Last night, I decided to take a little break from the fox quilts to mark a few small projects off my list. Next week, we're embarking on a lengthy road trip to see a whole lot of family, so I wanted to make up a few play/travel items for B before we hit the road. Presenting his new crayon wallet and car travel case:
The crayon wallet is super cute and will come in so handy because he can easily access the crayons (and not rely on us to get them out of the little box). I used this great little tutorial from Modest Maven, and the pocket she makes for paper slips also holds the little coloring books I stock up on whenever we're at Cracker Barrel (road trips only). They're the perfect size for traveling. It also holds 12 standard-size crayons.
Of course, I couldn't resist using a little fox fabric from the stash. The fox fabric is Woodland Picnic from Timeless Treasures. I bought it a few years ago, but it looks like you can still find it on Etsy. The blue stripe is a mystery fabric from my stash.
For the little car travel pouch, I started with this tutorial from Sisters, What! but made several changes, mostly to the size. I only wanted to include pockets on one side to leave more space for the play mat, but having just three car pockets didn't seem sufficient, so I used the following measurements to allow for five pockets:
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 18" outside fabric (I used Cruiser Blvd by Riley Blake.)
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 18" coordinating inside fabric (I also used Cruiser Blvd by Riley Blake.)
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 8" coordinating fabric for the car pockets (I used the red Bike Path print by Alison Glass, which is apparently impossible to find now.)
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 18" fusible medium-weight interfacing (She uses sew-in interfacing in the tutorial, but I prefer fusible. Just attach it to your outside fabric before starting.)
Follow the instructions in the tutorial except you'll only have one pocket to attach. Mark the crease lines for your pockets 3" apart, starting 1/4" in from one side (You'll be left with 1/4" of seam allowance on the other end.).
The one other modification I made involved the Velcro closure. Because of the size of my pockets (smaller than in the original tutorial) and the fact that I had five instead of three, I originally cut my Velcro into two 2" pieces, which I centered on pockets two and four. However, when I went to attach the outside Velcro pieces (after finishing the rest of the carrier), I realized it wasn't going to roll up (and hold) very well. Instead, if you're going to do my modification, ignore the Velcro altogether. When you've finished the pouch, roll it up lengthwise starting with the car-pocket end (see photo above). Once it's rolled up, fold it in half, and install a snap in the upper corner, opposite the fold (see the top photo of the carrier above). This works great and also makes the carrier more compact and easier to carry. If you don't have a snap setter (I use this one, and it's wonderful.), you could probably use Velcro here, but it won't be as strong.
Finally, if you don't have a fabric print with streets on it (like mine), you could make your own road using felt, like in this tutorial or this one. Now, we're ready for the open road!
The Pinwheel Pods Quilt is finished! Well, it's actually been finished for a couple of weeks, but of course I couldn't get the timing and weather to cooperate for photos until the stars finally aligned last night. This quilt is my entry for the Modern Quilt Guild's Michael Miller challenge.
In addition to the fabrics we were given for the challenge, I added a few more prints from the Petal Pinwheels collection and some coordinating solids (Kona Coal and Snow, the Coral solid from the Mormor collection, and Moda Bella Silver, Clover, Aqua, and Amelia Apricot).
The quilt design was inspired by a block Joseé of The Charming Needle submitted for the QuiltCon Block Challenge back in 2012. The MQG did a series of blog posts back then highlighting some of their favorite blocks of those submitted for the challenge, and I pinned most of the blog posts for future inspiration. I couldn't resist Joseé's pinwheel block with a fabric collection called Petal Pinwheels. Joseé blogged about the block in this post, but she didn't create a tutorial for it, so I took her wonderful idea from the MQG post and blew it up into an entire quilt.
For the backing, I used up the rest of the challenge fabrics, plus a few extras, and mimicked the white sashing and two gray solids from the front.
I quilted it in a large spiral pattern to mimic the spinning pinwheels. The spiral is slightly asymmetrical and centered on one of the pinwheels. I quilted the lines 3" apart because I generally prefer the look of less dense quilting. I used a light gray thread that blends with the light gray solid.
I originally planned to use the Pegs a Plenty print for the binding, but after the quilt was done, I realized I didn't have enough of it to do the whole job, so I decided to add in strips of two of the solids, the coral and the apricot. I actually love how it turned out and am glad I had to make it work. I machine bound the quilt using my normal method.
I really love how this quilt turned out and can't wait to see the other challenge entries.
Matt's parents came for a lovely visit over Memorial Day weekend. Though we kept the weekend pretty chill, we had a wonderful time hanging out with them.
It had actually been several years since any of us had been to the Arch, so we wandered downtown one day to check it out. It's still amazing. There were also some reenactors commemorating an American Revolution battle that day. Cannons! Muskets!
We also spent a lovely afternoon at CityGarden, where Beckett made quick friends with the water play space. After some initial hesitation, he quickly started jumping from one fountain to the next and laughing his little toddler head off until he was soaked.
Then, we checked out some of the statues (bunnies!) and the garden's birthday cake celebrating St. Louis's 250th birthday (the cakes are located at landmarks around the city). Every time we see one, B says he wants to see the candle. :)
On Monday, we joined some friends for a lovely brunch. And it wouldn't be an outdoor summer gathering without some cornhole. The Schunke men showed off their mad skills and did the family name proud (which is more than I can say for myself). We topped off the weekend with some grilling and patriotic berries. Perfect.
Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day!
Making up for lost time (and another grandparent visit this weekend, which means no sewing), this week has been filled with many late nights of sewing. You do what you gotta do. On the top of my list (literally, see my list below) was finishing up my quilt for the MQG Michael Miller challenge. And I did it! I haven't had a chance to get it outside for pictures yet, so you'll just get a little teaser today, but I'll have a full reveal post up soon.
Spiral quilting, pinwheels, and stripey binding!
Last night, I also finished this little pouch using an orphan block from my Catty Kitty quilt. The Bay Area MQG teamed up with the St. Louis MQG for a little WIP swap. The idea was to use a leftover block from your stash to create a new small swap item. We'll then send our items to San Francisco, and they'll send us back projects in return.
This cat block didn't make the cut for the original quilt because the color just didn't work with the other blocks, but it turned out to be the perfect size for a pouch. We weren't assigned a specific person for the swap, but I'm guessing there will be a cat lover somewhere in the group (at least I hope so!).
On the back, I made a little patchwork of the same green fabrics I used in the cat block. The lining is a little Flea Market Fancy, and the sashing is Essex Yarn Dyed in Indigo.
Up next, fox quilts! The fabrics are all ready to go.
New pillows for the downstairs chairs
A mug rug for me
Ironing board cover
Reusable snack bags
Washi dress/tunic
I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
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