Still sewing to beat the band

Masks, do I make them? Oh yes, I do. Lots of them. The good news is that this is a self-supporting endeavor, so I'm able to donate quite a few. I'm open to donation, so let me know if you need masks. 

On another note, Anna is having another baby (today, I think?) and I started her baby quilt. It's going to be made of Strawberry Shortcake printed quilt squares that are pieced together with strawberry fabric.

At the end of July, I couldn't sew a single mask. I needed to make a change. So, I got started. I have a long way to go, but I think it's going to be right cute! 

Another thing I've been doing is tie dying fabrics for mask backs. I had 30 yards of a really nice white cotton for the backings. Plus, I was buying all sorts of fabric for backs. So, with a little Rit Dye, some hot water, soap, and salt, boom! Red tie dye. I did black as well, but didn't leave the fabric in long enough, so I have a lovely gray tie dye. And yes, I use this fabric every single day.

And then there was Isias. The storm blew in with rain and wind, and we were ready. We prepped the deck, made sure we had fuel for our (not whole house) generator, and in general, did what we do before hurricanes. 

Nothing blew away and we had few limbs to pick up the next day. The plants are back on the railing now and all the furniture is back where it lives. 

The world continues to go crazy all around and still I sew. My coffee cup that says I sew to stay sane knows me well.

I hope you are remaining safe and finding your way through this pandemic, crazy behavior all over the world, and just the unprecedented weirdness of it all. Pick up needle and thread. You'll be glad you did. 

Baby Balls Made with Pentagons (Tutorial in progress)

I'm newly obsessed with making balls for babies. I used to make them for my kids, but I used a sewing machine and now I'm hand sewing. The stitching is more precise with hand sewing and corners are tidier.

The method of sewing I'm using is English piecing. Basically, you have a paper pattern for the pentagon, the shape that is used for all pieces in the ball, for each piece of fabric. The fabric is basted onto the paper pattern, then the pieces are stitched together until there are 5 pentagons attached to the same central pentagon. When you have two sets of 6 total pentagons (the central one and the 5 attached to it), those two halves are attached to one another. (I'll add more about this as I construct the next one in line.) Leave open at least one seam so you can turn the ball right side out (this will make sense when I post pictures of construction), stuff it about halfway, add the sound maker (will add a photo of that too) in the center, and complete stuffing the ball. I stuff it tight, but not too tight; you want to leave enough play in the stuffing for baby's hand to be able to grab a part of it and maybe even shake it!

Color specific - brown

Black and white high contrast. 

Kid interest - Sponge Bob

I use a pentagon that I drafted. You can use pretty much any size bigger than 1". I would not go smaller than that. The side to measure is shown in the photo below. I use 2".

It's a pentagon (five sided) with each edge being 2". You can find pentagon patterns all over the internet or draw your own. There are 12 pentagons in each ball and they all have to be the same size.

I generally print off one page of templates and stack the printed page with some blank paper, then cut out a few at a time. That way I don't waste ink printing lots of pentagons. I like to cut through 4 pieces of paper at a time. Any more than that and the edges get a little off kilter. Remember, we're going to fold fabric directly on the paper pattern, so it's good to have it as precise as possible. 

After a few sessions of cutting, I have a bunch of pentagons ready to use when I'm ready to pick out some fabric and get going. 

The first step to sewing is to pin a pattern piece to a piece of fabric! I put down the paper and then cut at least 1/4" around the paper in order to have fabric to fold. Choose an interesting design to pin the paper to because that's what's going to show. 

Prepare a needle with a single thread that is in contrast to your fabric. Fold down an edge of fabric and take a couple stitches, fold down the next piece of fabric and take a stitch, and continue until you have all 5 sides basted down. I use a long basting stitch. You do not need to knot your thread. You'll be cutting the thread and taking the paper out later. For now, you want to fold all edges over the paper and baste each one down.

Here is one pentagon with the basting completed. You can see my red stitching in contrast to the white and black fabric. For each ball, baste fabric onto 12 paper pentagons.  

Here's a pretty simple tutorial on English piecing with hexagons. This one isn't mine, but I've made several hexagon projects using essentially the same instructions as I was taught them my a friend.  I'm not using hexagons, but the method of prepping the paper pattern is the same. They say it better than I can :) If for some reason you click and the site is no longer available, you can Google English piecing for several tutorials, including videos.

I'll update this post as I have photos of the steps required. It may take a while, but it'll happen!

Okay, this is what I'm working on - how about you?

My handsome great-nephew and his quilt

And this is why we do what we do when it comes to making things that we give away. Look at that smile.

This is my newest great-nephew. In this picture, he sure looks like his dad.

It surely makes me feel right about having made that quilt for him. I hope he enjoys it for years to come. I hope for all of us that our sewing treasures are enjoyed for years to come.

We'll leave you and the year 2012 with this happy photo and a wish that all your projects are so wonderful, be they gift or something for yourself. Take your scraps, your remnants, your yardage, your trims and embellishments, and sew in 2013 as if you were going to smile this big when you were done.

Happy New Year everyone!

Adam and Sandy's baby quilt almost done

So, I changed my mind and didn't do the Dresden Plate quilt I had originally planned. I started really working on it and decided to go with a primary color Log Cabin design that would work for a boy or a girl. Adam is a big Eagle's fan, so the background fabric is their logo and the back of the quilt is made from this as well.

I posted an "'almost done" item on Facebook and here's the result:


I tagged both Sandy and Adam on purpose. Lil stinker, ain't I?

I am working on a binding that includes a ruffle made of Eagles fabric. I had to add a ruffle after I found out the baby is a girl.

For their younger daughter, I'm making a Smurf's dress and rehabbing an 18" doll and dressing her in essentially the same dress. I have the daughter's dress cut out and ready to go, but it's not quite ready for prime time, and I have to figure out what to do with the doll's hair.

And to add even more interest to it all, another nephew is having a baby in July, a boy. What to do, what to make? Eeep!

This is indeed a scrap project, by the way. I had the primary colors. I keep a stash of Michael Miller's jewel fabrics for all sorts of sewing. I did buy the Eagles fabric, but you can't recycle all the time! Plus, this thing will be washed a lot. I make baby quilts to use and abuse.

New project!

My nephew and his lady are having another baby. I love it when my relatives have babies. That means I get to design another quilt. I know that daddy is a Philadelphia Eagles fan, so working in that fabric was a no brainer. But my challenge is what to make that would be boy or girl suitable? I've mulled over it for weeks, and here's a rough sketch of what I came up with:

It's a Dresden Plate pattern. The gray portions will be Eagles fabric. The red/orange/yellow/green/blue/violet fabrics are from the Krystal Collection/Michael Miller. I love those fabrics because they're striking and yet muted, and I keep a stash of ROYGBV on hand for placemats, backgrounds for pictures, or whatever calls for a color of the rainbow. I happen to get mine at the Fat Quarter Shop.  They're great to work with and their prices are fair. 

The wedges in the plate will alternate pointed tips and rounded. The center circle will be the Eagles fabric too. I have some baby hands fabric for the back. It's a flannel and beautifully colored. It looks like this:

I am ready to get started and can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll post a Dresden Plate tutorial as I go along. I'm using a pattern from Patterns from History and have changed the design ever so slightly. You'll see!

Preemies - Our littlest population

There's been a bit of discussion on message boards about sewing for premature infants. I'm the mother of two premature infants who are now 21-year-old adults. Yep, twins. I didn't do much sewing for them when they were below 7 pounds because my time was taken up caring for them. Premature babies require close attention, transportation to a lot of appointments, lots of small feedings, monitoring, etc., etc., etc., that is in addition to that you would provide for a full term infant. Many premature infants don't make it, and there's the added grief of a baby's death. And here's where we can help.

Parents of premature infants don't have a lot of time to do anything other than take care of their children. Organizations that provide clothing for the little ones abound on the web. Do a quick Google search for "patterns for premature babies" or "sewing for preemies" or any permutation of the phrase. There are free patterns on the web for tee shirts, sleeping gowns, blankets that fold and swathe a baby, as well as clothing and burial gowns. Any thing you can do for your community or for an organization line is more than appreciated by the parents who receive the items.
If you do sew for premature infants, remember to keep the fabric extra soft. Their skin is not as developed as a full term infant.

The best "help" I received when my twins were infants was anything that helped save me time. Many parents, such as myself, have another child as well as their preemie. That child needs to be remembered too. Stitch up a small stuffed animal or something unique for the sibling of the preemie if you have some time. You can use scraps you already have and stuffing you have stashed away.
Sewing for preemies is relatively simple and it's definitely something we call can do.
Feel free to browse around Google's free preemie sewing listings and try out an item or two. You'll feel really good that you've done something positive for the littlest babies.

Update 11/2018: My twins are now in their 30s and doing fine.