Project Finishes!

After the nausea and exhaustion finally subsided, I found I had some time to start sewing again.  And let me tell you, I've been busy with lots of small projects!  I started small with some little bean bags for G to juggle for Baby L, in addition to dropping off a baby quilt top I finished over the summer to the local quilt shop for quilting.

I also sewed myself a bolster pillow to help me sleep on my side during the later stages of pregnancy - I had a lovely bolster pillow when we lived in Abu Dhabi, but sadly the pillow belonged to the hotel and I haven't been able to find one like it since.  So I decided to make my own! Baby L actually loves my bolster pillow and often tries to steal it from me, so I've added to my list to make her one as well.

Bolster pillow made from an rolled up Ikea pillow, a cheap pillowcase, and some fabric scraps

After a week in the shop my baby quilt came back beautifully quilted in a simple meandering pattern.  It still hasn't made it to its final baby yet, so for now, a photo of the minky backing with the hand-sewn binding will have to do.  I tried bias-binding around rounded corners for the first time, and I loved how it turned out! I used an online tutorial for cutting a continuous strip of binding, and it really made the process not too unbearable.

Minky (fuzzy fabric) is horrible to work with, but the end product is so nice!

After finishing the baby quilt, I made several heating pads to give away as Christmas gifts.  The first one was a very simple flat heating pad went to a white elephant gift exchange - I was in a rush to make it, so I forgot to take a picture.  I used this tutorial on Sew4Home with some leftover fabric from a grill apron that I made for my dad years ago, and I added peppermint essential oil to the rice.

The next two were slightly different types of heating pads, and they went to Miss J and her daughter for Christmas.  The benefit of the neck wraps was that I was able to use up the last of the minky in my stash, and now it is thankfully gone forever.  I hope that I don't have the urge to buy more for a long time!

Rice-filled neck wrap, using this tutorial from Sew4home

The most recent project finish is this cute little bag that I use to hold Baby L's fabric letters.  We had be storing them in a box, but she tends to try to step on the box and then fall over, and we'd rather not have a rolled baby ankle on our hands.  With the bag, she gets really exciting to pick up the letters and put them in the bag so we can dump the letters on her head (it's raining alphabet!).  The tutorial from In Color Order was fast and easy, and if I hadn't been using some fussy satin for the lining, I probably could have finished the whole thing in less than 2 hours...and now that I have a basic pattern that I like, I can re-size to make a lovely gift bag for any oddly sized gifts!

Bag made from 1 fat quarter and some scrap satin, but the original pattern calls for 3 fat quarters

In addition to these fast finish projects, upcoming bigger projects will include a baptism blanket for Baby #2 (fabric already purchased for inclusion in the upcoming shipment!), a string of projects to use up the rest of my Christmas fabric stash, a bolster pillow for Baby L, and maybe a chair cover for the Ikea Poang Chair that we bought her.  The ivory fabric drives me nuts in its boring-ness!  Plus of course the occasional hemming of pajama pants or mending of torn seams for Baby L.

Unfortunately all of that is on HOLD right now while my machine is in the shop!!! My Brother Innovis F420 (insert marijuana joke here) has an automatic thread cutter, which I LOVE. Well, the bobbin thread started catching on the automatic thread cutter, so when I started taking apart my machine to clean out the bobbin area, I dropped a screw into the machine!  I couldn't believe my clumsiness, and I couldn't even see where the screw was to try to use one of G's magnetic screwdrivers to get it out.  So, sadly, I took my machine back to my local store to send it out for service.  Hopefully it will come back soon!