had it in the right spot. The card stock is all from Stampin' Up and Bazzill. I used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen to make a little shiny spot on the cherry. The bottom border was done with a Martha Stewart border punch. I made the blue card base about an inch short on the front, then I added the orange card stock (after punching the border) so that it could be seen through the cut-out letters and on the bottom. I could have sworn I had it centered when I punched it but maybe that punch doesn't center as easily as my other ones do. Or maybe I just messed up.

Baby Boy Quilt Progress

I decided to play with instagram a little and this pic is kind of blurry but that's ok. It's artsy. Yep, that's it. Artsy. So I have this much done on the baby boy quilt. I channel quilted it with lines about 2" apart and the only thing left is to cut and apply the binding and the label. I'm going to round the corners (hence the plate sitting there) and use bias binding. My daughter will write out the label and I'll print it onto photo fabric and we'll sew it on the back and it'll be ready. Her last session with her speech therapist (the quilt is for her baby, due in August) is May 16th but things happen so the goal is to get it to her on the 9th.

A post shared by Gale (@gale65) on May 4, 2012 at 11:04am PDT

Resist Emboss Technique Challenge

I made this card in response to the technique challenge at Patty's Stampin' Spot. I don't do cards like this often and to be honest, I'm not so sure how much I like this one, but here it is anyway. I used the Stampin' Up Upsy Daisy set and stamped it with black pigment ink and clear embossed. Then I sponged ink on it (Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Cool Caribbean). The sentiment is from the same set, stamped and inked with Not Quite Navy ink and punched with a tag punch. The patterned paper is from a couple of Stampin' Up mini paper packs. The sun is punched from Summer Sun card stock. The sun was my son's idea-I wasn't happy with the card and he thought maybe it needed a sun. It does look better with the sun.

Zebra wallet...from a bandanna!

My daughter bought a pink and zebra print purse and wanted a wallet to match. I went through my stash and surprise, surprise, I did not have any zebra print fabric. I think I have every other print but that one. Then I remembered-a few months ago I bought a zebra print bandanna for my oldest daughter and she never even touched it. Perfect! I took the bandanna and a solid pink fat quarter, added some craft fuse interfacing, a snap instead of velcro, a zipper and a pattern, and ended up with this (shown here with the purse):

The pattern is called the Whimsy Wallet from This & That Patterns and I'll admit-it was just ok to make. I don't know if I would make it again or maybe I'd do a few things differently. Here is another picture that shows the wallet more close-up (those are my flowerpots in the background-the red one with the white dots looks like a giant mug and I LOVE it. I got it from Joann's.):

And the inside with the gift card pockets (she has no credit cards, of course) and the zipper pocket.
She is thrilled with it.

More progress on that baby quilt

Here is the baby quilt update with the sashing and borders on. I took this with my phone so the quality is so-so. It also looks kind of funky because you can see through it and it makes it look like this is the wrong side, but I swear-it isn't.

Baby boy quilt in progress

I found out recently that my daughter's speech therapist is expecting so I decided it would be a good opportunity to make something. So I found out she's having a boy, searched my stash, and wouldn't you know-everything I own is girly. Well almost everything. In the interest of saving time (her last speech session before her ST quits for the year is mid-May) I got a Riley Blake stacker (like a Moda layer cake) and some yardage, found a couple of moda bake shop tutorials I liked, which I will link at the end of this post, and modified them to fit what I wanted. So here it is so far-I laid it out on the floor to figure out how to arrange the blocks and took a picture with my phone. This is before adding sashing and borders and before rotating some blocks. I accidentally put 3 blocks with the same print in the top row. UGH. Oh well, too late since I noticed it after sewing that row together. and those tutorials (shift-click to open them in a new window)
Building Blocks Baby Quilt
Boxed In Quilt

I will post more pics as I get more done. I have the top all sewed. Just need to sandwich it and quilt it. The two things that are the biggest pain for me.