Plus Quilt

I blogged about this quilt a while ago - it's the Plus Quilt, and a tutorial is available from In Color Order.  I finished this quilt before we packed up our things and moved to Alabama, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

The quilt was easy to make, and H loves it.

The backing is a solid from Connecting Threads.  I'm starting to love solids.  I straight line quilted .25 inches from the seams of each block.  You can see I got lazy and only stitched one line vertically!

This Blanket is Faux Real.

After stumbling upon THIS tutorial for a faux chenille blanket at Aesthetic Nest, I decided I had to give it a whirl.  It seemed like it would be an easy, quick, and satisfying project.  And, it was!  Easy and satisfying, that is.  Quick...not so much.  

The basic idea is that you pick out 4 fabrics and buy about a yard or yard and a half of each.  Preferably, your fabrics will be fabulous and 3 will be flannel and 1 will be either a home decor weight or quilting weight.  You sandwich them all together, quilt every 1/2 inch, cut the flannels between the seams, bind it, wash it, and c'est fini!  You are the proud owner of a faux chenille blanket! 

I used a yard and a half of Spring Street by Carolyn Gavin, which I absolutely adore.  However, after completing a blanket, I now realize I'd rather have a home decor weight as my back fabric simply because, once you snip all the flannels, your back fabric is completely exposed between each seam.  And while there might not ever be an issue, I'd rather have a more durable fabric there.  Once you take a gander at the pictures, you'll catch my drift.

Check out my before, during, and after photos below.  By the way, I'd like to take this moment to publicly thank my sweet husband for buying me a walking foot for my machine.  It has made my sewing life so much easier!  Why didn't you tell me about the beauty of the walking foot before, oh older and wiser sister?

Spring Street by Carolyn Gavin
Flannels by Robert Kaufman 

Using My Walking Foot - Love it!

After Cutting - Before Washing

After Washing

Really cool, right?!  I love the finished product.  And I'm sure I'll be making more of these; it's too simple and pretty not to.  Oh, and it's impossible not to touch - a perfect snuggle blanket.  The one teensy downfall to the whole shebang is that it's downright monotonous and time-consuming.  Quilting every 1/2 inch isn't for the faint of heart...neither is then cutting between each of those seams.  I may now have carpal tunnel syndrome.

Check out Made as well, for another faux chenille tutorial.

Favorite Things: Connecting Threads Essential Thread

Well, dear sister, I have to say, "Thanks!"  Without your constant references to Connecting Threads, I would have probably never gone to the site and discovered the only place I'll ever need to go to buy thread.  

source: Connecting Threads

Why spend 4 bucks on 500 yards of Coats and Clark when you can spend 3 bucks on 1200 yards of the Connecting Threads stuff?!  So, I ordered up the Essential Bright Thread Set and squealed when it finally came in the mail.  The colors are beautiful and the thread is a good quality.  I've used it on all sorts of different fabrics - cotton canvas, flannel, quilting cotton - and haven't had any problems with breakage.  And there's a whopping 1200 yards per spool!  Of course, the spools are a bit larger than your typical sewing machine thread spool and there aren't any end caps, but it works perfectly on my machine.

Do yourself a favor and add some to your stash.  Then, you can thank me.

I Gave This Ottoman The Slip.

When Mom moved to the Lone Star State, we inherited this lovely ottoman:

It has never been much to look at, but it has good bones.  It's very sturdy and cushion-y and rolls on casters.  Plus, Miss P loves using it to hop into her bed when she needs to get there in a hurry, like when her dad or Dexter the Golden Retriever is chasing her.  So, I knew I didn't want to trash it, but I've never gotten up the nerve to try re-upholstering it.  Then I ran into THIS very succinct ottoman slipcover tutorial on the Dummies site.  Basically, you throw some fabric over the top of the ottoman, pin it on each side and sew down the line made by the pins.  Hem it and you're done!  For the amazing [-ly easy] transformation, check out the pictures below.

  

Yea!  I'm very happy with the results.  It's such a happy little ottoman now.  And, it took less than an hour...even while tending to a cutie pie newborn at the same time.

I wish I had more ottomans.

H's Sleepy Pants

The first thing H tried to make after saving her allowance and buying a sewing machine from eBay was pants.  I wish I had a picture!  She just made two tubes and sewed them together - there was only about a 1-inch rise.  It was hilarious.  

For Christmas I bought her a pants pattern from Simplicity.  They have a few patterns available for tweens who are interested in sewing.  I also got her some fabric for her pants from, you guessed it, Connecting Threads. 

Last Monday, H told me that Friday was Pajama Day at school, and she would like to make the sleepy pants pattern that she got for Christmas.  

Didn't she do a good job?  I thought the pants would look nice with some different fabric on the bottom, so we raided my stash and found some left over fabric from O's quilt that went well with the main fabric.  She sewed it all - the only thing I did was serge the crotch area. 

She was so excited to show everyone at school the sleepy pants she made.