Hopscotch Outfits

My One Monthly Goal for May was to complete the Hopscotch outfits for my girls and I did it! This pattern was designed by Oliver and S and I love it. I've made the shirts three times now (well, six since I have two big girls I've sewn for), but this was the first time I sewed the skirt. The shirt goes together so quickly and my girls just love it. It's comfy for them, and I added several inches to the length so it's nice and long for my tall girls.

The skirt was a little trickier than the shirt, but I got it figured out. The trickiest part was the pockets. Liesl called them origami pockets and they were for sure like origami! I eventually got them and my five year old LOVES them. She loads them up with all sorts of things, and walks around with her hands in her pockets. I didn't do well with the button hole placement. I wish I had bumped over the top button hole, but I followed the button placement pattern that was included. I might add a hidden hook and eye to keep it closed a little tighter.

I do think the fabrics are so cute. I love how these outfits turned out and I really love so much how much my daughters love them. Especially my five year old. I was worried since it's not pink...and the yellow is not a color my kids would just pick, but it matches perfectly and I'm glad they're down with it. It's an Art Gallery Fabric knit and it's a really great blend and weight with a great drape. It's smooth and just stretchy enough, and I want a shirt made from it, too. Luckily, I have plenty left. I bought enough corduroy and knit to make Hopscotch outfits for my big girls and jumpers and shirts for my twins, but I'm thinking I'd rather skip the twins' outfits and make myself a pencil skirt and a shirt. We'll see.

As far as my other goals, here's how I did.

• Sew a shirt for myself: this didn't happen. I was sick the first week in May, and the second week I sewed these outfits, and then my daughter got the flu right in the middle of end of year festivities, and then a week later, I got sick again, this time with pneumonia (along with my 5-year-old), and that took me through the end of the month. It was a really rough month in our house.
• Black and White Quilt: I did get this started. I got all my fabric cut out, and I started sewing the pieces, yay!
• Camping Trip Progress: We've gotten some progress made, but haven't purchased everything we need.
• Summer Break: I've gotten these planned out, but we'll see how well they go! 
• Exercise 3 times a week: I tried. But, all the sickness. *sigh*
  

Venice Wallflowers Quilt

I've worked for a couple years now on a Patchwork City Sampler quilt. I've been using travel-themed fabrics related to my favorite travels, because I thought it would make the quilt really special, and I'm pleased with how it's coming along. Of course, it's meant that I've purchased loads of novelty travel prints (which isn't all that disappointing, let's be honest!), but it has been pricey. When Kate Spain's Grand Canal line came out, I knew I needed to include the grand canal print. We visited Venice on our 10 year anniversary trip to Italy, and it's a beautiful city. Unfortunately, none of my local shops carried it, and by the time I had decided which print to purchase, the only place it was available was on Fabric.com, where you must purchase a full yard. Normally, I purchase just a half-yard, particularly for a project like this where I'll need very little. But, I wasn't confident that a precut would have a good piece for my purposes, so I bought the yard. And since I did, I had enough left to do some fun things with! I made my sister a notebook cover, and then schemed on a way to use the rest for a fun quilt project. It took me quite a while to pick a pattern that would show off the print adequately, but I finally settled on Allison Harris's Wallflowers quilt. It was quite similar to the Shimmer pattern which I've already made and thoroughly enjoyed, so I had great confidence in this one as well.

It did not let me down! It went together surprisingly quickly, although I took a brief hiatus to make a baby quilt for a friend. And it showed off the print well. I'm so excited about this.

It's a queen sized quilt, which is the largest I've ever made. I thought about making it even larger by adding 10" borders to make it officially king sized, so that I could use it on my bed. But, as I looked at it, it's not a quilt I want on my bed. It's got a bunch of pink in it and that feels funny for a bed to me.

I haven't gotten it quilted yet. My stack of quilts to be quilted is steadily growing...hopefully I'll get them all off to be quilted soon. 

Argyle Medallion

I'm so excited to show you my finished Argyle Medallion quilt! This quilt is an accomplishment for me. First, it's my first scrap-only quilt. I did cheat just a little and pulled a few low volume cuts for the flying geese because I didn't have enough scraps that were big enough, and I bought the background fabric, but everything else was scraps. The backing is a cut of fabric I got from a friend when she moved, so I didn't even have to purchase that. I love seeing scraps from other projects all over this quilt. And second, I made this quilt entirely as a leaders and enders project, my first one. I've sewn with leaders and enders before, but I've never made an entire quilt as a leaders and enders project. The only times I didn't use it as a leaders and enders project is the topstitching on centers on the Dresdens, and assembling the quilt. What's funny is it didn't even take as long as I expected. It took months, for sure. But I finished it much more quickly than I expected since it was a "bonus" project, and a big project at that: it finished at 80 inches. (So big shout out to my awesome husband for holding up this HEAVY quilt for me to take pictures!)

When I finished it, I decided to get it custom quilted. This pattern is from the Scraps, Inc. Vol 2 book, and the quilting on the original was stunning. And I decided I wanted a similar style on mine. I emailed the original quilter, but her turnaround was 6 months or more and I would have had to mail it, which I don't like doing. So, I emailed a more local custom quilter and asked if she would be okay with using the pictures as inspiration (that it didn't have to be identical but I loved the feeling and style so similar). She agreed and I took it down. She had it for about 4 months, and I definitely got anxious to see it but it was worth the wait. She did an amazing job and I love it!

When it came to binding, I decided to try using my binding scraps. But, the tricky part was that they weren't all the same width. I used to use the standard 2-1/2" strips, but I switched a couple years ago to 2" because I get better results. So, I had to sort out which were the right widths before I sewed them together. Luckily, I had more than enough 2" strips that I didn't have to trim any of the other ones. But I'm happy with how the binding turned out, I think it's fun!

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about this quilt. It was a great experience! And since it was so great, I started another scrap quilt (from Volume 1, this time) as a leaders and enders project. So fun to use up these scraps!

Argyle Medallion
Pieced by me
Pattern by Erin Burke Harris from Scraps, Inc. Volume 2
Quilted by Marion McClellan
Completed April 2018

May One Monthly Goal

Last month was a great month for sewing. I'm not sure what changed, really. But, I've been able to dedicate a lot of my babies' nap times to sewing and it's been great. I did accomplish my ONE monthly goal to finish the baby quilt for my friend and I gifted that to her at her shower. See the last post for pictures of the quilt. I also laid out some other goals that I wanted to accomplish and I'm happy to say I got all of them done! I not only finished four of the blocks for my Venice Wallflowers quilt, I got all of them done and assembled it. I not only prepared the the pattern and fabric for my Butterick 6411 dress, I finished it (and should have made it one size smaller, since I had to take in the sides quite a bit...). I bound my triangle quilt (pictures in a few months) and got photos taken so I can submit it to a competition. And for personal goals, we did some fun things for spring break. We went to the library, we did some art projects, and the girls got to play with some friends. And, I haven't entirely planned out a little summer camping trip, but we're on our way. We've got a camp site reserved in July at Capitol Reef. We need to figure out what supplies we need to purchase now that our family is bigger.

SO, last month was great, and I hope this month is as productive. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish and what I MOST want to accomplish and I think I've narrowed it down well.

My ONE monthly goal is to make my girls their Hopscotch outfits (pattern by Oliver and S). I've sewn them each two Hopscotch shirts (see the above photo for one), but I haven't made skirts yet and I have the most darling fabric to use. I ordered a fun corduroy by Cloud 9 from Hawthorne Threads for the skirt and it's blue with bold white geometric flowers and yellow centers, and some mustard yellow knit by Art Gallery Fabrics for the top. I have the pattern pieces all prepped, so I just need to prep my fabric and go for it. The skirt has buttons down the front, and I've never done a button hole for real (just the practice ones in the machine class when I bought my machine) so it'll be a stretch for me!

Here's a short list of some other goals.

• Sew a shirt for myself from a McCall pattern I have. I've sewn two from this pattern already and I like the fit. The first time I made it I didn't make any adjustments and the neckline is a little low for me. The second time, I made a long-sleeved version and the fabric wasn't quite right, but I altered the neckline to a great spot. I want another short sleeved version so I want to make it from the red Birch plus sign knit I bought last year.
• Select a pattern and start cutting out a black and white quilt for my husband. He's wanted a black and white quilt for years and it's never been a big priority for me but I've slowly collected black fabrics for him. I think I've got the pattern picked out (Inside Out by Cluck Cluck Sew), so I've just got to make up my mind and go for it!
• Make some progress towards the camping trip for the summer.
• Get summer break schedules and goals worked out for the girls. It's coming so fast! I've got some ideas floating but need to finalize rewards and specifics.
• Keep exercising 3 times a week. I was pretty good last month and I want to continue and hopefully feel better and get stronger.

I'm linking up to Elm Street's One Monthly Goal.