The Nemo Blanket take 1

My 62^nd completed sewing project for 2008!

So I explained in the previous post how I am redoing the girls bedroom. This is completely for cosmetic reasons, Autumn really did need a blanket that actually covered her feet. This is really nice because she actually sleeps with it, so it is a lot easier to make her bed. Also I finished this as a surprise for her when she got home to Utah from visiting Grandma, Grandpa, and Baba Russ all by herself.

This is the picture that has inspired the color change, the girls picked out the picture at the surplus sale for Ben's work

Ben also finished the ladder for the bunkbeds and the side railings for the top bunk. Autumn was very excited to have it all finished.

The next step is to make the nemo blanket for Prairie’s bed. Not as big rush, she isn’t as tall, so she still has a blanket that I made for her last winter that covers her whole body. Plus the mattress that she uses in the bunk bed isn’t as long as Autumn’s. Her Nemo blanket will be the same on the top (and the blanket is actually completely ready to tie, I just need to tie it). But her back will be orange and she will have white ties.

Here are some of pictures of the good work that Ben did to completely finish the bunkbeds. It is really nice to actually have a side railing up there instead of a long board, and it is so nice to have the railing designed for Autumn’s tent so it actually stays up now.

the before picture

This was a bookcase that we found by a dumpster 2.5 years ago. Here is a before picture and an after picture of the paint job. I was really happy with how it turned out. Big bonus it actually fits in their tiny room.

the after picture

The Bed Curtains

My completed project for 2008!

I decided to redecorate the girls room. I made them each these really nice quilt as a baby for their beds and neither one of them like them. The quilts that they like are these little flannel ones that my mom tied, and they pretty much refuse to use anything other than that. Both of my girls like the ties on the blanket and they use them to help them go to sleep. Anyway I really want to work on getting Autumn to make her bed in the morning, but it is ridiculous to have her making her bed with a quilt that doesn’t even fit the length of the bed or that she doesn’t use at night. So I decided to redecorate and just make them bedspreads that are tied blankets so they will actually used them. Plus these blankets my mom made, she made them for when they were babies, they are getting small, and we keep our house cold during the winter, so the new bedspreads are going to be large enough to cover their body for a long time.

Anyway I went and bough the fabric, but haven’t finished the blankets yet, but Prairie really likes having a curtain over the bottom bunk. In fact when we moved to the new place we hadn’t hung the blanket over the side yet, and one night she was yelling very politely “excuse me, I want a curtain” over and over and until Ben obliged. So I decided to actually hang a curtain rod and make curtains for the bed that would work better and look a lot nicer.

These curtains were actually from Autumn’s first bedroom and were hung on the window, but I ripped out all the seams I had done and hemming, so I pretty much started from scratch, I just didn’t have to buy any fabric. I did buy the ribbon to string through it though. That is the new colors for their bedroom, the blue and aqua. It is based off a poster that Autumn wanted to get to hang in her bedroom, and it is an undersea print.

Anyway I found some curtain rods that had been hanging around, so the only thing I spent money on was the ribbon, so that is a nice project. It looks really cute on the bed, and it cost very little.This is the before picture

Apron for Auction

My 60th completed sewing project for 2008!




My relief society (my church's women's organization) was having a service auction tonight, so I decided to make an apron. I didn't have a pattern so I looked around online until I found an apron that I liked and then made a pattern based off how it looked. My mom was nice enough to let me steal fabric from her stash. I was really pleased with out it turned out. The funny thing is my upstairs neighbor saved up all of her "money" and bought it, and I bought her item of hair bows without know that she had made them.

Purple Fleecy Thing

My 59th completed sewing project for 2008!



This started 5 years ago when my mom made a fleece jacket for Autumn when she was born, except the pattern is way large, so we bunched it up and she used it that first winter when she was an infant and it fit about perfect the next winter when she was 1. Well Prairie LOVED the fleecy thing, so when I was at my mom's house at new years I made Prairie a green fleecy thing out of the largest size and it fit her perfect for the winter. Well Prairie is really tall for her age, and there was no way she was going to wear the green fleecy thing again, especially when we bike during the winter, she needed something that covered her legs. So I resized the pattern so it would be a 3T pattern and made her her new purple fleecy thing out of this cute care bear fleece my mom had on hand. Prairie loves it! She had already used it a couple of times since we got back to Utah, because the evenings can get a little nippy this time of year.

Queen Sized feedsack quilt

My 58th completed sewing project for 2008!



I finished the queen size feed sack quilt, yay, yay and yay! I started these feedsack quilts in October 2005 so I am sooooo glad to have them done and off of my list of things to do. I am trying really hard to finish stuff on my to do list before buying more fabric. So I am excited to have these off. This means I don't need the picture of the book on my sidebar anymore.

Also I have to thank my mom for all the help she gave, she cut out tons of blocks for me and quilted the entire queen size quilt. When I got to NY I just didn't feel like quilting, but was bummed about not finishing this project, so my mom was gracious enouh to take over the quilting, and then I complteted the binding. Yay for mom and daughter teams! Now she needs to get me setup with some easy pieces for her generations unite quilt and I will piece those for her.

A shirred dress

My 57th completed sewing project for 2008!

(Prairie really didn't want me to take a picture of her, oh well)

Prairie started being a just diaper sleeper in like january or february, in that she refused to wear pajamas to bed. I am very much a pajama person, so I was sad. Also Autumn figured out that if she didn't wear pajamas she didn't have to put them away in the morning, so she stopped wearing pajamas.

Well a couple of months ago Prairie discovered these 2 sun dresses from last summer, but they are way to small now, like they don't even cover her bum, they are more like shirt length, but she wears them constantly, and she likes to wear them to bed. One day the only way i could convince to get dressed for church was by putting her sunday dress over the sun dress.

Anyway I thought I would make her more so I went to Joann's to get the fabric with the elastic lines in it, but it turned out to be really expensive because it was all licenseced prints (Minnie mouse, tinkerbell, john deere) so I thought I would figure something out. So I researched shirring on the internet, where you use eleastic thread to make stretchy tops, and I tried it out and made Prairie a new kitty cat dress that is a more appropriate length. I was really please with the result. I cut out two more dressed that just need to be sewn up. I think Prairie will be so pleased to have so many options. I am also going to make her one out of flannel to wear to bed.

Pillows and Pillow Covers

My 53rd, 54th, 55th and 56th completed sewing projects for 2008!



I am excited to have finished these because they were a lot of work! The only thing I had to purchase to make them was the zippers for the covers and the cording. I used leftover fabric from when we recovered my glider rocker 5 years ago, and the stuff is remants from a garment factory which make really nice pillows. The actual pillows were old white shirts of Ben's that he no longer used so I cut them up and made pillows.

I am getting really excited about decorating my front room. Ben and I went to Joann's and picked out some fabric for me to make a new couch cover and it is orange. I am so excited about having a green striped couch and a orange couch with purple pillows. Eventually I am going to purchase a large 7 foot square deep purple rug to go in the front room, but I am going to have to save my money for a while. It is so fun to sew!

Feed Sack quilt (the small one)

My 52nd completed sewing project for 2008!

Well I finished this quilt during the olympics and finally got some good pictures of it. I still haven't put a label on it, and according to my mom all quilts deserve labels so whoever ends up with it someday can know who made it and when. So until I make a label I pieced and quilted this (I am really proud that I did the quilting) and it was started in October 2005 and finished in August 2008.






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Sewing Update

So I have actually been sewing. I have been working on two different feed sack quilts as seen here. That is the smaller of the two and I have had it pin-based since the end of April. Well I finally got around to quilting. I thought it would take me forever, but I got all the quilting done in about a week, and didn't feel like I ignored my family, which I considered an accomplishment. I finished the binding while I was watching the Olympics, but I haven't made a label yet, so once I put a label on it, it will be officially done and I will post pictures of the quilting and everything. I was pretty pleased, this is only the second quilt of a decent size that I have quilted, so my quilting skills are improving.

Here is the quilt sitting on my futon waiting for it label (sometime I want to recover my futon and decorate my sewing/guest room around the feed sack theme)

Also I have been working on my dresses some more that I worked a lot on in May. I had just about 10 minutes of work left on the dragonfly dress until it was completely finished, but I had been telling myself that it was fitting fine, but finally I decided to do a really good job, so I unpicked the entire top band of the dress, and well work on that some more so that it fits perfect. The orange dress, I have unpicked the skirt from the bodice and now need to change the shape of the skirt.

Here is the skirt unpicked from the bodice, waiting for me to get back to working on it

I have also been working on a project that I haven't talked about at all because I didn't want to upset certain people. This is a quilt that I am making as a wedding present for my friend. I am really excited because it is completely pieced and waiting to got NY and be quilted by the George (my mom's new fancy quilting machine).

The front and the back all pieced with the binding all ready to go, waiting patiently in the bag to be quilted (when I see that quilt all ready to go like that it totally reminds me of my White Grandma)

Here is a snapshot of the finished pieced quilt top

I also have been working on the queen size feed sack quilt. I have had all the blocks done since April, but I haven't touched it since then. I started working on piecing all the blocks together into the quilt. So I am hoping that before I leave for NY next wednesday I have pieced the entire top of the queen feed sack quilt (borders and everything) and have the back pieced so that as soon as I get there we can pin base it and then I can start quilting. I am planning on finishing that quilt completely while I am at my mom's house.

I also have some plans to finish some clothes items for Autumn, maybe some more winter pants. Start working on some Christmas projects for the girls, or atleast raid my mom's house for fabric. Also planning on making a super cute apron for a Relief Society (women's church group) service auction.