Bored = Using My Scraps!

Waste not, want not?

I did up a bib for my friends Kristine and Chris's little girl, Lily-Anna, she's going to be teething really soon so you know the drool is going to start and not stop for a few months, and then after that it's solid foods. It's all quilting cottons and cotton batting, so it should absorb nicely, I did the closure with Velcro, and it seems to do the trick quite nicely. I actually used one of Jake's old bibs as a template, and it seemed to work just fine.

The front, the binding took longer than the cutting
and quilting itself. All those curves are a pain in the butt!

The back, note the little heart in the middle!

 After that, I still had a lot of energy left, and wanted to try out applique for the first time, it's sloppy, and I don't have any waxed freezer paper to do nice sharp applique's but the sharp angles on the flowers make me  happy to be honest. I liked the geometricity of it all. (If that's not a word, it is now!) I like the kitschy 70s colours, and really it was all an experiment, anyways. It's small, only approximately 10 inches high by 12 inches wide, and I could probably attach loops in the back to make it a tiny little wall hanging or something if I felt the desire to do so. I don't think my technique could stand up to much washing in the machine anyways.

I'll be picking up one of those teeny handheld irons and a roll of freezer paper to try out other techniques that I've seen online. I did a double trip around each piece with a blanket style stitch around the pieces, and I liked the definition that the stitching ended up doing.

applique, babay!

I hand quilted the outlines of the petals and outlined each flower, stalk and leaf, as well as did the corners of the binding where my machine decided that it was too hard to get through. I also broke my first machine needle, (almost on my left index fingertip, a close call!) after that I decided to hand sew the rest of the corners. To be honest, once I got into the rhythm of it, It was nice to sit in the quiet living room and just sew with the TV off after my son had gone to sleep and hubby was having a snuggle with him. I'd taken the liberty of escaping downstairs after dinner to ease the sewing craving. The rest was machine quilted with straight stitches and my favourite little bowtie stitch which is just adorable and I find an excuse to use it in everything if I can get away with it. It's on every single piece I've done so far since I got my new machine.

Spring Has Sprung!

After 3 glorious days of above 10 degrees Celsius, (one of them even had SUNSHINE!!) my garden is starting to go crazy! My lilies have grown almost 4 inches taller in one week, which to me is totally crazy! Of course, since I have a black thumb instead of green, and may have accidentally planted the tulip and daffodil bulbs in upside down, (Maybe? I had no instructions!!!) it kind of looks like a drunkard did my landscaping. Whatever... I am still excited to see lots of pretty colours decorating my front garden. Practice makes perfect, right?

All the birds are twitterpating, my ornamental cherry tree is beginning to bud leaves, the bugs are creepy crawling around, and I don't think the skunk who lives behind my garage somewhere really decided to hibernate at all this winter.

What makes YOU excited about spring time? For me it's definitely the warmer temperatures and seeing the world wake up a little bit more every day. I admit I'm an autumn girl because of the smells and colours, but the brightness of spring after a dull winter sure wakes my soul up!

On a completely unrelated note: it's super exciting to see the increase in web traffic being directed here from my tweeps and facebook page, so "Hi everybody!" I hope you're all having a great Friday night, and I am excited to see what potential S,M&C has in store!

Xox!