Soft signs of love

Hi everyone, and welcome to August! It feels like it's been August for weeks, at least temperature-wise, and certainly the grass looks like it's been as hot as August for a while.  Yep, brown and brittle. For anyone out there in the rest of the country who wonders why Congress goes on recess every August, I can now tell you in detail why that is!

We are very busy around here right now, and there's not a lot of stitching getting done.  I have just one small thing that I finished up this week, and I am super happy to show you this:

This is the cutest little fabric book that is nice and soft and squishy and just perfect for tiny humans.  My friend Bernie sent me this panel to make for my newest grandchild, and I know that she's going to love it and chew on it and maybe even learn a few baby signs from it. Many thanks, Bernie! The panel is still available in her shop, and you can find it HERE so you can make your own. (And hey-- free shipping! You could even look around at a few other things while you're there, too.)

If you haven't made one of these book panels before, I'm here to tell you that they are super easy.  Directions are printed right on the panel, but it's a fairly intuitive process.  You cut out the pages, layer them with some batting, and then stitch around them envelope-style. Turn, press, and stitch the opening closed, then stack the pages and sew through all the layers.  Presto, a soft fabric book!

For my book, I used two layers of batting for each set of pages, just because my batting (which was leftover scraps) was pretty thin.  This made the pages nice and beefy, easier for tiny hands to grab.  One tip I have is to pin the page numbers to your pages so that you can keep track of which page goes where.  This book has no plot, so a mixup wouldn't matter much, but you know how I like things to be where they're supposed to be.

One other thing I did with this little book is to use a narrow zigzag for the "spine" of the book.  Even the gentlest little person can be awfully rough on things and I didn't want it to come apart, especially if she has it in her mouth or something, so this was just a little insurance.  It was a pretty thick stack, so it didn't move very well through the machine, but I did manage to get the job done.

This was a fun little project and I can't wait to give it to my granddaughter and teach her a few signs.  (There is a hard cover version of this book that is very similar, also by Joy Allen, and several other books on teaching signs to your child. THIS one is very good.)  Since it's so easy and doesn't require a lot of precision, I think this would be a great project to make with a child who is learning to sew, or even a younger child who could help cut and stack the pages.  Then they could have a hand-made gift for a new baby, too.

This was a fun little project, and a great one to end on. At least in this house!  This was my last little project here, and right after I finished I packed up the remainder of the sewing notions and thread to get it ready to move. (I marked that box "sewing room box 1" so I know to unpack that one first!) We are moving this coming week, so I won't be sewing for a little while. I'm sad to leave, but I know that new adventures and much happiness await us in our new home in Baltimore.  I have a throwback post scheduled for next week while we move, and then I'll be playing it by ear while we get settled and I start working at the new school.

Best wishes to all of you in your quilty endeavors the next couple of weeks, and I'll see you on the other side of the moving van!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and TGIFF

Fun with voiles

Hi everyone!  Well, the heat has finally broken, at least where we are, and it's much more comfortable now, though those were some powerful storms that ended it.  Good thing it's done for now, because the anxiety is definitely on the rise as we get closer and closer to moving.  There are too many details, and I'm getting pretty tense.  It all goes okay in the end,  I know, but getting there can be no fun at all.

From time to time I make things that are not quilts, and this is one of those times.  I'm starting a new teaching position in a couple of weeks, and that calls for something new and festive for those first few days. And face it, it's just fun to have new things sometimes too.  Here's what I made:

Yep, a couple of pretty scarves! I made these from two pieces of the cotton voiles that are everywhere now.  The fabrics are really pretty, but they're definitely too thin to use in a quilt. They make really nice, soft scarves, though!

I made the blue infinity scarf from a very pretty piece of voile from Bari J called Birds and Branches that I got from my friend Bernie's shop. This scarf was super easy, using THIS tutorial from Melly Sews.  The length and the width turned out to be very big, at least to me, so I ended up cutting about 10 inches off the length and about five inches from the width to make it fit me a lot better.  Even with the adjustments, this literally took me about an hour to stitch, plus maybe 10 minutes of hand sewing to close up the final seam.

You would think that the infinity scarf would be more complicated and take longer than a simple straight scarf, but no, the orange one took longer, mainly because I hemmed the sides.  This voile is called Firefly Tang by Jeni Baker and the photos don't do it justice.  It's a lovely orange that's not really bright or flashy and the fabric itself is very soft.  I had thought about making a tank top from it because it's so pretty, but it's just too sheer for me to be comfortable wearing it.  Perfect for scarves, though!

I cut the orange scarf 12 inches wide and made it about 72 inches long.  I hemmed the sides with a very narrow hem and then did a small zigzag about an inch from the ends and pulled threads to fray the ends just a bit.  This was actually the hardest part because it just didn't want to fray, which is a good thing in fabric but not great when you actually want it to come apart. 

The dresses are identical styles from Lands End. I have this dress in five colors and wear it all the time. Super comfortable!

And just like that, I now have two new festive accessories to wear this fall! They were easy to make and will dress up my plain solid boring clothes.  I love the fabrics, too, and I'm glad I got to use those thin fabrics for something useful.  So a very successful small project, I'd say!

Hope everyone has a good weekend, and that it's not too terribly hot where you are.  Ice cream always cools me off-- just sayin'!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and TGIFF.

Five little blocks

Hi everyone!  Are you all enjoying the heat dome so far?  Yeah, me neither.  I'm seriously fantasizing about snowstorms right now.  We had a minor bit of panic yesterday when we thought the AC had gone out, but it turned out that the batteries in the thermostat had died.  Whew-- easy fix! It did get up to 87 in the house before we figured it out, though. I've never been so relieved to have dead batteries. 

It's been a busy, hot week, but I managed to make a few of the Tiny Tuesday blocks:

Doesn't that Bear's Paw block look enormous?  It's the same 5 inches as the others.  I've said it before, but these blocks are so darned cute and most of them are fun to make.  I can't wait to see how the whole quilt turns out.

I didn't make very many blue blocks during the blue month, so I went ahead and made a really simple blue one, just to have a bit more blue in the quilt.  If you're interested in making one of these, I just used 2 inch squares from the 2-inch bin.  Super easy and quite cute!

I also made the fish in orange, because they must be goldfish, you know?  And the orange tabby cat got a gray basket.  My fabric is kind of limited now and that's the piece I could find, in the string jar, of all places.  The cat was really easy to make and I like how he turned out.

Finally, there is a pink polka dot pig!  Good thing this little lady is cute, because she was a bear to put together.  I had a hard time following and kept doing things backwards, plus I cut a lot of things the wrong size.  Must have been the heat. Miraculously, she turned out the right size and reasonably pig-shaped. And she's covered in pink polka dots-- what could be better?

I think that catches me up until next Tuesday.  Hope everyone stays nice and cool and safe during this awful heat.  Have lots of Popsicles and lemonade.  We are going to the movies because we have several house showings, then I might dive into some ice cream and wait for the heat to break.  Don't forget to check your thermostat batteries!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.

Fresh new oranges

Hi everyone! When I went out walking this morning at 6:30, it was already 74 degrees.  I know it's July, but holy cow, that was unusual.  And icky, too!

I just wanted to drop in with a short post today because I've started something new.  I can hear you now--what? Don't you have enough stress?  Yes, but this is not stressful.  This is making me feel really good and giving me a small challenge and something to do.  Because I don't have enough to do, you know?  We're kind of in a holding pattern, waiting to close on the new house and still showing the old house.  I've packed most of the kitchen, most of the towels, most of my clothes, and all of the decorative stuff in our house, so it's weird here.  Also, most of the fabric is packed, so why not do something that isn't a regular project? That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it.

Before we go any further, here's the beginning of the new project:

This is the start of a summer scrap quilt designed by Kevin the Quilter, and you can find the intro post HERE.  It doesn't have a name yet, but my version does have a decent story behind it.

You might remember that a couple of years ago I made two string quilts for my nieces, who loved them.  I didn't make one for their brother, my nephew, because I didn't really think he'd enjoy a floral quilt.  But now he's 20 and no longer living with the folks, so I told him I'd make him a couch-size quilt for this winter.  Then I asked him what color he would like, thinking he'd say "blue" or "green," which is what I'd expect from a 20 year old guy.  He said "orange," which I completely did not expect.  Orange! 

My nephew happens to be about 6'4'' and about 300, so a couch size quilt for him needs to be a bit bigger than his sisters' quilts.  Enter Kevin's scrap quilt, which should finish around 70 by 80.  This should be a good size for my nephew, don't you think?  And it uses just two colors, plus Kevin swears it's very easy, with only three clues. Sold!

I don't have a lot of orange, and the yardage is packed, so these first 4-patches are just from the scraps I had in the bin.  I did go ahead and order some fat quarters from The Old Country Store, and I might have added a couple other things to the order, too.  So that will be very exciting to get delivered, won't it? I don't know yet what color to put with the orange, but I know it won't be white.  What color would you put with orange for a 20-year-old nephew who's studying to be a gunsmith? 

That's all I have for now.  This morning I was out walking and got a full face of pollen from the tree shown above.  It has weird flowers, and I've since learned that it's a silk tree, which can be an invasive species.  There are a couple of these in the park and just as I was coming past it a stray breeze picked up and blew a whole bunch of crud right at me.  I really hope it was pollen.  It may have been that or maybe the heat, but I've had a headache all day.  So now I think it's nap time for me. 

Hope you're all having a good week and staying plenty cool.  Stay away from the weird trees and be sure to have lots of cool drinks!  We're going to be over 100 for the next few days here, so I'll be doing the same. Right after my nap.