Yo Yo Elephant toy

Project #19

So last week we flew to Oahu which was a 13 hour flight (boo hoo, I know) so I thought I better take a hand sewing project to kill time. Making 70 yo yos seemed like the perfect small hand sewing thing for an airplane.

I wanted to make this elephant toy from the scraps of the elephant quilt that I made this Feb for the same baby. This pattern is from Indygo Junction and they have many great yo yo toy patterns. You may remember last summer’s post where I made two yo yo monkeys for baby gifts.

This time I thought I’d be smart and pre cut all the circles with my handy Olfa circle cutter, which I LOVE!  It is so fast and easy and the circles were cut in no time!

The problem was that the pattern gives instructions on making yo yos with the Clover yo you maker and how to make them without it. I love the Clover tool because it is fast, easy and the yo yos come out perfect every time!

But instead of looking at the tool, I cut out the size circles that the pattern said for hand sewing without the tool. I packed them all in a zip loc bag and flew away.

Well I discovered that all the circles were too small to use the Clover tool because the fabric has to be about 1/4” bigger all around the circle tool and these were exact or smaller!!  UGH! What to do?

I only had so much scrap fabric left over and I cut most of it for this toy. Plus now I was thousands of miles away from home.  My plan was to make the yo yos in Hawaii or flying and then go home for 4 days and assemble the elephant before seeing the baby. Why didn’t I cut one and then check it with the Clover tool?

So, I ended up hand sewing yo yos in the evenings and just eyeballing the spacing. They came out ok but with a little variance in size of the finished yo yos.  But it got done with the fabric I had!

I highly recommend this Clover tool. I have every size and it is so much fun. I think this will be my go-to hand sewing project for air travel.

Wedding quilt gift

 

Project #18

Finally I can show this quilt that I finished in February. It’s for the wedding of the son of our good friends and I didn’t want the bride to see it before she receives it. 

When I found out last year that they were engaged, I offered to make a quilt for their sofa and she chose this design and fabric. The fabric is designed by Lotta Jansdottir and at the time was two years old. Well, you know that it was difficult to find all of the fabrics. I searched all the usual internet fabric sites and etsy and every store that carried this fabric originally!  It took a long time but I found all but two of them….enough to give it the same look that she wanted. I substituted the missing two with the gray with white dots and the light gray and white floral but it all works. Thank goodness I found a 3 yard piece of the turq check for the backing.

I did this quilt and the elephant one plus an Xmas one at the February quilt guild retreat over a weekend. You sure can get a lot done when all you do is sew, eat and sleep and no phone service!

Simple irregular graph quilting and a special label.  The bride didn’t know I selected this one from her suggestions to make so I hope she likes it!  We will see this weekend!

Swag bag Sassaman Style

Project #17

After organizing all my fabric, I decided that I needed to do something with all the patterns that I own.  While sorting them into boxes by type (tops, bottoms, jackets, accessories….)  I ran into this Swag Bag by Square Rose pattern that I bought ages ago and I could visualize it in the Sassaman Prairie Chic fabric line that I’ve been storing in my stash. So I dropped everything and started cutting this out.

So the first side, I quilted in a simple diagonal with blue variegated thread but found it too boring.

On the other side I had this fabulous thorny vine pattern that just begged to be quilted. I wanted to continue the lines onto the pink side so I traced them onto paper. Then I placed that paper pattern on the pink side so I could continue the lines and stitched right over the paper.

Here is my ‘bright’ idea for tracing at night when there is no light coming thru the window. I placed the fabric on my computer monitor with a blank page of Word open and then taped paper over it and used a sharpie marker.

This pattern is very well written and not hard to do. It took me two evenings to complete this.  I love the details where I zig zagged the seams and the bias on the curve and on the handles. 

The pattern calls for two pockets inside but I just put one and one on the outside.

I really needed another bag (NOT!) but I am very happy with it and will use it. I may put a rectangle hard plastic on the bottom. Anything in Jane Sassaman fabric is guaranteed to be gorgeous!  I’m a BIG fan!