NewFO Projects for January

Oh No!!! 2/28/13: I just posted my link for February to Barbara's 2013 NewFO Linky Party, but mistakenly put the link to last month's new starts (this page by mistake)! Go HERE to find my NewFOs for February. Sorry... 

Now back to last month's post... Oops! Liz

What a busy month it's been! I've got several NewFOs to share and am so excited to join in the fun! I'll be posting this on Cat Patches' January NewFO Linky Party where others will also be sharing NewFOs.

NewFO #1 -- Grocery Cart Cosy for my grandson Jacob

This project is one my daughter and I have been talking about, but I'd never gotten around to it. Well, the little stinker is over 20 pounds and nearing the end of his time in the baby carseat. As he advances to the big-boy seat, he won't go into the grocery store in his seat anymore. So, it was time for Mormor to get busy and make the cosy. I found this delightful monkey fabric on clearance at Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton, KS. I love it and bought what was left of the bolt! It was just the perfect amount to make the cosy, along with the leaves on black fabric for the lining. Hopefully it will resist showing too much dirt! Ha! There were a few bloopers in assembly (I didn't read the directions fully and put the elastic in before finishing key elements that would have worked better with the whole thing flat), so I dug through my stash and found a couple of yards of Toy Story fabric and used the same lining to make a second one. Ali has the Toy Story cosy (it's much better made!) and I have the monkey one for my shopping trips with Jacob.

I'm afraid neither has been used quite yet. It's been so cold (we're expecting a whopping 5 degrees for tonight's low) that Ali has done her shopping before she picks Jacob up so he doesn't have to be out in the cold too much. It'll be balmy in the 50s by this weekend, so I'm sure it will get it's first trip to the store soon. I can't wait to see pictures of him sitting in them!

NewFO #2--Jacob's Baprons

Since I have Jacob full time during the week, he gets several meals with me. I found that the little teething bibs Ali had sent over were just not sufficient anymore as he was getting more into his food. So, I'd found a cute pattern for a bapron and was determined to try it out. I had enough gold fish fabric from that same clearance table at Charlotte's to make two, so he has one at home and one at Mormor's house. It turned out so cute!

And it does the job just perfectly, except for the moments when he decides to share his food with me and blows a mouthful of greenbeans at Mormor. Guess I need to make one for me to shield myself from those "Yuck! What are you feeding me!" moments. LOL!

NewFO #3--Buffalo Baby Quilt

This one is my favorite so far and an actual quilt project! My friend Lizzie is having her first baby, due the end of February. She's having a boy and wants everything camo. Well, I'm not into hunting and fishing and camo-wear, but compromised and am making a nature quilt for her. After a few stops and starts in design and assembly, it's finally come together.

It's all assembled and ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I have until Feb 23 to complete it as that's when I'm heading to Springfield, MO, to Lizzie's for her baby shower. I'm also taking along our family cradle that my father made for my first child (Jeni is now 35!) and has been shared with many friends and family, as well as all of my children and grandchildren. I look forward to getting pix of her little guy sleeping in the cradle like Jacob did just a few months ago.

NewFO #4--Cookie Bowl Advent Calendar

This project is made from a pre-printed panel kit that I purchased in California on a shop hop several years ago. I've made quilted Advent calendars for my daughters and for my niece and nephews for their children to enjoy each year, but I hadn't made one for myself! So, I found this one and fell in love with it. This month I got it done completely! It was fun to quilt around the cookies and down the strips, as well as along the squiggly lines of frosting printed between the number pockets. It's simple, but very cute and will be fun to have Jacob help me move the cookies from the bowl to the pockets (or pockets to bowl?) when December rolls around again.

NewFO#5--Embrace Your Love FMQ Challenge 2013

The most exciting NewFO for me this month is the Embrace Your Love FMQ Challenge that Leah Day is guiding us through. I have started and am enjoying the challenge.

Currently I'm stalled because I have an idea to applique green and blue silk onto the world, but can't find my silk buried in my stash. Maybe this weekend I'll find it and get busy again on the next part. It's a year-long project, so I don't expect to finish it anytime soon, but hope to maybe finish one version in time to enter it in either the county fair in June or the state fair in September. Time will tell...

It's been a very productive month! I had no idea I'd get this many projects started and am delighted that several are also finished! Looking forward to some fresh NewFO's for February. This weekend I'm heading out with Sharon to a big Super Bowl sale at a quilt shop in Alden, KS. Then, on Sunday, I'll be camped out in front of my TV for the Super Bowl, cheering on my San Francisco 49ers!!!!!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

WIP Wednesday--Misc. Projects

I spent the last three days having a sew-in with a local sewing buddy who lives about an hour away and comes to my place to camp out for a few days every month or so. It's been great fun building our friendship! We have more things in common and have become fast friends since we first met at a quilting retreat in August. I'm originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and so is she. We both ended up in Kansas, living just an hour apart. We're both avid SF Giants fans and, while I'm not much of a football person in general, I do cheer for the SF 49ers who she also loves. And the list goes on. Oh, and we both quilt, crochet, have Brother embroidery sewing machines (same model!) and we both do English smocking! Crazy! So, Sharon left yesterday afternoon after a successful visit. She spent time getting borders sewn on two of her quilts, finished two toddler bed sheets for her grandson, and got a pair of fun PJ bottoms nearly finished for her daughter. I managed to get a shopping cart cozy made for my grandson that is turning out real cute! I have a second one to cut out and assemble so my daughter and I each have one so we don't  have to remember to swap one back and forth. It's always going to be in the other car! With Jacob only 2 pounds under the weight limit for the baby car seat, it's time to get it done so he can sit in his cosy when we take him shopping and have to leave the new big-boy car seat in the car.

So this is the pattern I'm using--McCall's Crafts M5721. It's pretty straightforward and other than eliminating some of the pockets, it came together nicely. Silly me, I forgot to read the directions thoroughly and had to go back and sew around the leg holes after I had layered the top fabric on in the sandwich. Getting all of the high-loft batting stuffed into my machine was a little challenging, especially since I didn't do it first before sandwiching all three layers. Did I say I hate directions? And I learned a few things that I will change when I make the second one.

Getting the casing made for the elastic went much easier once I got the steps done in order. Oh, and I should have sewn the bag onto the back before I put the elastic in. Geez... I have to remember to do things in the right order next time.

Anyway, here it is! Hanging over my sewing chair. I added some ribbon loops to hook toys onto or a binky-strap. And I love the bag that attached on the back to hold Mom's stuff while shopping and to stuff the cover into for easy storage/carrying when not in use. Now to add a handle and a velcro patch to hold the bag closed when in storage and it will be done! I LOVE the monkeys in the trees on this fabric. I think I'll keep this one and give the Toy Story version to Ali to use. 

Next up on the project list is to get a baby quilt done for a sweet young friend of mine. Lizzie, who missed being born on my birthday by only a few hours, has been like a daughter to me since she was about 3 when her dad and I dated. She and I have kept in touch and I'm Momma Liz and on quick-dial on her phone still. She's married now and having a boy real soon. Her husband is an outdoorsy Marine and hunter and she's following suit by registering for everything in camo! Well, I'm not too sure about that, so I asked her if she trusted me when she asked me to make her baby's first quilt. Luckily she said yes and I'm going to have fun with it!

I've gone with nature prints and a small print that looks almost like camo for the backing. Typically I make things more complicated than they need to be and decided this time to keep it simple. So, I'm going to do 9"x36" strips with a 2" sash out of the gold print at the upper right (up close it looks like pheasant wings) and border it with the dark brown vines. There will be a blue strip at the top with part of "Home on the Range" machine embroidered onto it to tie in the buffalo and the deer and hook Lizzie back to her Kansas roots. This is what I came up with in EQ7 as a draft to get myself some dimensions to work with.

Now to find some blue for the sky that I like. I didn't think of this when I was buying the nature prints, so have been scouring my stash. I do have one dark stary night fabric that might work with light embroidered letters. I'm still auditioning and may have to make another trip to the quilt store. Oh darn!

That's it for today's additional WIP. I'm also getting ready to go back to the 2013 FMQ Challenge Embrace Your Love quilt, but am trying to decide if I want to dive into fabric painting or whether I want to do something different for this week's step. Hmmmm... More thinking and considering is in order.

For quilters who may drop by, I have a prayer request to put out there. My sister-in-law Cindy, who just turned 65 in October, has been rediagnosed with cancer. She went through chemo and radiation that ended two years ago when she lost her health insurance. Medicare kicked in and she's now covered and going to the doctor almost daily it seems. She is an incredible quilter, but with her health issues she hasn't been in her sewing room in way too long. There are so many quilts started or waiting to be started for her three kids, seven grandkids and two great-grandsons. She has Stage IV lung cancer and thoracic lymphoma, and this week's tests showed spots on her kidneys. Needless to say she is scared and has asked me to put her on any and all prayer lists. I'm grateful I got her snowflake quilt finished and sent to her at Christmas last month. I've told her she should take it with her to chemo as her comfort quilt when she starts treatments next week. Thank you to any who offer up prayers for her.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,

Liz