Pillows, Apron, Babies

Finally decorated the newly covered couch with a fun throw pillow. I've made another one since in the same colors but wavy lines. Maybe I'll get a picture of them when I make more throws. I took on the invisible zipper for this pillow using these directions. If you want to see the whole couch you can see it at our family blog.

Yet another apron. You will see many of these this year. Last year our birthday gift was a pillowcase and this year it's aprons. We chose lizards for the birthday boy. Maybe I should make one for Ian whose 7th birthday is Wednesday....Hmm. Yep, probably should do that.

Also this past weekend there was a baby shower for a girl. I have done a lot of boy gifts lately so it was a nice and welcome change to make something girly. A diaper clutch. Two reversible bibs. A bird (link is on the left) to chew on and a ribbon ball. The kids want me to make many more balls for them to play with. This was a quick toy to make. I was just doing a test run but next time I will add more ribbons and maybe in all the seams.

More Projects and Where I've been

The two quilts here are by my two oldest kids. Liz (8) designed and quilted the little owl quilt (8"x10") and the patchwork is by Ian (6). The bibs and such were for baby gifts. The pillow case was designed by Liz and constructed by me for a birthday gift. Here is the pattern I used for bib guidance. Basically you take an existing bib that you like and trace it. You could add terry cloth or vinyl to make them more absorbable. I used velcro because it's fast but you could do a button.

I finally finished this apron for my sister, 6 months late. She modeled it for me. Lemon and Lime. My husband is into bowties right now. They are really expensive to buy so we searched and found a pattern on-line. Trying to find fabric the looks good in tie form is also very hard. So we started taking apart ties he had and that we found for $5 or less. The result is, he is now a master tie maker! He has made nearly a dozen.
I gave him his own sewing box for Christmas because we don't do well sharing tools! We made a muslin draft first just to be sure we had the size right. Then he chopped up his one of his mission ties. We bought one tie with a slide and used it as a template for length. Interfacing on both sides has proved good when using a light weight interfacing. He made one without and it is too flimsy.

If you would like to know where I've been or rather why I haven't posted in an age you can see our family blog.