First, I made a ruffly pillow. I had a bear family fat quarter that was too cute to cut up into small pieces, so I thought it would make a good pillow for a rocking chair…well, or my computer desk chair while I’m rocking the baby. I used part of a yellow sheet from my stash for the back and the ruffle. The ruffle isn’t quite even, so the perfectionist in me might re-attach it. Otherwise, it’s an improvement from the bland denim pillow I stole the insides from. I didn’t use a pattern (my ruffle might have come out better if I had), but of you give it a try, I recommend the Ruffly Pillow Pattern by Portabello Pixie.

Next, I made a fabric box…actually two. The first one went into the scrap bin due to a math error on my part. I accidentally made the box 5×13 inches – an awkward size. The second box is 8×10 inches and works much better. For the outside, I used a heavy weight decorating fabric that happens to be the same pattern as some paper I was planning on using for a mobile. The inside was another yellow sheet from my stash. I used the Fabric Basket pattern by Stitchin’ Chicken, but made the box extra tall so I can fold the edge over – I think it made it a little more stable.

The final project was burp cloths. I’ve made these before for baby showers, usually making 2 patchwork cloths. This time, though, realizing babies use much more than just 2 burp cloths, I made them much simpler with no patchwork. Mine are more rectangle (7.5x18inches) but the Easy Peasy Burp Cloth Tutorial by My Longest Year gives you directions. And these were easy peasy to make – I think I spent more time picking out the fabrics. :)

I think the interesting part about these projects was going through my fabric stash. I was surprised that I didn’t really have that many delicate baby girl fabric patterns – lots of blues, greens, yellows, and bold prints. Relying only on my fabric stash, this may be one brightly-colored child! So next up on my craft list…bibs, a travel changing pad, a nursing cover, and a mobile. Do you have any favorite baby craft projects I should check out?

Timeless Treasures Central Park Quilt Top

Last year, I visited my in-laws for a week, where my MIL showed me that curves are a piece of cake. I finished the quilt top (made a little smaller to be a wall hanging), and then left it for a few more months to be quilted.

Dallas is quilting curves

I finally discovered that quilting on my machine is relatively easy – when using Pfaff’s Integrated Dual Feed. I quilted it following the curves – the fanciest quilting I’ve done yet (aka: not completely straight). :) Add a quick binding, a wall hanging sleeve, and it’s done!

Finished Mini Timeless Treasures Central Park Quilt

This is my mini Timeless Treasures Central Park Quilt, measuring at 50×43 inches. I used my extra fabric from the kit to make a patchwork back and do the binding. Now, I just need to figure out where to hang it.

First off is a baby quilt for my friend Marisa. Marisa is also an expat here, but she’s from Mexico. We met in French class, and quickly became friends when we realized we live just around the corner from each other. Her baby boy, Emiliano, arrived just 2 days after her shower.

This past weekend, Sarah came over to work on some of our quilting bee blocks that we had both gotten behind on. My quilting bees are just about done. I’ve got just 3 more blocks I’m waiting on to finish up my quilts.

This quilter requested Amish-inspired quilt blocks. The blocks are simple, but I think it will be a very striking quilt.

The instructions for this one said to make something that a little boy would like. I thought a pirate ship would be appropriate. I was a little short on fabric due to an early cutting mistake, but hopefully it still works.

This last block is a Circle of Geese block. It’s the most complex paper-piecing I’ve ever tried, and with Sarah’s guidance, and a little seam ripping, it wasn’t too bad.

That’s about it. Hopefully I won’t wait so long before I post again. :)

Note: I’m not the person starting this up.  I’m just very excited to meet other crafters and am eagerly spreading the word.

Welcome embroiderers, knitters, and quilters…

Crafterspace will hold it’s first meeting Tuesday, March 9, starting at 5pm, at Café Model, 208 rue Antoine Dansaert in central Brussels. Future meeting times and other practical information will be discussed at this first meeting.  There will also be tasty drinks and snacks for purchase, comfy seats, wifi, and lots crafty discussion.

The hostess, Florence at kreature.be, would like to know how many to expect, so please pop over to her blog (in French) and leave her a comment.  Unfortunately, I’m not available to go to this first meeting, but I hope to make it to them in the future.

Finished vintage sheet quilt!

Yay! I finally finished my blue/green vintage sheet quilt (quilt #3). Thanks for all the feedback on the border, but I decided to just skip it and add the binding. For the back, I pieced a row of the three solids together with another vintage sheet. I think I used about 15 different sheets in the end.  These photos were taken after it came out of the wash. It looks wrinkley, but it’s very soft.

Vintage Sheet Quilt - Front

Vintage Sheet Quilt - Back

My friend Karla and I are hosting a baby shower for our friend Marisa. Since Karla is handleing all the food and having it at her place, I told her I’d handle the invitations and decorations. I found a little scrapbooking store around the corner from me and quickly made up these invitations.

Marisa's Baby Shower Invitations

During our recent travels, my laptop has been just stuffed into a backpack or a duffel bag.  It needed more style and protection.  I made this padded, zippered laptop sleeve and tested it out on our Ireland trip. It worked well, but I forgot to include room for the power plug.  Next time…  So, is it a bad thing to have a Windows-running Dell in an apple laptop sleeve? :)

Apple and Pear Laptop Sleeve

What crafty goodness have you been up to?

Now I need some help… It currently measures to 36 x 36 inches, but I would really love to add a border to get it up to atleast 40 by 40 inches.  I have these 6 fabrics I haven’t used yet, or I could repeat one of the solids – blue, green, or purple – since it’s already pretty busy.  I’m thinking of the bottom left fabric as the backing with the green or blue solid as the binding.

So what do you think?  Which of the fabrics do you think would look best for the border, backing, and binding?

My friends with babies have mentioned that burp cloths are hard to find in Belgium. I would love to make baby quilts for all the showers I go to, but since I’ve only completed 2 quilts in the past 5 years, it doesn’t seem likely. I’ll stick to quilted burp clothes instead – they’re a lot easier to make. For this set, I used Marcus Brother’s Metro Blues and did a top-stitching in a star pattern. Hopefully, the baby boy will arrive soon and enjoy them.

This little tree is what I sent my partner for Lisa’s Ornament Exchange. I had originally planned to buy some kind of Belgium-themed ornament, but my partner requested handmade. My recent paper-pieced tree blocks inspired me to make a Christmas tree ornament. The yellow buttons at the top are in place of a star.

I always feel nervous giving handmade items for Christmas because they’re not as fancy or professional as something I could buy in the store. But, I thought my Mother-in-law, a crafter herself, could use a tote to take to her quilting classes and workshops. Of course you can’t take a store-bought tote to a quilting class, so I made her this one using Robert Kaufman’s You Got the Notions fabric. It’s lined with some Ikea bird fabric and has a little extra detail to the pockets and sides.

Did you make or receive any crafts this holiday season?