Work in Progress: Zakka Style Baby Quilt

Hey look, it’s my First. Ever. WIP Wednesday post!  I so rarely take pictures of items that I’m working on, usually reserving the “big reveal” for the finished product.  Over the long weekend I did a lot of sewing but didn’t fully finish anything, so I took pictures anyway.

This is a baby quilt pattern from Zakka Style: 24 Projects Stitched with Ease to Give, Use & Enjoy by Rashida Coleman-Hale.  I know I’m way behind in this and everyone who wanted that book already has it and its old news, but I only just bought it for myself, so you’ll have to bear with me.

It took such a short time to whip out this quilt!  It was complete and ready to photograph before the sun went down on Sunday, and I didn’t even get started until Sunday morning.  I love, love, love the birdies on white, so I decided to build my fabrics around that one.

The quilt is 45″ x 60″ and I didn’t have any real linen on hand, so I used a linen-colored solid that I had lying around.  Unfortunately, that means that my long strips came up a touch short.  Oops! I had to piece some scraps onto the ends, but I alternated them in the quilt so they wouldn’t make a solid line and break up the quilt design in an odd way.  You can hardly see it, I think!

I’m still deciding how I want to quilt this one.  I always like the idea of somehow echoing the patchwork design in the quilting, but the reality is that an all over free-motion design is so much simpler.

The quilt is larger than I expected.  60″ in reality is way more than the fantasy in my head.  I hope the baby that it is a gift for will love it for years to come!

Another Zakka Swap

This time it’s magnets! I’m as excited for this one as I was for the last one…maybe more. I made a mosaic of fabric magnets I found on flickr that I love and/or things I think would work well as magnets (that I also love, of course). I’m already considering the possibility of sets of magnets to sell in my Etsy shop!

Any suggestions? Special requests?

1. hexies, 2. hexie panda, 3. Little Mushroom Fridge Magnet, 4. VW Bug Sewing Buttons, 5. Felt Cookies, 6. itty bitty quilt block magnets, 7. Little Bird Fridge Magnet, 8. Tara, the magnets, 9. little pillow magnet., 10. Red & White Handsewn Fabric Flower Brooch / Hair Clip, 11. Felt Apple Fridge Magnet, 12. mushroom magnets, 13. flower pin

Birdie Key Fob

Here we are, another swap! This one is for the RATZ (Rapid & Tiny Zakka) Swap. May was Key Fob month.

Using the pattern found at BDDesigns Owls and More… I created this little key fob for my partner.  I sure hope she likes it!

The pattern is not in English, but she did make a photo tutorial. Of course I have my own notes…I ended up tracing the pattern straight from my computer screen – it printed out much larger than I wanted, but on screen it was the perfect size for a key chain!  Then I cut out the shape and traced it onto the wrong side of my fabric (Calypso by estudios).  I also lined up the bottom of the bird with the center line of a flower in the fabric design so that it would look more like feathers.

Once I had traced the bird onto the fabric, I pinned the ribbon loop that holds the key chain in place between the two pieces of fabric, right sides together.  I sewed right on my tracing lines, except for the bottom of the bird, and cut around the stitching lines, leaving just about an 8th inch seam allowance.  I made sure to reinforce the seam with Fray Check at this point – if you have never used Fray Check I HIGHLY recommend it. That stuff is MAGIC.

I gathered the bottom and stuffed the bird, I did find I had some trouble getting stuffing into the head and the tail.  I covered the bottom of the bird with a circle of felt and used a blanket stitch to hold that in place.  The wings and eyes were attached last.