Nikki Tote Bag!

Since my last post my entire fabric stash went through the dryer (on HOT), then into air tight bags, then to my mom's house to be refolded.  All in effort to kill any swallow bugs that may have gotten into my fabric stash.  It was a nightmare I refused to become upset over, seeing as how I had a one week old baby to spend my energy on.  I now have my fabric back, but it lives downstairs until the swallow bug situation is completely resolved (I'm still finding dead or dying bugs and don't want to risk it, although the pest control guys says it's safe, I'm pretty paranoid at this point!).  Here's what my fabric storage looked like:

Two GORM selves from Ikea, with my roll of batting on top.  This photo is from December,  so by March it was actually quite organized..now the shelves stand empty.

Pulling the batting out is a two person job, but it's a great storage place for that huge roll.  Currently that whole box is doubled bag, still in a pile of bags downstairs.  

Hopefully over the next several weeks I can start reorganizing and refolding my fabric.  I can't wait for it to be on those shelves again!  Anyway, I've said all this because I really can't quilt right now because of the fabric and swallow bug situation, but wanted to sew something.  I also wanted/needed a larger diaper bag to accommodate all the toddler and baby stuff I lug around now.  I finally decided on the Nikki Tote Bag pattern.  It took me 10 days to make the bag (since I could only work on it when Aurelia was sleeping and Arden was playing nicely, or when both were sleeping), but the actually work time wasn't bag at all, and since I already had some bag making experience, it went rather smoothly.  Here's my finished bag:

All fabric came right of my stash (though it took a lot of digging through boxes to find it).  I used decor weight for the exterior, corduroy with interfacing for the handle and quilting weight with interfacing for the interior.  Buttons are antique mother of pearl from a friend. 

These buttons are treasures!  They're heavy and beautiful!

This is the inside--I used the pockets from the pattern, and then added 5 more!  Two zipper pockets, two bottle pockets and smaller pocket.

Other side.

I added a recessed zipper using this tutorial...thoughI haven't used the zipper at all yet (in 3 weeks!), so I wish I had saved the time, money and effort and just put in a magnetic closure instead. 

An action shot of what's inside!  Wipes case, change of infant clothes, point and shoot camera, changing mat, two size 4 diapers, 6+ size 0 or 1 diapers (in polka dot bag), a bib, two granola/breakfast bars, a tube of toddler sunscreen, two pacifiers, my wallet and cell phone, a toddler hat, an infant hat, a water bottle and a sippy cup.  Zippered pockets have additional mommy items and two apple sauce packets (which must stay hidden from toddler until time of use!)  I also usually have two snack cups in there too.  And once I also had a SLR camera and a small watermelon in there.  No joke!

Then my Mommy's group had a Mother's Day secret santa exchange (which got cancelled at the last minute, but I gave it anyway and called it a super early birthday present), so I made another bag, since I already had all the supplies out and wanted to get my money's worth out of the pattern.  This bag only took 3 days!

Same stats as the first purse, except those buttons are not mother of pearl.

It was for my friend that loves Hello Kitty.   I added one zipper pocket and one bottle pocket, and a magnetic snap closure.

And one small pocket.  I tired to use EVERY last scrap of that Hello Kitty fabric--I bought 1/2 a yard and just barely squeezed the interior pattern pieces onto it (you may notice that one side of the bag has upside down kitties because it was the only way to get the pieces to fit).

For my Mom's Mother's Day gift, I made her a Nikki Tote Bag, but printed the pattern at 75% so it would be a better handbag size:

I upcycled a jacket someone had given me for the exterior, bought lightweight corduroy for the handles,  and decided to buy something special for the inside.

Here it is next to my bag for comparison!  I used the original sized handle pattern so it would be longer than the one printed at 75%.

The inside, with the standard pockets and a magnetic closure.

Then I made some little card wallets (using this tutorial) as Mother's Day gifts:

That is the last of the Hello Kitty scraps!   

The insides--I winged it on the pockets.

So that's what my sewing machine and I have been working on for the past month!  I'm itching to get back to quilting soon, even though I'm not ready for a big project yet.  Once I find my batting scraps I want to make some mini quilts!

Red Mini Quilts

Sorry I have been absent for so long!  Once I finished Jessica's quilt, I took a break from quilting to work on other sewing and craft projects before the baby arrived.  When I was about 38 weeks pregnant I made a mini quilt, but took it to a friend's house before I photographed it.  I got it back home after baby Aurelia was born (3/12/12), and put it up on the wall, but I still hadn't gotten any photographs of it.

Then we had to deal with a (swallow) bed bug infestation and everything on the walls had to come down and be treated.  So finally I took some pictures before the mini quilts were treated and stored.  My sewing machine and 12 loads from my fabric stash also had to be treated and stored away, so I'm afraid my quilting, sewing, and crafting are on hold for the next couple of weeks (or more).

The first red mini quilt I made almost exactly a year ago (during a scabies infestation!) as a break from working on my mom's fishy quilt (can be seen in this post).  I wanted something small, easy, and fun to work on.  I also wanted to work on different free motion designs and just kind of play with my new sewing machine.  Here's what I ended up with:

The center is a Sea Oat Flower from The Free Motion Quilting Project.

The second red mini quilt I decided to make as a birthing focal point, but I wanted it to match the other red mini quilt since I wanted to display them together.  I spent a couple of days thinking about designs and then a couple of days doing the quilting, and came up with this:

The dark center is 10cm across, and the quilted words say, "I am not afraid, I was born to do this" (a quote I found on another VBAC  quilt on the internet--that quilter said the quote was from Joan of Arc, though I haven't confirmed that yet) and " Just breath" (from the movie Ever After).  Both quotes repeat once.

Repeating the quotes to myself (and many other strong birthing affirmations I had found on the internet) really helped me through the 36 hours of unmedicated labor!

Here's both side by side:

Luckily my husband really likes both mini quilts, and likes having them up in our bedroom wall!

Jessica's Prayer Quilt: Finished!

First blogged here, last updated here.

First let me warn you that this post is extremely photo-heavy!  Fifty-four photos, to be exact.

The last of the quilting went really quickly, and I finished up the quilt on Monday.  I very nervously put it in the washing machine and dryer, and sure enough some of the writing (with the white and gold DecoFabric pens I had used on many blocks) had faded, or in some cases nearly washed out.  And I was out of white ink.  So I made the most of what I could before delivering the quilt to Jessica on Wednesday.  But not before taking a LOT of photos.  I took a photo of each block so that all the people that contributed (from all over the country) could see their block.

I should note that I did re-write 3 of the worst blocks.  I hope they do better in future washings!  Also, I gave Jessica all of the envelopes and notes that people sent in so that she would know what the notes said, regardless of the condition of the quilt, and so she would know where some of the unmarked blocks came from.

First, the finished quilt:

Finished size is 72" x 60"

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The back

The blocks are posted from top left to bottom right.  There are 52!

If someone sent fabric and no note, I left their block blank.

This one's writing washed out the worst.  I redid it, so hopefully it'll last a little longer.

Morgan sent me a note to write on the quilt, and I picked out the fabric for it.  Hope he likes mermaids ;-)

This is the quilt label, on the back of the quilt.

I am so relieved to have this quilt finished before my baby is born!  I wish it had been done a month earlier, but there were quite a few things out of my control that slowed me down.  

Huge thank you to everyone that sent in fabric!  I hope that everyone is happy with what I did with their fabric, I tried to honor each piece the best I could.  But more than anything, I hope that Jessica likes the quilt and it helps her through this incredibly hard time in her life!