Bibs for Babies

A new flickr group has started up with a charitable goal. It's called Bibs for Babies and the goal is to send over 100 bibs to Operation Baby Shower. Operation Shower provides baby showers for military families to help ease the burden of deployment.

She asked everyone to make two bibs. Here is my first.

It is made from this pattern. So easy!! And if you join Bibs for Babies, you get a discount off the bib pattern. Of course you can use whatever pattern you want though.

I went girlie for my second bib.

The back might be my favorite part!

And since I was doing the bibs and I have had some leftover Richard Scarry fabric for quite a while, I made one for Evan quickly too.

If you want to join Bibs for Babies, she's also doing some giveaways for participants. You can go to the link, or let me know in a comment and I can invite you.

A bib fail and Merry Christmas to me

I mentioned before that I had some leftover FQ's of the Richard Scarry fabric I used in my son's nursery and I wanted to make a bib. I have Amy Butler's Little Stitches book and there is a bib pattern in there that I thought I would use.

It didn't go so well.

Let me say, it could very well be my baby brain. I seem to be terrible at anything that requires a lot of thought these days!!  I also think that my second mistake was trying to use the iron on laminate from Pellon. Not the products fault, but my fault. I should have made one without it first so I knew what the heck I was doing!

The pattern was listed as a difficulty level #2. So I'm pretty embarrassed about that one. But I have to say, the directions were really lacking. Because she has two different patterns on there, one with a pig and one just with fabrics, there doesn't seem to be a lot of detail. No instructions on when to turn your project right side out. If I read it correctly, it has me adding the bottom pocket inside out!? 

So I wound up just using the pattern piece to cut everything out and then winging it. HA! There's my problem. Here's my final result.

It's a wrinkled mess due to the laminate. And the neck straps don't reach each other.

Apparently I was sloppy attaching the pocket and this corner had raw edges sticking out. I had to topstitch it. :(

The back is cute though - lol!

So I think I need to find an online tutorial. Clearly I need stuff spelled out for me at this stage of the game.  If you have any you want to recommend, I would love it!

On a more fun note, I bought myself a little fabric Christmas present. I knew hubby wasn't getting me anything fabric/sewing related so I got myself some of the yummie Half Moon Modern fabrics that I've been loving. I got some at my LQS and others from Pink Chalk Fabrics. They came Christmas Eve!

And I had no idea how big those dots and chevrons actually are. That's a quarter on that dot on the top print for scale.

I'm thinking these will be great for a quilt back or a large bag. And the colors definitely make me happy. Hope you had a wonderful holiday too!

Happy New Year!

PMQG Angel Swap

Tuesday night was our December Philly Modern Quilt Guild Meeting and we had our Holiday Angel Swap. The month prior we had all picked names of the person we would make for and on with their name they had put a couple items they would love to receive.

I drew Anna who asked for a Christmas Ornament and a pincushion. Would you believe I forgot to take photos of what I made!?  I made her one of these ornaments. They are really easy and highly addictive and I've made several for our tree too. Her ornament was white and green with a red ribbon on it. Here is one of mine which I have hanging on my china cabinet.

I also made her my favorite pincushion, the Weighted Pincushion Organizer from Elizabeth Hartman on Sew Mama Sew. Another pattern that I highly recommend. I made Anna's version out of Central Park fabrics so it's bright and cheery. Still can't believe I didn't photograph it!

And the sweet Michelle (I don't think she has a blog) got me and totally spoiled me!! I had asked for a needlebook and an apron. Here's what she came up with. Sorry for the bad photos, we haven't seen the sun in a few days here!

She made me a half apron (which a goofy pic of me posing with it will probably pop up on PMQG soon). It's hard to tell, but it's purple and green, one of my favorite color combos!

And she made me a travel sewing kit AND a needle book. They both use the most adorable fabrics with buttons, scissors and sewing machines.  She even put notions in them.

And then she added these guys in.

I'm super excited to try those pens. I had heard about them, but never bought them. When you iron them, the lines disappear off your fabric. And the Binding clips are SO useful. My 3 yr old likes to help when I do binding and my clips are always disappearing. 

Thank you so much Michelle, I love it all!

Then I had an unexpected surprise from my friend Denise.  She made me these adorable burp cloths for the baby on the way. They are made with Lilly and Will which is one of my favorite lines.

Now I definitely have to get cracking on some more bibs. These are so cute!! Thanks Denise!