Moto jackets turned baby blankets.

I am obsessed with Rebecca Taylor's cream moto jacket from this fall's collection, most notably as worn by The Glamourai earlier this month. Click that link. You, too, will be in love with this jacket. And her beetle brooch. I also need a beetle brooch.

However, even on sale at $297, it's just not even in the same universe as my budget. So, I decided to sew one. Surprisingly, motorcycle jacket sewing patterns are not easy to come by. I had to order an out-of-print one from Sewing Pattern Reviews. While I was waiting for the pattern to come in the mail, I found the perfect cream-colored fabric at Joann's. Cleverly, I decided to wait to buy the fabric until the pattern came, so I could read the back and find out how much fabric I needed. So smart.

The pattern came. I got really excited. I carved out a whole Saturday to sew. I went to Joann's, picked up the fabric bolt, and looked at the price for the first time, and it was $40 a yard. Shock. I had no idea Joann's even HAD fabric that expensive. 1) Just too much, and 2) I am still a fairly inexperienced sewer, and there is usually about a 40% chance I will ruin whatever I'm sewing. So, that was out. 

Since I was already at Joann's, and there's almost nothing I hate more than running errands with no results, I figured I'd just look around and see if I wanted to make something else. I came across this knit patterned with little woodland creatures that I'd had my eye on for awhile, but had never bought. (I have sworn off sewing with knits until I get better at sewing in general. I ruined a ton of knits this year. Like, a ton.) I thought, how can I not ruin this and still make it into something for my new nephew? Lightbulb- baby blanket. Bought a yard of the knit and a yard of matching fleece. 

(See those straight lines? Oh yes.)

It's a simple blanket- I basted the two layers together with safety pins, then put masking tape to mark where I wanted to quilt them together. An aside: why had I not done this before? I made actual straight lines, evenly spaced and everything. So much better. So I quilted the two layers together, then I made binding with quilting cotton. I thought it would help the blanket hold its shape over time because it isn't stretchy. We'll see if I'm right. Then I thought, it's a baby blanket. I don't want to hand-sew the binding to the back, like I would on a quilt, because this thing is probably going to get puked on, or worse. So I picked out a decorative stitch on my machine and sewed the binding down. Regrets. There is so much thread involved in loopy, decorative stitches. The binding makes a "plunk" when it hits the table. It's simultaneously hilarious and upsetting. I hope it doesn't scratch the baby or something. 

The plan is to give the baby this blanket, a baby henley made from some this soft plaid fabric I have left over from a recent sewing project, and a Davey Crockett coonskin hat, knitted from this incredibly soft furry stuff I got at my LYS. That, or keep the fur just to pet it. Not sure yet. 

Chevron and Cherries.

I'm going nuts not knowing if I'm going to have a niece or nephew come September. Luckily, my sister is kind of streamlining things- if it's a boy, the baby's room will be green and gray, if it's a girl: orange and gray. She's decided that it's definitely a girl, and my brother-in-law is for sure that it's a boy. I sort of split the difference and went with gray front, girly back, and green binding. Ha!

I bought an issue of Quilty on a whim at Michael's a while ago. There are several quilts in the magazine that I intend to make, but one in particular caught my eye: Chevron. I thought that it would look great in white and gray patterns. I went through my fabric collection and found a bunch of gray, gray print, and black and white print that I thought would work, and luckily, I had enough for a baby sized quilt. Aside: I love having a fabric stash big enough to be able to do things like this. This is my first time actually using a quilt pattern. It's nice to not have to figure out measurements on your own.

Here's the back: it's cherry-printed quilter's flannel.

I quilted it really simply with straight lines. This is what the pattern suggested and I decided to roll with it.

For the binding, I pieced a light green and a dark green together randomly. I also made actual bias-binding this time because it's for a baby, and I'm hoping it will get used and spit up on and washed a lot.

Now I just need to make a label and mail it off!

I love foxes.

Recently, I've had a moderate obsession with foxes. I enjoy forest creatures in general, but there's just something about foxes that is extra good. I even knitted this fox stole, which I'm unsure I'll be brave enough to actually wear in public, but that's another post entirely. So when I saw the Ed Emberley "Happy Drawing" forest friends fabric on Etsy a while back, I knew that I had to own some of it. Then we got invited to a baby shower, so now there is a forest friends baby quilt. 

I did wonky log cabin squares (which I wish were either wonkier or more perfect, because they are just wonky enough to look unintentional. oops.) with the forest fabric, that orange squiggly fabric that is also from the Happy Drawing line, and some Kona solids- light gray, charcoal, bright green, dark green, and a macaroni and cheese color. I think this is the most piecing I've done for a quilt so far- getting all those squares to fit together in a manner I found pleasing required SO MANY little white rectangles and squares. After making this quilt, I understand the need for a design wall. I had the blocks taped to my closet doors as I was arranging, which is just not a good solution, because then I couldn't open the closet.

I did a nature-inspired quilting pattern that is something I frequently doodle when I'm in meetings and such. Unfortunately, it got totally obscured when I washed the quilt. That made me upset, because it took FOREVER, and I was working on it literally up to the minute we left for the shower. It's sort of visible on the back:

But sort of not really.

It was a good lesson to learn. Won't do such a complicated quilting pattern on this type of quilt again. As my mom says, my 478th quilt is just practice for my 479th. Although with me it's more like my 6th is just practice for my 7th. I started making some more of the log cabin blocks to make another of these quilts (to be put in my Etsy store), and I think I will do something way simpler with the quilting, like concentric squares, or even straight lines. Overall, I like.

New Fixation: Quilting.

Not that I will ever not love knitting best... but I cannot get enough of modern quilts. I can't wait to get home from work most days so I can hang out in my sewing room and quilt. I think I've read every modern quilting blog out there. I am in love. Here's a modern baby quilt I made this past weekend.

It's "improvisationally pieced", which means I just made random, not-straight strips and sewed them together in a manner I found pleasing. The only patterned fabric is the orange polka dot one; the rest, including the back, is all solids. It's more modern that way, dontchathink?

Mostly, I made this quilt because a) I wanted a quick, instant-gratification project, and b) because I'm trying to get better at free-motion quilting. I did a pebble pattern for most of this one, and I love it. I did some triangles coming out of each side just to break it up a bit.

The back:

Baby quilts are so satisfyingly quick. I wish I knew a dozen babies. But I only know one, and hopefully I can get this quilt to them before they read this post. If not, surprise! There's a quilt coming your way!