Kindergarten Quilts

Back around February when I was taken in a fit of idiocy, I mentioned to the kindergarten room mom that it would be fun to make memory quilts for both of our fabulous teachers. She immediately agreed, but then added, "But I can't sew!"

That's okay, some days I can't either.

I scoured the Internet for good classroom quilt instructions. I know we're not the first class to do this, someone somewhere must have posted some instructions to the parents. Unfortunately, I came up empty. I spent way more time looking for something existing than I would have spent writing my own, and then I wound up writing my own anyway. Huh.

Tomorrow (or soon thereafter) I'll post those instructions. But first, the quilts.

Each kid was given two 6.5" square pieces of plain white muslin with the instructions to complete their square. Once all the squares were turned back in, a bunch of the moms (and a few grandmas) put them together. This isn't a great picture, but I was totally thrilled with how they turned out.

We used a total of 5 different sewing machines to put the quilts together, and I was reminded of how important it is to verify that everyone knows where the quarter inch seam allowance is on their sewing machine. We would have finished both quilt tops in the first session except that we wound up having to take most of quilt #2 apart. There was no way that sucker was lining up. Oh well, it gave me something to do at the soccer games.

The quilts are tied (instead of quilted), and for the first time in my life out of sheer desperation, I attached the binding completely by machine. Don't look too closely at the corners. Other than that, the binding looks pretty good. I may never go back. The second quilt has perfect miters in the corners, but the first quilt... doesn't.

One of the moms with way more artistic talent than I have made this little fox square to go in the center. He is just too cute. Wish I could draw- but luckily I have friends who can!

Here we go

I've been diving down the blog bunny hole lately and had a hard time resurfacing. I've also been spending a fair amount of time with my sewing machine and my serger and thinking I should do a better job of chronicling what I am making, and for whom, and why. This way I can remember these things when I am old and senile, like next year.

So I'll start with a handbag I made for a friend's 40th birthday gift. I loved this bag. It was really hard to give it away. The exterior fabric is Michael Miller Bailey Branches (extremely hard to find, by the way), and the interior is from a quilt I made for my mother-in-law's birthday about 6 years ago. It was the last of that fabric from the quilt and I was a little sad to give it up- but it looked perfect for the bag, and my friend picked it out. She is a quilter and has a fabulous eye for color. The pink pocket was my idea though (she can't take ALL the credit).

Props to the lady at JoAnn Fabrics who suggested using Craft Bond for the interfacing instead of my usual stuff. It worked out pretty well. The black bamboo handles are also from JoAnn's. Say what you will about their fabric quality, they have some darned good buys in there, especially with a coupon.

The purse is teeny and really only holds a wallet, checkbook, keys, sunglasses, cellphone. I drafted the pattern myself, and I wanted to add a gusset to the bottom but then it would have been miniscule. Maybe next time. Now that this one is complete, I'm thinking that I need to make one for me!