Revisiting fleecy embroidered toys

Hello, everyone.

Yesterday I tried a new approach to the stuffed toy made in the hoop: making an opening to begin with in the back side.

How? you wonder. By piecing the back from two pieces of fleece with an opening in the seam for stuffing later.

The final back side of the kitty. (The seam line can be brushed out if one wants, the minky style fleece has a definite, though short, pile.)

While trimming I accidentally cut the seam allowance off on one of the paws, but that was easily repaired.

The only tricky thing about this pieced back was the sudden discovery that it is really important to tack down the seam allowances of the center back seam. (The seam allowance got eaten up by the foot, and it was a bit tricky to cut it free. Plus there was a small hole in the fabric at the end.) With that adjustment, the trick worked. And an opening that is hand stitched closed with seam allowance at the opening is sturdier than one that is just pulled together with stitches across a slit, and a better looking result than cobbling together seam allowances at the slit that will work like an unplanned dart. IMHO.

This is one of the Minkee Pals toys. It's about hand-sized, and you use the small (not miniature) hoop to make it.

Obviously, since the fleece I have is white, the colors were changed. I think they work out okay. And even though I bought the white remnant expressly to make these critters, I am going to use up the rest of the white: it's officially from stash now. (Found the remnant at Hobby Lobby.)

The kitty can be a toy for a baby, as everything is securely stitched down. It can be a small Christmas gift. It can be a package tie-on. It's a little bit small for a fidget, I think, but the back side is uninterrupted pile so it could even be that. Maybe it could be tucked into a pocket on a fidget, with a little tethering ribbon so it doesn't get lost. A flock of them could be party favors for a children's party.

Stash usage: flannel fabric

Hello, everyone.

The last several days have seen more stash consumption around here. There were 2 self-binding baby blankets (forgot to photograph) and a collection of burp cloths. All in cotton flannel.

Some of the flannel, while delightful in pattern for babies, was in too small of pieces. They got pieced. The first picture is of some that had cute patterns but the on-grain length was just too short.

And, yes, the ironing board doubles as a work table. The print has been seamed to a longer piece of the yellow solid, seams pressed open, and then folded around so there are two yellow borders. Then the side seams were added, the pieces turned, and then pressed and top stitched. It was a really quick way to make a burp cloth.

Several cloths rolled and ready for giving:

The flowered one is a little long but it will be useful anyway. Y'all will notice that scraps of lace and ric-rac got included into the projects. I tried to keep the decorations to places where they won't make a lump under the baby's cheek.

One user tip for making flannel baby items: it goes a lot easier if you use a walking foot. With the regular foot the fabric crawls under the presser foot and makes it rumple.

A lovely bit of needlework

Hello, everyone.

Today, visiting with family, I saw some beautiful old needlework.

The stitches were done by hand and they are so even and small!

This is an old christening gown. The main embellishment is the several sections with diagonal tucks. They're separated by

embroidered strips. At the right, the front on the outside.

At the bottom, a closer look at the neckline. (Posting this from the tablet and missing the mouse buttons a lot right now!)

I am amazed at the beautiful work our ancestors did. They took such care to make the piece beautiful.

Block Play

Hello, everyone.

One of the new projects on the list is a baby-sized quilt.

This is a tentative draft of the layout, minus sashing and borders as y'all can see.

Fabrics in this medley are all from stash-on-hand.

The Texas flag block is new. I used the 5 point master template from Kaye Wood for the star. (I also have stash of cutting tools. It grows as one does more work with fabrics!)

If the arrangement still looks balanced with itself after a day or so, it will be sewn up into a quilt top, then quilted. 

Baby Quilt: some issues

Hello, everyone.

As I mentioned in the last post, the quilt is having some growing pains.

Oops.

The other caption for this photo is "how did that happen?"

Quilt progress: Block embellishment

Hello, everyone.

Today, while I'm working out some issues on the quilt--more later on that--I'll put up the embellished version of the starred heart that y'all saw a while back as a 6 inch block. Now it is 10 inches!

You can still see the 6 inch block in the middle. You can also see that a 2 inch frame has been added all around. I made 2 inch 4-patch blocks using maroon and bluebonnets fabrics. Placed a 2 inch square of maroon at the corner with the 4-patches on either side. Added a simple strip of bluebonnets plus maroon. Got crazy and did mitered corners.

If you like the look but don't want to do mitered corners, you could change the piecing and add a 1 inch frame and then a second 1 inch frame. It would mean having seams in the middle of the corner maroon squares, but it would be okay probably if you carefully matched the seams where the fabrics change.

User tip for that matching: put a pin into the seams that must match--straight like a nail. Then secure the anchored seams by placing a pin (normally) nearby on either side. And cross your fingers that it doesn't find some way to misalign as you put it under the presser foot. (Much unpicking lies that way, grasshopper!)

This square became the top right square in the baby quilt, the one that is getting assembled still.

Progress on Baby Quilt: Assembly stages

Hello, everyone.

The baby quilt, the one that's been "in the awkward stage" for a week or so, has settled into a final arrangement and the blocks are being combined.

The last post about the quilt was about adding block borders to increase the common thread of colors in various places thoughout the quilt.

Today I post the result of combining several smaller blocks to both make assembly go easier and continue the color continuation in the blocks.

Against the pieces of pale-gray sashing, the combined 4" blocks with some other goodies. The new larger block is part of the large tribe of 9-patches, in that there are three elements in each direction. It "reads" more like a 4-patch, though, because the red pieces are obviously more of an internal sashing than a major element of the larger block. The hard hat and the tractor have a home now...with the red and blue tying them back to other elements in the quilt top, and the yellows being kin to yellows and golds all over the top. The bluebonnet strips on the two ends both tie into the tractor and make the finished block fit compatibly with the doggie block that is a few inches below this one. I was aiming for a 12 1/2" wide piece here, and to fit well with the corner pieces as they ended up this block needed to be 10 1/2" tall. Thus the framing only on the sides and not the top or bottom.

Baby quilt progress

Hello, everyone.

After the refreshing break of Camino stuff, a small bit of progress to report on the baby quilt.  Color unification proved necessary, and some regularization of sizes of blocks to get them to fit into something resembling a rectangle.

Aggie symbol and a farm print (shows dairy cows,
which are common in the general area of College Station, Texas)

The plane returns! And like the perfect jacket to finish an outfit, now has a frame.

There are frames being added to other blocks as well, some on two sides like the top combination block and some on all four sides like the plane.

As Baby is coming right along, this quilt needs to Get Finished!

Block Play: Train engine (steam type)

Hello, everyone.

The block has finally been finished!

Here is a picture of the elements, just before the final seaming:

I was going to put up the sketch, but it's covered with scribbled letters and such.

This is an incremental development of the train engine block that is on Pinterest, and possibly also at About.com. (I don't remember seeing it there, but it probably is. A lot of blocks are!) The original had a shorter red body section and the two wheels were the same size. Also, though it's hardly an innovation, I decided to make the cow catcher black. It just seemed a little more true to the old-time steam engines' shape.

This is the list of fabric pieces, instead:

The background is blue. The main body of the engine is red. Stack and wheels are black. Cab top can be either black or gray, cowcatcher can be either black or red. Smoke puff is white.

Measurements are in inches. The block overall is in two parts: upper and lower.

List of materials

Size	Red	Black	Gray	White	Blue
3.5 square		1
2.5 x 7.5	1
2.5 x 3.5		1			1
2.5 x 4.5					2
2.5 x 2.5	1	1	1		3
1.5 x 4.5	1				1
1.5 x 2.5	2				4
1.5 x 3.5					3
1.5 x 1.5	3	5		1	4
1” square	2				2
Opt. scraps to decorate stack

Upper portion:

Stack section:

(Optional: add a bit of ribbon or fabric strip to make a painted stripe on the stack before proceeding with the rest of the stack construction.)

Sew a 1.5” black square to the 1.5” white square and add another 1.5” black square to the other side. Press, trim, set aside.

Sew 1.5” blue squares to the 4 corners of the 2.5” x 3.5” black piece snowball style. Press, trim and set aside.

Sew a 1.5” blue square to a 1.5” black square and add another 1.5” blue square to the other side. Press and trim.

Sew the blue-white-blue strip to the top of the 2.5” x 3.5” piece. Sew the blue-black-blue strip to the bottom. Press and trim. Sew the 1.5” x 4.5” blue piece onto the front end of the rectangle just created. The sub-assembly is now 4.5” square. Press and trim. Set aside.

Cab section:

Sew the gray 2.5” square to a blue 2.5” square. Press and trim. Sew the unit to the long front side of a 2.5” x 4.5” blue rectangle. Sew the other 2.5” x 4.5” blue rectangle to the other side. Press and trim. Sub-assembly is now 6.5” wide and 4.5” tall.

Sew the cab section to the rear of the stack section, press, and trim. Set aside.

Lower portion:

Wheel section:

Sew two red 1.5” squares to the upper corners of the black 3.5” square snowball style. Sew two 1.5” blue squares to the lower corners of the same square likewise.  Press and trim. Sew a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip across the bottom of the square. Press and trim.(large drive wheel)

Sew two red 1” squares to the top corners of the 2.5” black square snowball style. Sew two 1” blue squares to the lower corners of the same square likewise.  Press and trim.  Sew a 1.5 x 2.5” red strip to the top of the black square. Sew a 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip to the bottom of the square. Press and trim.(front wheel)

Sew the 2.5” red square to a 2.5” blue square. Press and trim. (middle of chassis)

Sew the drive wheel to the rear side of the red/blue rectangle, press and trim. Sew the front wheel assembly to the front side of the red/blue rectangle.

Sew the 2.5” x 7.5” red strip across the top of the wheel assembly, press and trim.

Cowcatcher section:

Sew a 1.5” x 2.5” red (or black) strip to a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip, placing the red strip crosswise and 1.5” in from the end and using a diagonal seam. Be sure to check the way the pieces will press out before doing any trimming. The idea is to create a 4.5” long strip with an angled seam  that goes from 1.25” up at the front to 2.25” up at the back on a 1.5” wide strip. (Think of joining strips to make bias here!) Press, check to make sure the edges are straight, and trim the back side of the diagonal seam to a ¼” seam allowance. (cowcatcher)

Join the 1.5” x 4.5” strip of red to the back edge of the cowcatcher. Press and trim. Sew a 2.5” blue square to the bottom edge of the cowcatcher assembly, press and trim.

Step section:

Sew a 1.5” red square to the end of a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip. Sew the end of a 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip on the opposite side. Press and trim.

Sew the step strip to the rear of the wheel section. Sew the cowcatcher section to the front of the wheel section. Press and trim.

Sew the upper section to the lower section, press and trim. Final size of the block is 10.5” square.

Block Play: a more classic pieced block

Hello, everyone.

A few days back there was mention of combining some four patch blocks into a 6 inch block for the baby quilt.

Here, the bluebonnets print blocks combined into a traditional form:

The larger gold squares really stand out, more than expected at the beginning, but it goes with the general color and theme of the quilt--this is, after all, a Texas baby quilt.

Block Play: Safety helmet

Hello, everyone.

What child, pretending to be an engineer or a miner or a builder, doesn't need a bright safety helmet?

The angles done snowball style.

Completed hardhat!

This is a 4 inch block. It has blended nicely into the developing scheme of the current baby quilt.

Block Play: Turtle

Hello, everyone.

Today there is another block for the baby quilt.

This is the third attempt, the first two were disasters. I even threw the picture files away.

This is not a sea turtle. Y'all will notice that the feet are bigger than sea turtle feet. I was aiming more at the red-eared slider type of turtle. This block was to fill a spot for an 8x8 block in the baby quilt.

Now all I need to to decide what to do about a 10x10 spot, and turn some 4-patch blocks into a 6x6 block. And then lay them all out and see how it's going.

Block play: Pickup

Hello, everyone.




Because we
Texans love our pickup trucks:

This one was easy. Somewhat tricky on the tires, though.

Looking over the blocks that have been made lately, it seems like this fall is an intensive practice season for matching up 45 degree angles.

The Rocket Block, new version

Hello, everyone.

The rocket block has been prototyped already.

Today's block is a modification of the basic block, to fit a 4 x 8 spot in the baby quilt.

Trying a different way to make the nose cone

 I did get a little bit forgetful while lining up the bits and pieces to make this block. At the end, the nose cone row was too wide. But all the excess was in the blue sky fabric, so no problem.

Here I drew a stitching line on the lighter fabric--love those automatic pencils for this!--and sewed a piece of sky into place. Press, trim, and good to go.

The main rocket body here, with the top part of the fins.

 The main rocket body is 3 inches tall. The fins reach below the base--obviously, this rocket is what is left after jettisoning the first stage.

The flame from the rocket engine.

 The flame was just going to be basically house-shaped, but there were these little bitty triangles lying around, and real rocket flames aren't shaped like houses. So I stuck the tiny triangles onto the other corners of the red piece. (The top corners here were done "snowball fashion", that is, a square was sewn onto the corner of a larger square. After pressing, the same was repeated on the adjacent corner of the larger square.)

And our intrepid astronauts are on the way to someplace!

A note on the quilt: after making the navy and gray plane, I concluded that it was too dark and dull for a baby quilt. Babies like brights! So instead of navy, the darker backgrounds will be more like this one.

Block Play: new prototypes

Hello, everyone.

With a new baby quilt in need of creation, new block designs are being tried out.

I looked at boot blocks on Pinterest, but they lacked something IMHO. One thing they tended to lack was a square shape. (I'm just not thrilled with the 5" wide by 6" tall kind of blocks. I'm also not thrilled with the various 5" square blocks...even though that at least allows the designer to have a symmetrical design around an actual center.) This boot block is, as usual, mocked up in glittery fabrics that are on my "sure to tarnish" pile. The half-square triangle boot heel is a little steep but it gets the idea across. It won't be quite as steeply sloped when it's in a matrix of other squares and the bottom 1/4" has been covered by the seam, of course. Likewise for the curve at the top of the boot's shaft--it won't be so "triangle-y" when the seam is chopping off the top 1/4" of the block.

The spiral on the bottom looks much better from a distance than it does in the hand--the light blue puppies print contrasts better at a distance.

Update on Pink Explosion

Hello, everyone.

Y'all may remember that I needed to finish off a quilt top  before starting on the Whaley Quilt a couple of months back. That one is nicknamed Pink Explosion. (This isn't your demure little-princess kind of pink.)

It has returned to the action list and there is progress.

First there was pinning:

Then the quilting began:

And now the rows of quilting are done.

All it needs is a binding and it's done.

Block exploration

Hello, everyone.

As always, the new project is seizing my attention and energy. Thinking up the design and choosing color schemes and looking at block ideas and so on is so much fun.

I look at Pinterest. I look at quilt block books around the house. I look at my own stuff. I think about the person who might get the piece.
And in the process there is always, always a new block that screams "make me! I'm perfect for this quilt."

Out comes the graph paper, the pencil, the Pentel Hi Polymer white eraser (wonderful for erasing pencil marks--but I do prefer the automatic-eraser-pencil shape to the block I have at the moment) and maybe the highlighter pens to help the lines come clear.

Guess it's time to locate another sheet of graph paper!

I've filled 2 sheets of graph paper so far, plus odd bits. Some of the designs are original, some are adaptations of designs in 501 Quilt Blocks, some are adaptations of designs that are already being permutated all over Pinterest...and likely other places I don't even know about.

The latest one to be actually played with is the rocket ship. The versions I saw online were mostly curvy applique shapes. I actually like piecing better than applique. The pieced ones I saw had blunt nose cones that for some reason didn't appeal to me. They were made of a pair of half-square triangles.

But there is a lady out there who had worked out how to make half-rectangle triangles. (Her blog seems to have disappeared, maybe she got busy and decided it was just one too many things to keep up with? But she had posted it in this other location also.) I thought that might be just the thing for a rocket nose cone.

Half-rectangle triangles. Note the offset of the corners on the unpressed one.

It's tricky to assemble--if you line up the wrong corners you get a kite instead.
You will note that this one does NOT have any offset corners. Oops.

Like half-square triangles, you have to allow extra seam allowance.
You have to have a strip of the wide size for triangle creation,
and of the regular size for squares and rectangles.

In the last photo, the top rectangle is assembled from a piece of wider fabric. The bottom rectangle was assembled from "standard" 1.5" wide strips. As you can see, it basically becomes a 1" rectangle at the narrow dimension. The wider one is a wee bit too wide for me, and too long, but I didn't look up the allowance for triangles before cutting the wider strip. The difference is probably just user error.

First draft of the rocket ship! This is the 4x6 version. If I wanted it to be 6x6,
I would just add another strip of space on each of the sides.

I use glittered fabrics for testing, because I've concluded that all that metallic print stuff is going to end up tarnishing a few years down the road. The star motif for the background, though, is definitely in the plan. The flame at the bottom will be in an honest red, gold, orange, or yellow. And the rocket ship will probably be either in light gray print or in dark gray print against a light sky background. It makes the rocket ship easier to see that way.

This layout did make a rocket, but the conclusion for me is that, like the whale blocks in the last quilt, some minimizing of internal seams is in order. Also, just to minimize the tricky factor--and make no accidental kites--I'll probably use the "add a bit on the corners" method that's often used for the snowball block. (Link has a video. They used a 10 inch square for the body of the snowball.) It's just more foolproof. And instead of three slices of 1.5" fabric for the body of the ship, I'll probably use a 3.5"x 2.5" rectangle. More foolproof, again.

A project finished!

Hello, everyone.

For the last couple of months I've been working on a baby-sized quilt. It's now finished!

Here is one part of the quilt, with a whale showing its cheerful yellow eye. The half-circle almost looks like it's winking, doesn't it?

A fabric surprise

Hello, everyone.

Today is more of an update on various ongoing projects.

On the book cover business, I decided that I'd learned enough about using the poly doupioni and took it out of the embroidery hoop. A scrap (large scrap) of poly taffeta had crossed my awareness and I wanted to see if it would be hard or easy to needle. I backed it with a scrap of muslin and tucked the set into the hoop for a look-see.

Testing the taffeta

This is leftover Ivory Two-Tone Taffeta that was off-cut from wedding dress projects. I used a pencil to make a little bird and then got one of the needles from the Bohin sample pack and loaded it with two strands of the same orange DMC floss I was using before. (Hey, it was out already.) The bird is being done in chain stitch.
I am amazed. I had expected the fabric to resist the needle. It doesn't. And the smooth texture of the fabric lets me just sketch with the automatic pencil--it has a consistently sharp point--and go.
I suppose at this point I should consider whether using up the tons of ivory scrap is an idea for this project...even though it would need to be laundered more often...just because it's so easy to work with.
But at this point, I'm really just trying a few last ideas before talking it over with the decision maker.
If the little dove-ish bird comes out this easily, maybe I can trace a pelican on it? Using outline stitches instead of heavy fills would get the project done faster.

On the quilt, I did more auditions: border fabrics now.

A slightly-wild hearts print that didn't work out as a border on this already-very-pink quilt. (Bit I have intentions of using it as the binding!)













This ticking strip didn't work out as border either.












And the winner is: the mottled gray "solid" at the top right. (I fold up hunks of fabric to just about the thickness of the border and lay them alongside the top for the final auditions.) The gray solid at the bottom just didn't have enough contrast and looked "dead" next to the rest of the top. A couple of other candidates are not shown, they were either too busy or just didn't spark next to the top.

Working on quilt squares

Hello, everyone.

Recently I began working on pieced squares for a baby quilt: whales. Pink, gray, the usual baby kinds of colors. Well, my usual kinds of baby colors tend toward brights, as studying the color relationships helps the baby develop his vision and intelligence. IMHO.

Color chunk assortments were already posted a week or so back.

This was exploration of blocks.

Adapted from a block in the *501 Quilt Blocks* book

 The Betterh Homes and Gardens book 501 Quilt Blocks has a whale block. (Also several ships, an anchor, and many other blocks.) The first time I tried to make it, the business with the tail just didn't work out for me. Something about the little dip between the tail flukes was not going to go together no matter what. So I eliminated the little dip. This made the whale a lot easier to put together. I also consolidated pieces where possible.

Sketched after cruising many pins on Pinterest

Hearts just seemed like a baby-welcoming pattern. This heart, however, didn't make the cut. I saved the block for future reference. (And used up some metallic prints that weren't going to go into anything anyway. Metallics tend to tarnish over time.)

The "theme-y" pieced blocks that are being used are four whales and a tugboat.

A cheerful yellow eye for the whale

Does anyone remember the cartoon, and book, about Little Toot the Tugboat?